Kayakers on the Rhine at Cologne, 1937

On the sloping stone bank of the Rhine a man and a woman in white sports vests unpack their kayaks while a boy watches, the twin spires of Cologne Cathedral and the arches of the Hohenzollern Bridge across the river. They stow their gear, push off into the fast current and paddle out; a lone kayak becomes a white speck beneath the steel arches of the bridge, excursion steamers lie along the riverfront below the cathedral, and two young women in a double kayak dip their paddles in time as they head upstream.

The folding kayak was the boat of young townspeople in the 1930s, and the Rhine on a summer weekend was full of them. Sport for women was encouraged by the regime as long as it served health and the motherhood to come.