Schutzenverein

[Gordon Craig]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Recently, a number of pins have been posted for post war Schutzenverein.  This a subject rarely discussed on post war German forums so I would like to start one.  If you have uniforms, pins, pictures etc of these organization please post them to this thread and add to our knowledge base on these shooting groups.  To start with, here is a brief wiki article on this subject.

Schützenverein

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

"A Schützenverein (German for "marksmen's club") is in a local voluntary association found in German-speaking countries revolving around shooting as a sport, often target shooting to Olympic rules or with historic weapons. Although originating as a town militia, a Schützenverein has no military aspects and in many cases often has a more social than sporting purpose.

Origins

These associations originated in late medieval autonomous towns as a form of citizens' militia principally to defend the town.

Germany

Germany has over 15,000 Schützenvereine, with most of them affiliated to the "Deutscher Schützenbund" (German Marksmen's Federation, DSB) umbrella organization. The DSB was founded in 1861 in Gotha and revived in 1951 in Frankfurt am Main following World War II. The DSB's 1,500,000 members makes it the third largest sports organisation in Germany.

Other organisations for sport shooting in Germany include the Bund Deutscher Sportschützen, "Bund der Militär- und Polizeischützen" and the "Deutsche Schießsport Union". These focus more on the sport and offer a wider variety of shooting styles and competition types than the DSB, particularly in the field of large-bore firearms.

Each Schützenverein organizes shooting events, including at the very least an annual Schützenfest. Weapons used may include air rifles, air pistols, small bore weapons and crossbows.

United States

Schuetzenvereins were founded in the United States by German-Americans and acted as a social club for their communities. Each club had a range for target shooting and often also a bar.^[2] Larger clubs could have extensive facilities such as an inn, dance hall, music pavilion, zoo, bowling alley, roller coaster, refreshment stands, athletic field, picnic grounds, and other amusements. It was common for tens of thousands of people to attend a major event.

The popularity of these facilities began to decline in America around 1917, when the anti-German sentiment from World War I restricted the activities of German-Americans and led to the prohibition of the use of the German language in public. Many businesses and organizations changed their German names or dissolved. The American Schützenvereine were dealt another serious blow in 1919 when the "Prohibition Act" outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages, the consumption of which was casually mixed with shooting activities.

Schuetzen Park in North Bergen, New Jersey and Schuetzen Park in Davenport, Iowa recall the tradition. The former Deutsch-Amerikanische Schützen Gesellschaft building stands at 12 St. Mark's Place in New York City's East Village, and has been a designated landmark since 2001.

Most of you will not be aware that these clubs exist in America as well as in Germany.  There are also shooting clubs in other countries but I am going to limit myself to Germany and the U.S.A.

Here are a couple of pictures showing members of a German Schutzenverein. You will note that individual medals/awards are worn separately.  However, I have a medal bar in my collection that I have pictured here as well.  Anyone else out there with a schutzenverein medal bar?  If so please show it.

Regards,

Gordon

 

[spolei]

Hello,
I am member of a traditional german shootingclub for over 40 years.
There are a lot of badges, pins and medals in this organisation.
There are awards for traditional shooting like the bar in your picture, given for "Schützenkönig" and other winners of this competition.
Also awards for membership in the organisation 25, 40 50... years.
Awards for officials in all levels of the shooting organisation and last but not least awards for shooting competitions.
Here are some of my pins for shooting competitions from upper franconia and bavaria.
Regards Andreas
 

[Gordon Craig]

spolei,

Thanks for adding to the thread and explaining about the many types of pins that are used within these organizations.  Here as a picture of pins from my collection.  Some of these pins may not be related to the schutzenvereine but they all came to me at the same time so I put everything in the photo.

Regards,

Gordon

 

Edited February 14, 2019 by Gordon Craig

[spolei]

Nice collection.
The green pins with parts of a bird are awards for a special traditional competition, called "Vogelkönig".
see this link.
If you seperate one part of this wooden bird, you win the special pin.
In your collection are several kinds of shooting pins of traditional and sporting competitions.
I think all are shooting pins.

 

Edited February 14, 2019 by spolei

[Gordon Craig]

spolei,

Thanks for explaining the "bird" parts on the badges.  I wasn't aware of this before so your explanation is very useful.

Regards,

Gordon

 

[Gordon Craig]

Gentlemen,

Several years ago I started conversing with a chap in Europe re these types of badges.  He told me that he had access to what he called a "rag mill" where discarded clothing was ground up for recycling purposes.  He was able to have the badges removed from the tunics before they were destroyed.  I asked him if he could get me some tunics, complete with badges, from the rag mill and he was able to do that.  Here is one of the tunics that I now have in my collection.

 

[BURGERHAUS]

This is interesting.  It sounds like a 22 caliber for shooting the birds?  And what is the distance of the target from the shooter and from what position is the shot taken?  Thank You  nice thread for sure.  Robert

[Gordon Craig]

BURGERHAUS,

Thanks for your comments.  I can not answer your questions but perhaps spolei will.  In the meantime, here are pictures of some of the different varieties of the pins/medals that can be awarded in this type of competition plus another picture of the bird involved.

 

[Gordon Craig]

I would like to add one more tunic to this thread.  This tunic came with yet another type of medal for this type of shooting contest.  The are indications on the tunic that there were many more shooting badges on it at one time.

Unlike the previous tunic this one comes with a cuffband showing the club that the owner of the jacket belonged shot  with.  The shoulder boards are removable.

Regards,

Gordon

 

Edited February 21, 2019 by Gordon Craig

[BURGERHAUS]

This is a nice topic.  Target shooting is one of my alternate passions.  Thanks a lot Gordon.

 

I see this particular shoot was outdoors so it may be from a more considerable distance?

Edited February 23, 2019 by BURGERHAUS

[Gordon Craig]

Gentlemen,

Time to add more tunics from my collection.

This one is very different from my other shooting club tunics.  If from the Kyffhauser veterans organization which in post war time devoted a lot of its time to shooting.

 

Now for the last tunic in my collection.

 

[--dj--Joe]

A most interesting topic. Many thanks for sharing.

Good to see the Kyffhauser veterans organization tunic. 

Will check to see if I have any post-war Schutzenverein related items. 

Regards, --dj--Joe

[Gordon Craig]

dj-joe,

Thanks for your comments.

Regards,

Gordon

 

[BURGERHAUS]

22 caliber @50 feet or the metric equivalent?  That's my guess anyway.

[BURGERHAUS]

I hope Andreas is OK.  It has been over a month now.  Can I guess that the idea is if you hit the crown off that would earn you a higher grade?  Take Care  Robert

[speedytop]

Hi,

"22 caliber @50 feet or the metric equivalent?"

There are about 14,000 marksmen's clubs (Schützenvereine) in Germany. The regulations are accordingly different. Different distances, different weapons and different terms for the components of the birds. Weapons can be small calibre, air rifle, shotgun, crossbow, bow and arrow or others.

"Can I guess that the idea is if you hit the crown off that would earn you a higher grade?"

Not necessarily; that depends on the regulations of the club. Normally the crown is only a part like the other parts. Crucial for the honour of the King (Schützenkönig) are the club regulations. It could e.g. be the crown, the body (Rumpf), the orb (Reichsapfel), the last part of the bird or others.

Uwe

[Gordon Craig]

Uwe,

Thanks for your post.  Interesting information.

Regards,

Gordon

 

[BURGERHAUS]

Uwe I thank You also.  Regards Robert

[Bombarder]

Hello

Last year i got this lot and with no knowledge about the Schützenverein i started to search the web.

The webpage for the club Ashausen und Umgebung is great since they have a list of evey shootingking each year!
This is great since two of the medals is dated on the back. The two medals on the top lane is marked from the king to his adjutant and the king for the year 1969. I have screenshotted a pic of the king and adjutant from the webpage.

Any info regarding the other medals?

All the best from Norway

[Gordon Craig]

Bombarder,

 

Interesting display.  You are lucky to have shooting medals that can be attributed to an individual.  The unnamed medals were used by all of the shooting clubs in Germany and could be awarded in any way the club chose.  They can not be attributed to any specific event or competition unless that is indicated on the back.

 

Regards,

 

Gordon  

[Bombarder]

Many thanks Gordon.

 

These are quite decorative!

[Farkas]

Hi Gents

a couple of things I have.

 

This first one is a hanger for pictures…

 

 

 

 

 

and a smaller piece , a pin badge that looks similar to some shown earlier..,

 

 

 

 

tony 🍻

[Farkas]

Hi Gents,

i knew i had one medal tucked away somewhere...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i have a note with it just saying ‘veteran organisation medal’, it’s nice to see from the previous posts that this had more significance, won not awarded, and gave its recipient a proud smile no doubt.

 

Now i just have to go through my pin badges with a new eye too.

 

cheers

tony 🍻