Klingert Rally Wroclaw 2016 06 24 / 25

On Saturday the 24th of June 2016 the Diving Museum in Warsaw organized a book presentation and a meeting to commemorate Karl Heinrich Klingert, a citizen of Breslau and the inventor of one of the first diving apparatus which allowed the diver to walk around freely (in an era where the diving bell was in common use) The book which was presented was on K.Heinrich Klingert who lived and worked in Breslau and dived his apparatus there in 1797 in the Oder river. The book project was initiated by Karina Kowalska and the necessary research was done by Justyna Wasiak. The presentation and the meeting were held in Klingerts’ home town of Breslau, today known as Wroclaw, a town in the south west of Poland. Wroclaw has been known as the German town Breslau until the Russians, as a payment for damages of war, moved the borders of Germany and Poland some 200 km to the west, adding the town to Poland which changed its name to Wroclaw.

‘DiveScrap’Index

the scrapbook of diving history

With my family I attended this meeting to learn a lot about Klingert and discover the beautifully restored ancient town center of Wroclaw. In the nineteen nineties I had visited this town many times for the monthly antiques market in its suburbs but never visited the old town center. I was surprised to see that these suburbs still have places where nothing has changed since the end of the second world war: buildings scattered with impacts of bullets, some deserted and some inhabited. A view which had impressed me back in the 90’s and even more today. Since the monthly flea market was scheduled for the weekend we were there, my wife and I took a cab on early Saturday morning to make a quick visit. This was the first time my wife joined me and I wanted to show here were many antiques and even several diving helmets had came form. Much to our surprise the market which had attracted several hundreds of sellers in the past now only had about 15 stands, it was deserted. The cab drove over the market so I could take a look at the offered goods and we decide to have us brought back to the hotel right away: we could still be in time for the breakfast with the HDS people. Again we passed through morbid neighborhoods where the second world war seemed just to have ended but as we soon would find out: the restored old town center looked like a scene of a fairytale.


The night before, on Friday evening, Karina Kowalska, owner of the Warsaw Diving Museum and initiator of the event had introduced the Klingert diving suit to us in a small conference room in the basement of our hotel. Myself I had not understood a lot of it because I thought Klingert had used either a submerged manually operated compressor as an air supply (shown on old engravings) or a bellows at the surface. Karina explained however that the diver, in this case her husband Gregorz, was supposed to inhale through his nose inside the suit, and to exhale through a mouthpiece which was directly connected to the surface by a hose. This hose had no valve of any kind and since the diving depth she indicated was 3,5 meters it seemed 'impossible’ to me: the vacuum would 'kill the diver’ … It took me until the next day until I understood that Klingerts’ diving apparatus had 2 hoses which were both connected to the surface, one hose to inhale through, the other one to exhale through. He had an open connection to the surface and there was no pump neither a bellows involved in the process, it was all very simple … As a result however the diver would feel a squeeze at his arms and legs which stuck out of the cylinder through leather sleeves which did put a limit to the working depth of the apparatus. Would his sleeves or trousers become torn open he would of course have a serious problem …


Still I think Klingert had some kind of valve in mind: on his drawings and engravings he shows it: a valve which switches between the 2 hoses when breathing. Would there be an air compressor involved we would call it a 'push-pull’ system (due to the air arriving at an over pressure and the open tube to the surface at the exhaust end creating a vacuum) but since there seems not to have been a pump or bellows whatsoever it must rather have been meant to be some switch between the 2 hoses.


On Saturday Gregorz, Karina’s husband, was dressed up in the replica Klingert suit Karina had constructed with the help of a small team of Polish specialists. Once locked into the 2 cylinders which fitted perfectly over another and enclosed by safety divers and camera men he descended in a side arm of the Oder river. The public interest was of such importance that for most of the Historical Diving Society people, of whom some had travelled thousands of kilometers to attend the happening, the event could only be watched from a distance: by-passers with iPhones fought themselves into a position to take photo’s of what was going on. But Gregorz dived and emerged in safe health, providing us with the evidence that the suit was fully functional. The day was concluded with a dinner in the 'oldest restaurant in Europe’ which happens to be situated in the middle at the central square in Wroclaw. A dinner which was of a high standard and which came which much appreciated beverages at a very reasonable price: the temperature during the diving had been close to 34 degrees C and we were all aware of the risk of dehydration.


My family and myself we want to thank Karina and Gregorz for their invitation to this event; we learned a lot about the Klingert suit and really enjoyed the stay in Wroclaw.


Some old engravings of Klingerts’ Diving Apparatus are shown in the German chapter on this website: http://www.divescrap.com/DiveScrap_INDEX/Klingert,_Breslau.html


The photo’s here below: all DSC photo’s are taken by Hanna Dekker and all _MG_ photo’s are taken by David L.Dekker

The presented book was published in three languages: Polish, German and English, and it can be ordered from   office@muzeumnurkowania.pl