Shooting club

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The Board of Amsterdam Riflemen, painting by Bartholomeus van der Helst (1653)

Shooting clubs are clubs that are dedicated to the practice of shooting sports or that maintain historical shooting brotherhoods .

Germany

In the German Shooting Federation are 14,246 gun clubs represented (as of 2018).

history

Front view of the Kurhaus Bad Hamm . The decorative elements of the facade still refer to its original purpose, as an Ostenschützenhof and excursion restaurant for the city of Hamm.

The rifle club (also sports rifle club or rifle brotherhood) in its current form emerged in the early 19th century as a result of the Napoleonic wars . They have their origins in medieval cities, e.g. B. in the Karlsschützengilde in Aachen and the Nuremberg shooting societies . The oldest documented mentions of rifle guilds date back to 1139 from Gymnich and 1190 from Düsseldorf . Many of the old rifle guilds survived. The change from tradition to sport also took place in them, in that random shots were minimized by shooting at the concentric target and precise measuring was introduced. The members initially consisted in many cases of war veterans, such as the previous voluntary army units, e.g. B. the Lützow Freikorps . In addition to societal and social aspects, the shooting clubs also had political functions for a long time. In the pre- March period (1815–1848), the rifle clubs became major supporters of national democratic opposition to the individual state rule and remained so well into the founding period .

With their conception of a citizens' militia committed to the German nation and organized internally according to democratic principles, however, they failed because of the success of the Bismarckian revolution from above . At the same time they got competition from the war clubs , which eventually merged in the Kyffhäuserbund and for a long time knew how to organize the "militarism of the common people" ( Thomas Rohkrämer ) much more successfully . By adapting to this new Reich nationalism, the rifle clubs were able to survive, although their political function faded more and more into the background.

After the First World War and the fall of the monarchy , new forms of radical arrived in Germany fundamentally Defense Associations , of which the SA of the NSDAP which was eventually successful, and the youth culture of the Weimar Republic significantly helped shape. The shooting clubs only managed to accept them to a very limited extent. The democratic interweaving of the traditional Vormärz nationalism of some associations contradicted the authoritarian structure of most of the armed forces , which was organized according to the leader principle . Nevertheless, the rifle clubs adapted to the ruling system in terms of organization, personnel and content from 1933 onwards, with nationalism being the common link and the basis for approval of the Nazi community. This was also expressed in the voluntary exclusion of Jewish association members as early as 1933 and in the pre-military shooting training for the male population. The associations also made their expertise and infrastructure available to the Hitler Youth and the SA, even during the war years. Rural areas with their even more paternalistic- conservative political culture became a refuge for the shooting clubs.

After the surrender of the Wehrmacht , the Allies initially banned rifle clubs as uniformed weapon carriers. They were only permitted again with the establishment of the Federal Republic . They were banned in the GDR . The shooting sport was operated in the state sports organizations DTSB and GST . In some cases it was also possible to use parts of the old traditions, such as B. Royal shooting and shooting festivals, to be carried out to a limited extent. In the new federal states , therefore, old associations were re-established from the beginning of 1990. Numerous new shooting clubs were also formed. The long period of interruption, however, has led to a weaker development in the organizational and member structure than in most of the old federal states. But even there, after the Second World War, it was not always possible to continue seamlessly with old traditions. The discrediting of any form of nationalism was too strong after 1945. In addition, with the political and social upheaval of the 1968 movement , the traditional military habitus of the rifle clubs was also problematized .

As a result, the shooting clubs increasingly developed into sports clubs. The German Shooting Federation successfully organized itself in the corresponding international umbrella organizations and developed into a safe medal bank at the Olympic Games . In addition, he played a major role in facilitating and supervising regular sporting shooting operations in accordance with the Weapons Act .

In December 2015, the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs in Germany announced that shooting as cultural forms would be included in the nationwide directory of intangible cultural heritage . On March 11, 2016, the award took place within the meaning of the Convention for the Conservation of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO .

structure

Individual shooting clubs in Germany are grouped together in district associations. The district associations are summarized in a total of twenty regional associations, these in turn in the German Rifle Federation. In Bavaria there is also the Gaue as a level between the district associations and the regional association , in other regional associations, such as B. that of Hamburg and the surrounding area, also regional associations.

In addition to the German Shooting Federation, there are also denominational shooting associations, such as B. the Federation of the historical German Schützenbruderschaften ( BHDS ) with its youth organization, the Federation of Sebastianus Schützenjugend ( BdSJ ), they are particularly committed to the motto "For Faith - Customs - Home". The clubs and brotherhoods organized in it feel closely linked to the Catholic Church and place their role as guardians of traditional shooting in the foreground alongside shooting.

In Bavaria, special forms form the "Royal Privileged Shooting Society", for example the Royal Privileged Shooting Society in 1443 Volkach and the Mountain Riflemen .

Archery , which in addition to rifle and pistol shooting also includes muzzle-loading and crossbow shooting , archery , shooting with the rapid-fire pistol and summer biathlon , is regulated in the sports regulations of the German Shooting Association. Traditional events such as shooting festivals are regulated by the statutes of the respective shooting clubs . In addition, the provisions of the Weapons Act and the Weapons Ordinance as well as the provisions of the War Weapons Control Act and the Explosives Act apply as ancillary law , as well as the legal youth protection regulations .

In addition to the shooting associations, in which a good part of the club's work is focused on maintaining traditions, there are also shooting sports associations in which only sporting shooting is cultivated as such and in which maintaining tradition is rather subordinate, e.g. B. the VdRBw, the BDMP, the DSU or the BDS.

Switzerland

Old rifle house in Zofingen

In Switzerland, shooting clubs are associations according to Art. 60 ff of the Swiss Civil Code. According to the statutes , the shooting club generally serves to promote and actively support shooting sports.

history

The modern shooting clubs as we know them today have their origins in 1824 when the Swiss shooting association was founded in Aarau. In the years that followed, more and more companies were added. The shooting was carried out at distances of 450 to 550 feet , which corresponds to around 120–150 meters. With the introduction of the Feldstutzers in the army, the distances were increased to 1000 to 1200 feet, 300-360 meters. This innovation almost resulted in the demise of the young rifle association. The supporters of the stand socket wanted to keep the old distances. However, handling the field support was easier and reloading was no longer that complicated. After heated discussions, a compromise was reached. Two sections were formed: Standschützen and field or military riflemen. The slogan was: march separately, strike together. From the beginning, the shooting societies had a military background. The articles of association of several companies in the canton of Friborg read:

" Title 1
The ultimate purpose of the brotherhood is military, that is to practice the art of target shooting so that one is able to defend the fatherland and its independence in an emergency"

- Register of municipal statutes from 1827, approved by the State Council of the City and Republic of Freyburg

Only the shooting clubs of the 300 m and 25/50 m societies are dealt with. All other shooting clubs such as crossbow, bow, hunting or small-caliber clubs are not mentioned.

State mandate

SR 512.31 Ordinance on Shooting Out of Service Art. 2, Aims of Shooting Out of Service Shooting out of service must meet the requirements of the armed forces and fulfill the following purposes in the interests of national defense:

  • It supplements and relieves training in shooting personal weapons in military schools and courses.
  • It maintains shooting skills and promotes precision shooting for members of the army when they are not on duty.
  • It promotes further training for shooters in special training courses.
  • It enables the functionality of the personal weapon to be checked.
  • It encourages voluntary shooting.

Tasks and structure

The clubs consist of a board of directors, auditors, marksmen, active members, free marksmen and the duty marksmen . The rifle clubs organize and manage off-duty shooting events on behalf of the army, such as:

Next they conduct their own shooting like

  • Club championships
  • Friendship shooting
  • Group championships

according to the club calendar.

Special tasks

Riflemen

The marksman is a marksman who has the necessary experience to be able to carry out his office. He / she is familiarized with the regulations in a two-day course. This course is carried out by the Cantonal Shooting Commission. Thereafter, a refresher course must be completed every six years, otherwise the authorization as a marksman expires.

Tasks:

The rifle master directs the federal exercises (compulsory and field shooting) as well as the rest of the shooting operations. He is particularly responsible for looking after weak and inexperienced shooters. Before, during and after a shooting, the marksman is responsible for ensuring that the following safety regulations are observed:

  • Blocking off paths according to the instructions of the Federal Firing Officer;
  • Setting up warning notices such as warning sacks and shooting danger boards;
  • Check immediately before shooting that the danger zones are clear;
  • Compliance with safety regulations while shooting (manipulation);
  • Periodic inspection of the structures, in particular the target position and the shooting range, for compliance with the safety regulations.

Young shooter ladder

The young rifle leader has the same training as the master rifle. In addition, he is trained to lead courses independently and to cope with the administrative work of young shooters. The training to become a young rifle leader takes three days. As a rule, the young rifle leader is supported by several auxiliary leaders.

Tasks:

  • ditto rifleman
  • Organize the annual young shooter courses
  • Training of 15 to 20 year olds on the Assault Rifle 90, SIG 550
  • Shooting gauge, target gauge and safety regulations
  • Administrative work (ordering weapons, issuing performance certificates and accounting)
  • should be a member of the board.

Shooting ranges

The shooting exercises may only be carried out on the designated firing ranges recognized by the competent military authorities or on the firing ranges approved by the federal shooting officers. A shooting range consists of the shooting range , the target range and, as a rule, an electronic hit display (for 300 m ranges ).

Control body

The members of the Cantonal Shooting Commission are responsible for monitoring the mandatory shooting events and the young shooter courses. They are responsible for checking compliance with the safety regulations and correct billing to the canton / federal government (Switzerland).

Austria

Lower Austria

The Lower Austria Scheibbs has a significant tradition of Archers. The so-called Schützengmein has existed since 1569, this association was properly organized and upheld the customs , but did not want to pursue any military purposes. While the Tyrolean riflemen, for example, were paramilitary associations, the rifle being in Scheibbs developed as a proper tradition from the wreath shooting , and this wreath eventually became a target . During the Turkish attacks in 1529 and 1532, the Scheibbs citizens proved their skills in using weapons, the town of Scheibbs was never captured. At that time it was an absolute duty of every citizen to train himself in local defense with a gun.

Archery goes back much further in its origins. In its very early days it emerged from a religious-mystical cult, the so-called bird's shot, a religious ritual that was supposed to bring about happiness and health in the community. A living bird, later a wooden bird, which was attached to a high pole, was shot with a bow and arrow. Whoever shot down the last part had shot the bird and was the winner. With the advent of the fire rifle, wooden disks were aimed at, most of which still depict the bird.

The panes were originally painted by the court painters of the Gaming Carthusian monks, hence the artistic decoration and the often Latin inscriptions. Around 250 historical shooting targets can be seen in the Scheibbs shooting target museum , the largest of its kind.

Salzburg

Salzburg riflemen at the "100 Years Republic of Austria" ceremony on Heldenplatz (October 21, 2018)

The origins of the Salzburg rifle tradition go back to the 13th century and have been preserved in the vigilante system of the cities and markets of the prince-archbishopric in Austrian times. As the oldest of the Salzburg and Austrian riflemen, the Schifferschützen Corps Oberndorf is to be mentioned, which was founded on January 31, 1278 by the Archbishop of Salzburg, Friedrich von Walchen, and has been in existence since then.

In the state of Salzburg, the festival shooter is a living tradition apart from tourism and folklore, but also traditionalizing paramilitarism, that it was included in the list of intangible cultural heritage in Austria in 2010 - also with express emphasis on the dangers for this folk culture .

Tyrol

In historical Tyrol , the rifle system goes back to the Landlibell , a document from Maximilian I from 1511, which regulated the obligation of self-defense of the country by all classes. An urban rifle guild with a strongly corporate social character has been attested to in Bolzano since the late 15th century ; it was united in a brotherhood that organized regular target practice and rifle festivals with prizes and also had its own archive , which began in 1488 with annual accounts for the gunsmiths .

Protecting nature, which plays no military significance more after 1918, was in 1919 South Tyrol from the Italian prohibited authorities during the period of Nazi occupation in 1944 as Standschützen in the Volkssturm incorporated, but when in 1958 the South Tyrolean Rifle Association officially re-established and in 1978 in Welschtirol ( Trentino ) the Welschtiroler Schützenbund is newly established. In North Tyrol, shooting was banned under the National Socialists .

Today, the Tyrolean riflemen mainly serve to maintain tradition, convey values ​​and (intellectual) defense of national interests, with more conservative positions being taken.

Belgium

In Ostbelgien there is a shooting association with thirteen shooting clubs.

Shooting festivals

Depending on the region, in April or May the rifle festivals begin in many towns and villages, which nowadays are mainly seen as folk festivals within the respective communities. Usually the season ends with the district shooting festival after all the shooting clubs of a district association have had their shooting festival. Some shooting festivals do not take place annually, but at longer intervals.

The rifle festivals have u. a. a military descent that goes back to the pre-Napoleonic era. The rifle guilds were closely related to the development of power in the cities in the late Middle Ages, whose occupation and defense were the citizens. These often had to use the call of the storm bell to the crossbow and partisan in order to keep the bagmen of the nobles away from the city walls. While the patrician families accepted the weapons and armor of the knights, the other citizens, who were classified according to guilds and districts, chose other weapons, primarily bows and crossbows, and rifle clubs were formed for practice in the form of guilds that was customary at the time. These had rifle houses and shooting ranges, a club fund founded and maintained through contributions and legacies, and held shooting festivals every year. The idea of ​​a self-determined, national-German citizen militia as an opponent to the standing armies of the professional army, which is only committed to their particular sovereign princes, arose from this tradition. The shooting festivals now primarily served to stage and present this idea. The paramilitary aspect of the rifle festivals, which partially exists to this day, also comes from it.

At the moment, the shooters often shoot at a wooden bird or at targets during the king and bird shooting at the shooting festival. They set out in their traditional uniforms and in an orderly marching formation to the sound of marching music to catch up with the reigning king / queen. In some clubs, he / she is obliged to keep his / her subjects free, which can make royal dignity a very costly affair. The best shooter in the current competition is named and celebrated as the new king. Since shooting festivals are traditional events, they are not subject to the sports regulations of the German Shooting Federation, but the respective local statutes. As a result, there are shooting clubs that shoot king and queen separately, and clubs where women and men compete equally for a single royal dignity.

The largest shooting festival in the world is celebrated every year in the Lower Saxony state capital Hanover.

There are also independent shooting festivals, such as B. the historic rifle festival in Hemeringen , which has been celebrated every four years since 1842 in almost unchanged form. This is a re-enactment of the battle of the Königstein Fortress during the Napoleonic Wars. A large number of different companies take part in this shooting festival.

The social significance of the shooting festival differs very strongly. It is particularly pronounced in the two Lower Saxony and the two Bavarian state associations, but also in Westphalia, on the Lower Rhine and in parts of Hesse.

literature

  • Roman Grafe: fun and death. From the sports gun mania . Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2019, ISBN 978-3-96311-128-0 .
  • Ulrich Grun : Schützen unterm Hakenkreuz , in: Reinhard Laumanns (Ed.): Lippstädter Heimatblätter, ZDB-ID 631644-X, No. 64 (1984), p. 139 ff
  • Maria Hauff et al .: City and Sagittarius firmly connected. 700 years of Schützen in Duderstadt 1302–2002 . Duderstadt 2001.
  • Manuel Kehrli et al .: The Reismusketen-Schützengesellschaft of the City of Bern. Founded in 1686. Bern 2009. (Contents)
  • Sebastian Kreyenschulte: Genesis and development of the archery in Nordmünsterland , in: Nordmünsterland. Forschungen und Funde 4 (2017), pp. 137–195.
  • Hans-Thorald Michaelis : Rifle Guilds. Origin - Tradition - Development , Keyser's Small Cultural History (1985). Special print, 94 pages. ISBN 978-3-87405-163-7
  • Hans-Thorald Michaelis: Schützengesellschaft - Schützengilden , in: Handwortbuch zur Deutschen Rechtsgeschichte (HRG), Vol. IV (1986), columns 1529-1535.
  • Hans-Thorald Michaelis: From men's groups of the European prehistoric times to the rifle guilds, clubs and societies of the 20th century. Development of a prehistoric custom. In: Österreichische Schützenzeitung , vol. 40 (1994), issue 11, pp. 18-20.
  • Hans Thorald Michaelis: Over 1000 years of shooting history in Germany and cultural history in shooting, in: Wir Schützen - today. Sport and tradition - 125 years of the Deutscher Schützenbund 1861–1986 , special print (1987), pp. 51–88.
  • Gerda Osthoff (edit.): Bibliography on shooting in Westphalia . 1979 ( full text as PDF )
  • Dietmar Sauermann : History of shooting in the Sauerland region of Cologne and on Hellweg , in: Schützenwesen in the Sauerland region of Cologne, ed. v. dems. u. a., Arnsberg 1983, pp. 9-60.
  • Theo Reintges: Origin and nature of the late medieval rifle guilds . Bonn 1963.
  • Heinrich Türler: files on the shooting scene, in: New Berner Taschenbuch on the year 1902, Bern 1901, pp. 295–307. online (containing the shooting regulations of 1530)
  • René Wyss: The old parlor and shooting companies of the city of Bern , in: Berner Taschenbuch on the year 1854. online

See also

Web links

Commons : Protect  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Inventory survey 2019 (PDF) German Olympic Sports Confederation, accessed on February 15, 2020 .
  2. Hans-Thorald Michaelis: Schützengilden: Origin - Tradition - Development . Keyser, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-87405-163-3 , p. 95 .
  3. Arnd Krüger : The sport before the "English sport" in England and on the continent. (Pp. 36-54). Christian Becker, Cornelia Regin , Anton Weise (eds.): “When sport came to Hanover”. History and reception of a cultural transfer between England and Northern Germany from the 18th to the 20th century. Münster: LIT 2015, ISBN 978-3-643-13152-2
  4. Henning Borggräfe: Celebrate and shoot for the regime , master's thesis at the Historical Institute of the Ruhr University Bochum ( summary )
  5. Press release of the Standing Conference
  6. Press release of the German UNESCO Commission , accessed on March 21, 2016
  7. Swiss Civil Code
  8. Shooting Officer Ordinance
  9. Salzburger Festschützenwesen ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / nationalagentur.unesco.at archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , National Agency for Intangible Cultural Heritage, Austrian Commission for UNESCO
  10. Hannes Obermair : Written form and documented tradition of the city of Bozen up to 1500 - patterns, forms, typologies (=  »cristallîn wort«. Hartmann studies . Volume 1 ). LIT Verlag, Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3-8258-1097-9 , pp. 33-58, reference p. 48 , doi : 10.13140 / RG.2.1.1126.1204 .
  11. See the report with photos in the Bozner Tagblatt , October 21, 1944, p. 3
  12. Royal Schützenbund Malmedy - Sankt Vith