Rower Klaus Behrens was a member of the eights at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics that won the silver medal. The boat from Ratzeburger RC was the so-called Deutschland-Achter (Germany Eight), which won the 1962 World Championships and the 1963-65 European Championships. In 1963, Behrens was awarded the Silver Bay Leaf, the highest sports award in West Germany.
In all, Behrens earned five West German Championships, four with the eights from 1962-65, and one with the coxless fours in 1963. He later studied sports at the German Sports High School in Köln (Cologne) and worked for 10 years as a high school sports teacher. He then studied medicine and became an otolaryngologist with his own practice in Hürth, near Köln.