International Life Saving Federation

The German Life Saving Association (Deutsche Lebens-Rettung-Gesellshaft – DLRG) celebrated its 90th Anniversary on 19 October 2003 with a special ceremony hosted in Bad Nenndorf.

On 19 October 1913, the creation of the DLRG took place in the meeting room of the Prusse Hotel located in Leipzich. The creation act was undersigned by 48 people. The first President elect was Prof. Dr. Adolf Fiedler from Dresden. The aim of the organisation was the preservation of life by near-drowning by all means.

The official publication of the organisation called the “Lebensretter” (The lifesaver) saw life in 1923. In 1926 the DLRG issue its 40,000 the Certificate while in 2003 the DLRG issued its 26th Million Certificate.

The total amount of hours of voluntary services in 2002 was over 6 million hours from which over 2,3 million hours were dedicated for voluntary water safety and water rescue services.

The DLRG

The "Deutsche Lebens-Rettungs-Gesellschaft e.V. (DLRG) is a private, humanitarian, charitable and non-profit organisation and was member of FIS and of WLS before they fused into ILS. The DLRG is founding member of ILS and is also member of the German National Sports Federation (DSB).

Its structure nearly counts 2,200 local and regional clubs all over Germany and over 560.000 individuals are member of the DLRG. All members are working on a non-professional, honorary and voluntary basis.

The main tasks of the DLRG are:

• Education (swimming, lifesaving, first aid and SCUBA diving).
• Lifeguarding at rivers, lakes, coasts.
• Lifeguarding in swimming pools to supplement the professional staff.
• Disaster prevention.
• Rescue service.