Frank Schepke

Born in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia), Frank Schepke and his older brother Kraft Schepke took up rowing while studying at the University of Kiel. As members of the university’s rowing club ATV Ditmarsia Kiel, the Schepke brothers and Karl-Heinz Hopp from Ditmarsia joined six members of Ratzeburger Ruderclub to win the 1959 German coxed eights title.

The same crew was selected to represent Germany at the 1959 European Championships, where they won gold. The next year, Ditmarsia and Ratzeburger Ruderclub again joined forces to win their second German coxed eights title and were selected to represent Germany at the 1960 Roma Olympics, where they were again victorious. In 1960, Ditmarsia crews, including the Schepke brothers, also won the coxed and coxless fours titles at the German championships.

The boat was consequently elected West German Team of the Year both in 1959 and 1960, and was awarded the Silver Bay Leaf in both years. In 1961, the Ditmarsia crew repeated their coxed fours victory at the German championships and were victorious in that event at the 1961 Europeans.

The Schepke brothers retired from sports after the 1961 season and Frank later became a successful businessman in Bad Oldesloe, owning of Dr. Schepke Gebäudereinigungs- und Kehrbetriebs-GmbH & Co., an industrial cleaning company. Frank was also active in politics, as a member of the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), a far-right and ultra-nationalist party, which was often considered a neo-Nazi organization. He was the NPD candidate at the 1965 West German federal elections and 2009 and 2013 German federal elections. Frank Schepke was the initiator of Kannwas, a complementary currency for Schleswig-Holstein.