Pfadfinder und Pfadfinderinnen Österreichs (PPÖ; Austrian Boy Scouts and Girl Guides) is the largest Scouting and Guiding organization in Austria and the only one approved by World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) and the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM). The association claims more than 300 troops (local units) with more than 85,000 Scouts nationwide. WOSM and WAGGGS give quite smaller membership values for the PPÖ: 9,503 Scouts (as of 2013) and 10,508 Guides (as of 2003).
The badge of the PPÖ is dark red with a white combination of a fleur-de-lis and a trefoil, the symbols of WOSM and WAGGGS, respectively. In the center of the crest is a lighter red-and-white shield bearing the heraldic colors of Austria. The badges of both supranational organizations are also used. Male Scouts wear a purple WOSM logo on their uniforms, females wear the WAGGGS trefoil in the same position.
The association is member of the Austrian National Youth Council.
History
Austrian Scouting was first established in 1909 in Austria-Hungary. In 1910, the first scout group – still in existence today – was founded in Wiener Neustadt. In 1912, Emmerich Teuber founded the first scout group in Vienna. The Catholic Church founded the Pfadfinderkorps Sankt Georg at the same time. First camps were held in 1913.
As the movement spread, girls became part of it in 1913 and troops were founded all over the country. An umbrella organization, the Österreichischer Pfadfinderbund (ÖPB), was founded in April 1914 and included the Girl Guide movement. This organization had strong ties to Magyar Cserkészszövetség and Junák, which were independent Scout associations in Bohemia. After World War I, scouting re-developed independently in Slovenia and in other areas of the former Habsburg Empire.
The ÖPB's programs expanded to include Cub Scouts in 1920 and Rovers in 1921. Austria's movement also gained international recognition as a founding member of WOSM during an international conference in 1922; it hosted another international conference in 1931 (in Baden bei Wien). The Girl Guides Association grew more prominent with the foundation of the Österreichischer Pfadfinderinnenbund, which was part of the national organization and was led by Marie Antoinette Hofmann; this was followed by an independent girls' association, formed in 1929, called Bund der Helferinnen. Austrian Scouts introduced Mother's Day to Austria, originally to honor the mother of the Bundespräsident at the time.
In 1922 Catholic groups within the Österreichischer Pfadfinderbund united in the "Ring der St.Georgspfadfinder". In 1926 they left the Österreichischer Pfadfinderbund and founded the Österreichisches Pfadfinderkorps St.Georg, which also gained international recognition. 9,410 Scouts (ÖPB: 3,000, ÖPK St.Georg: 6,410) were registered in 1,025 troops in 1937.
Beginning in 1934, there was a state-sponsored youth organization that competed heavily with Austrian scouting. With the arrival of the Nazis and World War II, however, Scouting in Austria was banned altogether. A number of scout leaders were arrested in 1938 and scouting went underground, members at times associating with the Red Cross and other organisations.
At the first celebration of the end of World War II, there were Scouts in uniform on the streets. More than 800 Scouts and Scoutleaders left Austria in 1938. "Austrian Scouts in Great Britain" was the Austrian Scouts-in-Exile organisation. Between 1939 and 1945 "Der neue Weg" was published as Austrian Scout magazine in Exile.
Austrian Boy Scouts were readmitted to WOSM in 1946. Wishing for unity, the various national organizations combined to form the Pfadfinder Österreichs, which hosted the 7th World Scout Jamboree in Bad Ischl in 1951 with 12,884 participants from 61 countries. After only a few short years, however, several leading figures left the Pfadfinder Österreichs to reestablish the Österreichischer Pfadfinderbund in 1949.
In 1956 Austrian Scouts helped refugees after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Austrian Scouts celebrated 26 October as "Day of the Austrian Flag" for long years.
The first national Austrian jamboree occurred in 1961, and continued every ten years.