Our History
In 1912 Emmerich Teuber (a former soldier) established the first scout group in Vienna in October 1912. After being presented to the public, the scouts run by Emmerich "Papa" Teuber got excellent response and started to grow. The first camp took place in 1913.
Girls joined the groups
Around the same time the first girls joined the groups and later formed their own groups. Meanwhile groups in all over Austria were founded and in April 1914 the first organization for scouts in Austria, the "Österreichischer Pfadfinderbund" (ÖPB), was established. There was also a special corps for girl guides that had about 100 members then. From now on groups were founded in many cities of Austria.
During World War I Austrian scouts helped in many occasions and recieved a high acceptance in the public. By the end of 1917 the organization had about 3.150 members on the boys side and about 300 on the girls side. After 1918 groups were founded in all the Austrian regions but were working independently. In Austria the first Cub scouts came into being in 1920, the first Rovers in 1921.
Full WOSM membership
In 1922 Austrian scouts were present on an International Conference for the first time and in 1931 Baden (close to Vienna) hosted the 6th International Conference.
During some internal discussions a second organization was formed out of some of the groups of the Österreichischer Pfadfinderbund to a new organization in 1926. The new organization run by Adolf Klarer was named "Österreichisches Pfadfinderkorps St.Georg" (ÖPKStG) and was an all catholic organization while the ÖPB stayed open to all. Both organizations were accepted by the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) so both were full members.
The girls corps started to grow when Marie Antoinette Hofmann took over as leader in charge. They formed the "Österreichischer Pfadfinderinnenbund" as part of the ÖPB. They even participated on the World Conference in Arpad in 1928 and received a temporary membership certificate. The first independent association for girl guides was formed in 1929 called "Bund der Helferinnen" with only about 120 members.
Nazis brought all scouts activities to an end
From 1934 on during the Civil War the situation became more and more difficult for the two organisations. A new state (non-scout) organisation was established and was a big competition to the scouts organisations. They managed to remain independent and even were successful in organising a big camp in 1936. In the few years to come more and more organisations founded by the Nazis had the word "scout" somewhere in their names. Finally the taking over of the Nazis brought also an end to all scouts and guides activities.
In March of 1938 many scout leaders were arrested, the homes of the groups were confiscated as well as all the material. But that couldn´t stop many leaders and young scouts from working in the underground. As all scouting activities were prohibited the scouts found new places to keep on the work in the Red Cross. It did not last long until complete corps of the Red Cross were only composed of scouts. Illegal camps took place and some groups were founded with the main reason of resistance. It was the first celebration of the end of the War in 1945 when the first scouts appeared again in their uniforms on the streets.
7th World Jamboree in Austria
It did not last long until many groups appeared again. For the first time proponents from both ÖPB and ÖPK met for talks. Both organisations disintegrated and a new organisation was formed in 1946 - the "Pfadfinder Österreichs" (PÖ). They became members of WOSM the same year.
The first big task was the 7th World Jamboree, the "Jamboree of simplicity", that took place in Bad Ischl in 1951 with 12.884 participants from 61 countries. In the following years the PÖ managed to grow rapidly - the trainingcenter Wassergspreng was bought in 1953, the centre in Igls (close to Innsbruck) in 1956. The first National Jamboree took place in 1961 and the first lottery in 1960. The second National Jamboree took place in 1971 and from now on every ten years.
Growing rapidly
Like the scouts the guides appeared in public shortly after the end of the war. The first association was formed in 1946 and in 1948 the "Bund österreichischer Pfadfinderinnen" was formed - an association that was totally independent from the scouts´ organisation. One of the most important persons of that time was Charlotte Teuber-Weckersdorf.
After internal discussion the association broke apart in 1950 and some of the groups formed the "Östereichischer Pfadfinderinnenverband St.Georg" (ÖPVSG) with about 200 members at the beginning. The young association recieved help from the Thinking Day Fund and grew rapidly. Trainers from Great Britain and the Netherlands also helped a lot. In 1957 the ÖPVSG was accepted by WAGGGS and recieved its "tenderfoot" membership. The first National Jamboree took place in 1965 for all the german speaking countries. In 1969 they were finally accepted as full members of WAGGGS.
Merger of girls and boys groups
In the 1970ies first talks between the PÖ and the ÖPVSG were started. The PÖ had almost 14.000 members, the ÖPVSG about 4.400. There were 240 groups in Austria, 17 of them all girls groups, 130 all boys groups and 93 already merged groups. Those talks finally led to a merger of the two organisations in 1976 to the PFADFINDER UND PFADFINDERINNEN ÖSTERREICHS (PPÖ). The new association became full member of both WAGGGS and WOSM.
It was a hard work to get the two programmes together, to merge the structure, the training scheme and so on and not to bulldoze the smaller association. Nevertheless many girls left the new organisation in the first years. There was always the option for the groups to stay either all girls or all boys or to merge. Even now there are still (very few) groups that remained only boys-groups. Meanwhile the PPÖ have more than 30.000 members, about two thirds boys and one third girls.
Ready for the new millennium
In 1981 the third National Jamboree took place with 6.500 participants from 31 countries and in 1982 for the first time a Third World-project was realized. For many times the constitution any bye-laws were changed, new programmes carried through, a new uniform settled and many other things. 1991 saw the forth National Jamboree and in July 2001 the National Jamboree "b.open" showed that the PPÖ were more than ready for the new millennium.