Gentlemen's club

A Gentlemen 's Club is an association of mostly male member of the British upper class.

History

The first clubs formed in London's West End, around Pall Mall and St James 's Palace, which is why the area is now also occasionally referred to as Clubland. The club took over the role played by the coffee houses occupied in the 18th century, and reached the peak of their social importance in the late 19th century. In the course of democratization, the requirements were eased increasingly to the social affiliation, so that some clubs now broader middle classes and the beginning of the 21st century and women opened their doors.

If the clubs are now also removes much of its former influence, but they are experiencing a kind of renaissance in recent times. More and more politicians and businessmen in the UK, but also other parts of the world meet there to view most discussions and conferences on current issues. In the Commonwealth Club in London, for example, already the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo and former Australian Prime Minister John Howard have spoken.

On the Continent there was the beginning of the 20th century, the establishment of new clubs, who took the British as a model. Examples include the Anglo - German Club, Harbour Club and the Overseas Club in Hamburg, Kiel merchant in Kiel ( now a hotel ), industry club in Dusseldorf, the gentleman's club, Export Club and the merchant's Casino in Munich.

After the liberation from National Socialism came in the British occupation zone equal to about 1945 in Hanover, the Hanover Club to add.

Members

Usually they were founded by people with similar views, preferences or interests. So met about the Carlton and White's Club members of the Tories and later the Conservatives, while gathered at Brooks 's and the Reform Club, the Whigs. As homes of scientists and writers established itself especially the Literary and elitist Athenaeum Club, later as a less prestigious surrogate to the latter, the Savile Club. The Travellers Club made ​​it to the recording condition that its members at least once found abroad, and have been 500 air miles from London had. Accordingly found among its members not to mention numerous diplomats. The Oxford & Cambridge Club and the City University Club in the " Square Mile " unite graduates of the two famous elite universities, the Caledonian Club Men's Four Scottish grandparents and close connection with Scotland. In Army & Navy Club ("The In & Out " ), Naval & Military as well as Royal Air Force Club to meet military, in the Marylebone Cricket Club, the Friends of English tradition sport, Garrick Club actor.

The first clubs were dominated aristocratic still to a large extent. The admission of new members required in principle to the intercession of at least one already belonging to the club member. Who himself " recommended ", such as the actor David Garrick the Literary Club had, with a good protest, if not even expect rejection on that ground alone. Infamous was also the so-called, now little more practiced Black Balling: The members cast in a secret ballot in a kind of urn black and white beads - one black, and the candidate had failed. This kind happened about the British Defense Secretary Michael Heseltine in Pratt's and Times columnist Bernard Levin in the Garrick Club. Groucho Marx commented on his exit from the Friars Club sarcastic by saying that he wanted to belong to any club that make someone like him as a member (q: Groucho Marx).

With the increasing spread of the institution Club, the criteria have certainly loosened. Anyone who could claim the title of a gentleman, found a club that accepted him, unless the were heavy " objective obstacles " contrary - including but sometimes the need was expected to earn his living by their own hands.

For a long time the clubs, apart from a few exceptions such as Almack 's, a purely male domain. For many, this is still true today. The Reform Club, however, accepts female members since 1981, the Athenaeum Club decided in 2002 to do so. At the Carlton women can only "associate " members with limited rights are; the same applies to the Travellers Club. In the Savage Club, they are allowed only on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

Pastime

In the clubs less public entertainment such as music or the like was offered; rather, it served primarily as a " second home " in which the gentlemen to relax, meet with their friends, play board games and could get a meal. Here members of the upper and upper-middle class also enjoyed moderate income a great and glamorous atmosphere. The houses of the richest clubs were often built by the same architect and the same artists equipped as the principal seats of nobility. The club offered its members refuge from all sorts of domesticated - marital adversity. Some members spent most of their lifetime in the club, which often also accommodation offered.

Some clubs were famous for their games of chance, such as the Brooks 's Club for his whist and Hasard evenings. In the Almack Club, one of the few who accepted women from the beginning, used it regularly einzufinden to dance events. In White's Club, however, it was customary to bet most of all - Lord Alvanley sat about £ 3,000 -. Fact that a certain raindrops reached on the window pane as the first window frame. The Reform Club Jules Verne can play those famous bet that is the subject of his novel 's journey around the world in 80 days.

Course was in the clubs but also every now and then national, if not world history written. Thus fell about 1922, the decision of the Conservative Party to leave the run of David Lloyd George Coalition, at an informal meeting key policymakers at the Carlton Club.

The clubs

• Almack Club, founded in 1765 by William Macall
• Anglo - German Club founded in 1948 by Sir John Dunlop; Members and Others Kurt Sieveking, Paul Never man, Herbert soft man, Axel Springer, Karl Klasen, Erik Blumenfeld, Rowohlt, John Jahr and Heinrich von Berenberg - Gossler
• Athenaeum Club founded in 1823, inter alia, by Thomas Lawrence, John Wilson Croker; Members, inter alia, Rudyard Kipling, Charles Darwin, Lord Palmerston, Walter Scott, William Makepeace Thackeray, Cecil Rhodes, Winston Churchill, Samuel Edwards
• Boodle 's Club founded in 1762
• Brooks 's Club, founded in 1764, members, inter alia, Charles James Fox, William Pitt, Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick, Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, William Wilberforce, Palmerston and David Hume.
• Caledonian Club founded in 1891
• Cape Town Club founded in 1858 in Cape Town
• Carlton Club, founded in 1832, members, inter alia, Benjamin Disraeli, Robert Peel, Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan
• Garrick Club, founded in 1831, members, inter alia, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, George Meredith, Henry Irving, Edward Elgar, Frederic Leighton and Dante Gabriel Rossetti
• Hurlingham Club founded in 1869
• Literary Club founded in 1764 by Samuel Johnson; Members and Others Charles James Fox, Edmund Burke, Edward Gibbon, David Garrick, the bishops of Salisbury and Peterborough, Lord Palmerston, Joshua Reynolds
• Oxford & Cambridge Club founded in 1821
• Reform Club, founded in 1836 by Edward Elice, members, inter alia, Lord Palmerston, William Ewart Gladstone, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James, HG Wells, William Makepeace Thackeray, Roy Jenkins, Henry Irving, Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George
• Savage Club, founded in 1857, members, inter alia, Henry Irving, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alexander Fleming, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Mark Twain, Edgar Wallace, Peter Ustinov, Charlie Chaplin, Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Prince Philip
• Savile Club, founded in 1868 under the name New club members, inter alia, Lord Snow, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, HG Wells, William Butler Yeats
• St. Stephen 's Club, founded in 1870 by Benjamin Disraeli, among others members Margaret Thatcher and Harold Macmillan
• Teddington Hunt Club, founded in 1749 by Robert Earl of Bicester
• Travellers Club, founded in 1819, members, inter alia, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Lord Russell, Arthur Balfour, Stanley Baldwin, Francis Beaufort, Graham Greene, Jules Verne, William Makepeace Thackeray, Edmund Hillary, Douglas Hurd
• Overseas Club founded in 1922 by Max M. Warburg
• White Tiger Association founded in 1918, Austria
• White's Club, founded in 1693 by Francesco Bianco, members, inter alia, David Cameron, Beau Brummell, Prince Charles