Hello from Austria

[phips]

Hello,

 

I am a Assistant Scoutmaster from Austria.

 

I am Scout since 1992.

 

I took part in the 19th, 20th and 21st World Scout Jamboree.

I further more took part in International Scout Camps in Austria, Germany and Liechtenstein.

 

Greetings to all brother and sisters in Scouting!

[T2Eagle]

Welcome to the campfire. Could you tell us a little about Scouting in Austria. Especially any differences or contrasts from your understanding of U.S. Scouting.

 

Thanks

[Nike]

Hi! We're practically neighbors!

 

Where are you in Austria?

[phips]

Hello,

 

Thanks for the warm welcome.

 

I am from Tyrol, near to Innsbruck.

 

We have only one National Scout and Guide Organisation in Austria, which is member of WOSM and WAGGGS, and which is coed.

There are single gender troops, packs and also Scout groups in our association.

But in our group like in most local Scout groups, the group is coed.

When I was a Cub and a Boy Scout, we had a pack for Cubs and one for Brownies and a troop for boys and a troop for girls. Now we have a coed pack, troop and Rover Crew.

But the sixes/dens and patrols are only for boys or girls.

 

Boy Scout and Girl Scouts merged in 1976 and so the Scout groups merged, too. So it happened in our village.

 

Another big difference is that pack, troop and crew is one unit.

 

There is also no Chatered Organisation. The Scout group is a own Club (Verein we say in German) and can sign treaties and so on. The local groups are member of the NSO.

But we closly work together with our local Roman Church Community, and our local village goverment and other Clubs in our village.

But there are Scout groups have a Chatered Organisation, we call that closed groups, which belong to a school, religious community.

For example we have some LDS Scout groups in our association and only LDS Scouts can belong to this group we also have troops in schools/boarding school.

A Scout group can have a Chatered Organisation, but it must not.

 

A short view on Austrian Scouting history:

 

The first Scout activities took place in 1909 and 1910.

The first real Scout groups were founded in 1911 and 1912.

In 1913 there were the first Girl Scouts.

In 1914 the first Austrian Scouting Organization was founded.

It had groups in whole Cisleitania (=Austrian half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire).

Like the Sea Scouts in Istria and Trieste, with boys from the nationalities of the whole empire.

There was a strong link to the Hungarian Scouts in the independent Hungarian half of the Empire and to Junk, the Scout associations of the Czech and Slovak in Bohemia and Morovia.

The Habsburgs, the nobility, the churches and the military were strong supporters of Scouting.

After the end of WWI there was a hard time for Scouting, Scouting should be banned by the treaties of Saint Germain, but the Scandinavian Scouts protested successfully.

 

Austria was a founder member of WOSM and WAGGGS.

From 1922 to 1929 the founder of Austrian Scouting Emmerich Teuber served on the International Committee of WOSM.

 

In 1926 the Catholic Scouts formed there own association, which become recognized by WOSM.

 

Scouting was an important social movement in Austria, supported by the government, Catholic church and Jewish community.

Austrian Scouts had strong ties to the other European movements.

 

In 1938 after the Anschluss, Scouting was banned by the Austrian and German Nazis.

Several hundert Scouts and Leaders left Austria (mostly Jewish), others were arrested and were send the concentration camps.

Others tried to continue Scouting in the underground.

 

1945 Austria is free.

Scouting is restarted; big supporters are the Western powers and the Swiss Scout movement.

1951 7th World Scout Jamboree in Austria

1956 Scouts are in important force after the Hungarian Revolution, Scouts support the Red Cross, Caritas, and work in refugee camps. Hungarian Scouts-in-exile groups are founded and join the Austrian movement.

1961 First National Jamboree in Laxenburg after 1945

1976 Boy and Girl Scouts merge and form the Pfadfinder and Pfadfinderinnen sterreichs

2007 500 Austrians took part in the 21st World Scout Jamboree

2010 We celebrate 100 years of Austrian Scouting with an International Scout and Guide Camp in Laxenburg, http://www.ur-sprung.at/

 

[CA_Scouter]

Ausgeizeichnet! Nice web site. Just for fun, I uploaded a couple of photos of our troop so you can see some activities in which our Scouts participate.

 

 

[phips]

Hello CA_Scouter,

 

http://www.ur-sprung.at/ is the website of the Austrian Jubilee Jamboree 2010 in Laxenburg, near Vienna.

This camp will be hosted by the regional divisions Vienna and Lower Austria.

It will be an International Scout and Guide Camp in the park of Castle Laxenburg.

I know several guys from the Public Relations team.

Among the participants will be also troops of the BSA.

I will work as a staff in the Scout Museum on this camp.

 

http://www.pfadfinder-wattens.at.tt/

this is the website of our Scout group.

 

Where did you upload the photos of your troop?

 

 

 

 

[CA_Scouter]

I uploaded the photos to the jamboree site: http://www.ur-sprung.at/

 

I looked briefly at yours but the limitations of my understanding of the German language prevent me from fully appreciating your site.. ;-)

 

 

[phips]

Ok.

 

Is there anyone who will take part in our Austrian Jubilee Jamboree?

 

Are there other Scouters or Scouts from German-speaking countries(also from TAC)?

 

@Nike: Where you from in Germany?

[SSScout]

Wilkommen!

[phips]

Danke.

[ScoutBox]

Hey From Switzerland..

 

Are you part of TAC??

 

Were you at Klondyke last month in Kandersteg?

[phips]

No I am an Austrian Boy Scout.

 

My associations are Pfadfinder und Pfadfinderinnen sterreichs (WOSM, WAGGGS) and Pfadfinder-Gilde sterreichs (ISGF).

 

The Pfadfinder-Gilde sterreichs is our National Scout Guild/Fellowship, for adults in Scouting and Guiding and friends of Scouting and Guiding.

 

No Ive never been to Kandersteg.

But I plan to go there. It is on my list of places Ive to visit.(This message has been edited by phips)

[Beavah]

Yah, welcome phips! You'll find a lot of BSA scoutin' stuff here that you'll just laugh at, eh? We Americans are a pretty uptight and legalistic bunch. You'd be amazed if yeh came to visit

 

So jump right in and offer your perspective on stuff, eh? Helps wake us up to all da different ways scouting is practiced across the world and shake us out of our navel-gazing bad habits.

 

And if yeh can't make any sense out of something we're talking about, jump in and ask what in the world we're talking about!

 

Beavah

 

[epalmer84]

Welcome! I lived in Neu-Ulm, Germany for several years and was the Scoutmaster of a BSA troop. We did whitewater rafting down the Ins river several times.

 

Ed

[phips]

Thanks for the warm welcome.