Weynell, Anni

Anni Weynell was an East Prussian from Tapiau born 1904 to parents who were fishermen and farmers. After the 1939-1945 war she became a swimming coach and in 1972 she was awarded a special merit in sports by the German Sports Teachers Association

For her 1931 Channel Swim attempt, she was trained and supervised by Elli Tetschke, the Silesian national champion in swimming, diving and freediving and a German double gymnastics champion in the swimming pentathalon and 40m freedive. Tetschke was later a famous survivor of the concentration camps

On July 19 1927 Weynell became the 1st person to swim around the island of Heligoland, aged 23

In many non-German records and newspapers her name is usually mis-spelt, including ‘Meynell’ and Winnert’

In some German records Weynell is given as the 1st German woman to swim the Channel, instead of Plarre, although all the details are the same as Plarre’s swim… “25/08/1938. The 34-year-old Anni Weynell from Tapiau in East Prussia is the first German to swim through the English Channel from Cape Gris Nez to Dover in 15:33 hours.”

In a few German records her 1931 attempt is given as a success

Swims by Weynell, Anni

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