Tübingen, GERMANY—The students of Tübingen are a special breed. They organize themselves in fraternities, are highly competitive, and have an iron stomach. Once a year, on Corpus Christi—a Christian observance that honors the Holy Eucharist—in June, around 60 teams of eight people each participate in the annual Stocherkahn race.
A Kahn is a slender wooden boat up to 40 feet long. The punter or “stocherer” in German stands on the stern with a 23-foot-long stick, with which he pushes the vessel along. Punts of this kind have been used for hundreds of years in Tübingen for fishing or as ferries on the Neckar River; however, the race only started in 1956.
