This weekend marks the 70th anniversary of Germany’s Klub Langer Menschen (Tall People Club). To celebrate the occasion, 300 of its members will be meeting in the German capital.
This weekend, 300 members of Germany’s Klub Langer Menschen will make a trip to Berlin, and together with President Holger Schneider, a 2-metre-tall man living in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, will celebrate the club’s 70th anniversary. Members from the US and Canada are also expected to arrive in the German city for the event.
To join the club, men must be at least 190 centimetres tall, and women at least 180cm. People who are below these heights can also register as supporting members.
For many members, the meet-up is an opportunity to spend time with people with whom they see eye to eye, in a world of average to smaller people. This is literally one of the advantages of joining the meet-up that is listed on the group’s website; the value of being able to have an eye-to-eye conversation with a fellow tall person.
This isn’t something often afforded to taller men in Germany, where the average height is 181 centimetres - not so small compared to the global average, but still five spots behind the Netherlands, the country with the tallest population in the world.
Club member Anne Stolz is 189 centimetres tall, but she has known the club since she was just a twinkle in her parents' eyes; they met as two club members almost 60 years ago.
The 52-year-old first joined a Klub Langer Menschen meet-up 20 years ago and enjoyed the feeling of not sticking out, just being part of the group. “It makes me feel like I’m on a cloud,” Stolz told Berliner Zeitung, “[The meetings] always give you a special physical awareness. No Facebook group can do that."
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