Esperanto club (Esperanto: Esperanto-klubo, Eperantista klubo) is a society of speakers of Esperanto (I.e., Esperantists). In contrast to national or international Esperanto organizations, an Esperanto club usually limits its activities only to a certain city or region. Esperanto clubs have been forming the backbone of the Esperanto movement since early after the creation of Esperanto in 1887, although recently the situation is starting to change due to the possibility of immediate and first-hand communication that is provided by the internet.
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Characteristics
Esperanto clubs may differ in a variety of ways:
Oldest Esperanto clubs
The oldest Esperanto club was founded in Nuremberg on 18 February 1885, i.e. yet before Esperanto was published (1887) – originally it was a group of supporters of Volapük, who in 1888 unanimously converted to Esperanto, under the influence of Leopold Einstein. The club of Nuremberg was also the first to start publishing an Esperanto magazine, La Esperantisto.
List of oldest Esperanto clubs
Following is a list of Esperanto clubs founded between 1887 and 1895, i.e. during the first nine years of Esperanto's existence (names of the founders are given in brackets):
However, at the end of 1904, only three of these clubs were still in existence: Uppsala, Saint Petersburg and Odessa. Other clubs did often not survive more than a year, as it was the case of the group in Reims, which was formed by young students of the local lyceum.