The Charter Deed

THE CHARTER DEED

Bröckedde is located in the heart of Germany - where the Rhine and Danube flow into the beautiful Bröckeddesee. This is where RC Bröckedde meets in the Bröckedder Hof - every Wednesday at 1 pm in the Salon Hindenburg.

Alexander Hoffmann                                                                                                    01.04.2023

Whist sorting out some family papers, President Pröpke came across a letter from his father written in 1963 and referring to “an excellent Charter dinner in the Salon Hindenburg”.

Pröpke froze. He hadn’t completely forgotten that RC Bröckedde had formed 60 years ago but when exactly? That wasn’t mentioned in the letter. Quickly calling a crisis meeting, he asked why the Club archivist hadn’t reminded them of the 60^th anniversary.

“Because we haven’t had an archivist for the past 10 years”, remarked the Club’s intellectual, Professor Dr Krümelein, “we’ve lost our memory”.

Poor old Pröpke sat down again. The Professor had a good point; Friend Döderlein had been a meticulous archivist for years but none of the other members had shown much of an interest, so he left the Club feeling rather insulted.

“I’ll have to go and eat humble pie” sighed the President and duly made an appointment with the long lost archivist. After much bowing and scraping, Döderlein took Pröpke into his cellar. “We can’t ask the founding members anymore but we might find something here”, he said as he pulled out a dust covered box file. And suddenly, there it was, the Charter Deed of 1963 but with a large red stain over the exact date.

“It’s red wine” sighed Döderlein, “they knew how to party in those days”.

Pröpke took the damaged deed home and called his fellow Rotarian, Friend Greifer, Bröckedde’s Chief of Police. “No problem”, he replied, “I’ll give it to our lab”.

A couple of days later he phoned Pröpke back with some good news and some bad. “We’ve identified the wine as Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1959, so our founding members had fine taste. However, its acidity has completely removed the date”.

Pröpke sighed rather miserably as his dream of re-establishing the Charter Dinner on the correct date receded. Yet shortly after he had a minor stroke of genius and called one of the Club’s youngest members, Friend Kwujau at his successful graphics studio and who immediately suggested a creative solution.

Not long after President Pröpke was holding a flawless version of the deed, looking suitably aged but with no trace of a wine stain.

“What about the date” asked Pröpke.

“Well, there wasn’t one” replied Kwujau “so I just used my birthday, 29^th February”.

Invitations were duly sent out with a copy of the Charter Deed and President Pröpke set about drafting a speech that everyone would remember.

Shortly before the great event, the Professor rang saying he wasn’t one to nit-pick, which of course he actually did all the time, but 1963 had not been a leap year.

For once our dear President was not to be put off, “We’ll just leave it as it is” he responded, “Bröckedde has always been a bit behind the times, that’s what makes us so different”.