2012 Pfälzerwald 029 Ritterstein Kohlplatz

The Palatine Forest Club (german: Pfälzerwald-Verein) is a

hiking Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histor ...

club in the former Bavarian Palatinate, i.e. the southern part of the German state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

and the Saarland county of

Saarpfalz-Kreis Saarpfalz (''Saar-Palatinate'') is a Kreis (district) in the south-east of the Saarland, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from west clockwise) Saarbrücken, Neunkirchen, Kusel, Kaiserslautern, Südwestpfalz, district-free Zweibrücken, and th ...

. In 2011 it had 221 local branches with around 27,000 members.Mitgliederzeitschrift „Pfälzerwald“, 2 The first branch was founded on 27 November 1902 in Ludwigshafen. Its first chairman was the industrialist, Anton Fasig. After other branches had formed the following year, the umbrella organization was founded in 1903. One of the founding members of the Palatine Forest Club, formed at the initiative of Ludwigshafen railway official, Otto Link, was the Palatine artist, Heinrich Strieffler. Karl Albrecht von Ritter was elected by the founding members as the managing director (Regierungsdirektor). Since 1908 the club has commemorated places of historical or natural significance by erecting and maintained a total of 306 so-called Ritter Stones ('' Rittersteine'') -

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

boulders with engraved inscriptions. The head office of the Palatine Forest Club is in the town of Neustadt an der Weinstraße. its chairman since 2005 has been Klaus Weichel from Kaiserslautern, and its CEO since 1992 has been Bernd Wallner from Großfischlingen. The club has a 25-man board and 10 districts, maintaining a foundation that supports nature and monument conservation and is a member of the German Ramblers Association. The membership publication of the club since 1902 has been the quarterly magazine, ''Pfälzerwald''. Its youth organisation is called the ''Deutsche Wanderjugend (DWJ)''. The club maintains around 100 walking huts in the Palatinate and the Saarpfalz regions. Some are only managed at weekends, 17 are hostels with overnight accommodation for walking groups. One of the main tasks of the club, which is a recognized federal nature conservation organisation in Rhineland-Palatinate, is the signing of 12,000 km of walking routes in the Palatine Forest as well as organizing 10,000 annual walking and leisure events.

References

External links

Homepage of the PWV

{{Authority control Hiking organisations in Germany Neustadt an der Weinstraße ! Organisations based in Rhineland-Palatinate 1902 establishments in Germany Sports organizations established in 1902