The German Shooting Sport and Archery Federation (, DSB) is the largest umbrella organization for sport shooters in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It was founded in 1861 in Gotha and re-founded in 1951 in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

/ Main. DSB was Germany's fourth-largest sports association in 2008, with 1,095,071 male and 357,400 female shooters. Besides the well-known Olympic disciplines of

Rifle A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...

Pistol A pistol is a type of handgun, characterised by a gun barrel, barrel with an integral chamber (firearms), chamber. The word "pistol" derives from the Middle French ''pistolet'' (), meaning a small gun or knife, and first appeared in the Englis ...

Shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small ...

and

Archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a Bow and arrow, bow to shooting, shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting ...

the German Shooting and Archery Federation also looks after the disciplines of Running Target, Muzzle-loader, Field Archery,

Crossbow A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an Elasticity (physics), elastic launching device consisting of a Bow and arrow, bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar f ...

and Summer

Biathlon The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not ti ...

. The senior administrative body of the German Shooting and Archery Federation is the biannual General Meeting of Members. Executive bodies are the Managing Committee and the Executive Committee, the latter has nine members (president, five vice-presidents, national treasurer, national head of sports and national head of junior sports). Since 1994 Josef Ambacher from Starnberg is president. The German Shooting and Archery Federation’s objects are to support and supervise sport shooting according to standardized rules, to regulate training, to establish national leagues, to promote the shooting tradition, to represent its members nationally and internationally, to advocate the interests and needs of all young people especially those organised in shooting sports, to realize the "Deutschen Schuetzentag", to represent sport shooting and the general shooting tradition in the public uniformly. The head office is located in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

-Klarenthal under the direction of Secretary General Joerg Brokamp. The DSB’s monthly published official paper is named “Deutsche SchuetzenZeitung”.

Sports regulation

The German Shooting and Archery Federation’s sports regulation regulates the shooting in the various disciplines in over 1,500 shooting clubs of this federation. The DSB’s guidelines of shooting ranges and the regulations of shooting ranges bindingly regulate the equipment of shooting ranges and the behaviour while performing the sport. The German Shooting and Archery Federation is a member of the Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund (DOSB), the

International Shooting Sport Federation The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) is the governing body of Shooting at the Summer Olympics, Olympic shooting events. It also regulates several ISSF shooting events, non-Olympic shooting sport events. The Federation's activities ...

(ISSF), the International Archery Federation (FITA), the European and Mediterranean Archery Union ( EMAU), the International Crossbow Shooting Union (IAU), the European Shooting Confederation (ESC) and the Muzzle Loading Associations International Committee (MLAIC).

Regional federations

Twenty regional federations are members of the German Shooting and Archery Federation. Their boundaries are not identical with the borders of the federal states. * BD – ''Badischer Sportschützenverband'' (

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...

) * BL – ''Schützenverband Berlin-Brandenburg'' ( Berlin-Brandenburg) * BR – ''Brandenburgischer Schützenbund'' (

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

) * BY – ''Bayerischer Sportschützenbund'' (

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

) * HH – ''Schützenverband Hamburg und Umgegend'' (

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

and surrounding area) * HS – ''Hessischer Schützenverband'' (

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

) * MV – ''Landesschützenverband Mecklenburg-Vorpommern'' (

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; ), also known by its Anglicisation, anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a Federated state, state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's States of Germany, sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpom ...

) * ND – ''Norddeutscher Schützenbund'' (North Germany) * NS – ''Niedersächsischer Sportschützenverband'' (

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

) * NW – '' Nordwestdeutscher Schützenbund'' (Northwest Germany) * OP – '' Oberpfälzer Schützenbund'' ( Upper Palatinate) * PF – '' Pfälzischer Sportschützenbund'' ( Palatinate) * RH – '' Rheinischer Schützenbund'' (

Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...

) * SA – ''Schützenverband Saar'' (

Saarland Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and the smallest in ...

) * SB – ''Südbadischer Sportschützenverband'' ( South Baden) * SC – ''Sächsischer Schützenbund'' (

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

) * ST – ''Landesschützenverband Sachsen-Anhalt'' (

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a States of Germany, state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the List of German states ...

) * TH – ''Thüringer Schützenbund'' (

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

) * WF – ''Westfälischer Schützenbund'' (

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

) * WT – ''Württembergischer Schützenverband'' (

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...

)

References

External links

* {{Authority control

Shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missile ...

1861 establishments in the German Confederation National members of the European and Mediterranean Archery Union