History
The DPSG was founded in 1929. In the preceding years only a few Catholic Scout groups were active, since most German bishops saw Scouting as a Protestant or a-religious movement. In the beginning the DPSG didn't count more than 800 members. After 1933 membership rose massively: Most competing youth organizations were disbanded by the Nazi-authorities or incorporated in the Hitler Youth. In 1935 membership stood by 16.000 boys in 457 local groups. This development lasted till 1938 when all religious youth organizations were banned.
Catholic Scouting was restarted as soon as World War II was over. The first local groups were reorganized in 1945, mainly in the American occupied zone. In 1946 the national association was restored. When the Ring deutscher Pfadfinderbünde was founded in 1949 the DPSG had about 20,000 members.
The membership of the association rose also in the following years - with some temporary set-backs - until it reached 100,000 in the early 1980s. Since then membership has stagnated. In 1971, the DPSG did open to girls. Today, nearly all local groups are coeducational but there is also a parallel Guiding organization with strong ties to the DPSG: the Pfadfinderinnenschaft Sankt Georg.
Read more about this topic: Deutsche Pfadfinderschaft Sankt Georg
Famous quotes containing the word history:
““And now this is the way in which the history of your former life has reached my ears!” As he said this he held out in his hand the fatal letter.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now.”
—Richard M. Nixon (b. 1913)