The Eifel Club (german: Eifelverein) is one of the largest

rambling Walking is one of the most popular outdoor recreational activities in the United Kingdom, and within England and Wales there is a comprehensive network of rights of way that permits access to the countryside. Furthermore, access to much uncultiv ...

clubs in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

with a membership of 28.000. Its purpose is the "maintenance of local customs, the protection and care of monuments to which it is particularly committed". The Eifel Club was founded on 22 May 1888 in the event hall at

Bad Bertrich Bad Bertrich is an '' Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Ulmen, w ...

by Adolf Dronke and, in 2013, it celebrated its 125th anniversary.''Prüm: Eifelverein feiert 125. Geburtstag''
volksfreund.de, Internet release by the Trierischer Volksfreund, 25 May 2013 Karl Kaufmann, after whom one of the main footpaths through the Eifel (the ''Karl Kaufmann Way'' between Brühl and Trier) is named, was its chairman for many years, from 1904 to 1938. Since 2011, its president has been local politician, Mathilde Weinandy. Among its areas of activity are

, the training of hiking guides,

nature conservation Nature conservation is the moral philosophy and conservation movement focused on protecting species from extinction, maintaining and restoring habitats, enhancing ecosystem services, and protecting biological diversity. A range of values unde ...

, the conservation of local culture and youth work. In addition to various books,

hiking map In modern mapping, a topographic map or topographic sheet is a type of map characterized by large- scale detail and quantitative representation of relief features, usually using contour lines (connecting points of equal elevation), but histori ...

s and route guides, it publishes the "Eifel Yearbook" and, at irregular intervals, roughly five times a year, the members' magazine ''Die Eifel''. The Eifel Club, together with the History and Ancient History Society of Mayen and the surrounding area, the town of

Mayen Mayen is a town in the Mayen-Koblenz District of the Rhineland-Palatinate Federal State of Germany, in the eastern part of the Volcanic Eifel Region. As well as the main town, additional settlements include Alzheim, Kürrenberg, Hausen-Betzing, ...

and the county of

Mayen-Koblenz Mayen-Koblenz is a district (''Kreis'') in the north of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from north clockwise) Ahrweiler (district), Ahrweiler, Neuwied (district), Neuwied, Westerwaldkreis, district-free Koblenz, Rhein-Lahn ...

supports the Eifel Museum in the castle of

Genovevaburg Genovevaburg is a castle standing on the southwestern side of Mayen in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The castle is the symbol of Mayen and has been rebuilt several times since first being destroyed in 1689. Its name comes from a leg ...

in Mayen. It also runs the youth hostel of "Schilsbachtal" by the Rur Reservoir Schwammenauel in

Simmerath Simmerath is a municipality in the district of Aachen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located approximately 20 km south-east of Aachen, near the border to Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially ...

- Woffelsbach. Since 1899, the club has owned the

lower ward An outer bailey or outer ward is the defended outer enclosure of a castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It protects the inner bailey and usually contains those ancillary bui ...

of the castle at Manderscheid, the ruins of which it has since carefully renovated and also made available for events. The Eifel Club is the German sponsor of the European Agreement for the Eifel and Ardennes (EVEA), to which Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany have belonged since 1955. France was also a founder member but left in 1998. From 1983 to 1993 the Eifel Club organised the Euregio Star Walk at the

tripoint A tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints as of 2020. Nearly half are situated in rivers, l ...

Vaals Vaals (; Ripuarian: ) is a town in the extreme southeastern part of the Dutch province of Limburg, which is in the southeastern part of the Netherlands. The municipality covers an area of in the foothills of the Ardennes–Eifelrange a ...

, where the borders of the Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands meet. The head office of the club, which has 160 local branches, is in the town of

Düren Düren (; ripuarian: Düre) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, between Aachen and Cologne on the river Rur. History Roman era The area of Düren was part of Gallia Belgica, more specifically the territory of the Eburones, a people ...

References

Literature

* Wolfgang Schmid (ed. for Eifel Club): ''125 Jahre Eifelverein : Vol. 1: Der Eifelverein auf seinem Weg durch die Geschichte'', Düren, 2013, * Eifelverein (publ): ''Die Eifel 1888-1988. Zum 100-jährigen Jubiläum des Eifelvereins.'' Düren, 1988, * Alfred Herrmann (ed): ''Eifel-Festschrift. Zur 25-jährigen Jubelfeier des Eifelvereins.'' Bonn, 1913

External links

Website of the Eifel Club
{{Authority control Organisations based in Rhineland-Palatinate Hiking organisations in Germany Eifel 1888 establishments in Germany Clubs and societies in Germany Düren (district)