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BAUMHOLDER Bahnbrecher/Trailblazers


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BAUMHOLDER Bahnbrecher/Trailblazers was the name of a US/German Volksmarch club that existed from the late 1970's to the late 1990's in the Baumholder garrison near my hometown. Today I was lucky enough to require this set of Steins, a former member of this club collected over the years. He told a lot of stories about the different marches with about 3000 - 4000 participants then. These were the days!

 

Beside the year the Steins show the coat of arms of the town, where the march took place and of course the Division's insignia. Notice that it changed from 8th Inf Div to 1st Armor Div, when the 8th ID was disbanded/reflagged in 1992.

 

Steins.jpg

 

 

 

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These two Beam Whiskey bottles came with the lot. I think these came from the local "PX shop" ??? Didn't get the joke with the "Democrat" bottle yet.

 

Steins5.jpg

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Geez, it did not even occur to me that the Baumholder Bahnbrecher Volksmarch Club was gone as well. I figured Neubrucke's had been gone for awhile.

 

As I mentioned on the other thread, "Bahnbrecher" was about as close as you could come in German to "Pathfinder", which was the 8th ID's division nickname. It's funny how the 1st ID kept the same name for the club.

 

Yes, the Volksmarches in Baumholder were a big draw. I think the US themed medals were a novelty for the German participants. Plus, the Baumholder club was pretty big on its own.

 

Thanks for showing these.

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Yes, the Volksmarches in Baumholder were a big draw. I think the US themed medals were a novelty for the German participants. Plus, the Baumholder club was pretty big on its own.

 

Thanks for showing these.

 

Thank you for sharing your "cold war memories" I really enjoy reading all those stories from the time long before we moved to this area!

 

Very interesting the "Bahnbrecher" translation. It never came to my mind that this very unusual world could be the German word for pathfinder! IMHO the obvious German translation of pathfinder is "Pfadfinder" (path = Pfad; finder =...).

 

Pfadfinder is also used for all (boy)scouts organisations over here. Maybe someone wanted to avoid this "civil" meaning... Interestingly I'm obviously not the only one with that translation....

 

post-2052-0-04243800-1441562053-a.jpg

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Keep in mind this was probably written by Americans who did not have a full understanding of German.

 

I remember there were a lot of things lost in translation. Many Americans tried to use literal of translations of English that produced some rather fractured meanings in German. It probably worked the same way in reverse as well.

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