Polish Scouting in Austria

Abstract

Attempts to organize scouting teams in Austria reach back to the period before World War One, yet they had not been established then. The first such teams were set up in 1915 by Karolina Wierońska and Adam Ciołkosz. They consisted of Polish young people who came to Vienna in the time of war. The scouts had friendly relationship with the Austrian Scouting Society (Oesterreichischer Pfadfinderbund). They took part in various events organized by that Society and, independently, set up a service to supervise information and order in libraries, reading room, hospitals and institutions of social care entrusted to them by the committees of care about refugees.

As the refugee youth left Vienna after the war, the scouting activity died down. It was resumed in the capital of Austria for a short period in the years 1923-1926. A team of Polish scouts was established at Oesterreichischer Pfadfinderbund Wiener Corps and at the "Sokół Polski" (Polish Falcon). When Stanisław Sieciechowicz left the capital on the Danube, a man who headed the scouting teams, Polish scouting again ceased to exist. It was only from 1933 onwards until the outbreak of the Second World War that it resumed its activity. This time it was owing to hard work done by Maria Dunajecka, the wife of the Polish general consul in Vienna, and Dr. Beno Tenenbaum, Ludmiła A. Hoenl and Stefan Styszyński. It was then that Polish scouting, as never before, developed various activity among the migration youth. At that time Polish Scouting in Vienna numbered about 100 members.

The outbreak of the Second World War stopped the activity of scouting teams. In 1945 two regiments were established in Austria: in Salzburg (for the occupational western zones - American, British and French) and in Vienna (Low Austria - the Soviet zone). The Jagiellonian Regiment in Salzburg numbered scouts, mainly from compact settlements. The Regiment in Vienna consisted mainly of Polish students Viennese universities and Polish schools in Austria. In the end of 1945 scouting in west zones numbered 1106, and in Vienna there were more than 70 members. The following people were distinguished in organizing scouting teams in the western zones: Scoutmaster Kazimierz Obtułowicz, vice-scoutmasters Miron Jasiak and Lesław Pisozub. In the Soviet zone there were Scoutmaster Waldemar Marynicz, Adam W. Wysocki, Alicja Kuszelnicka and Bolesław Gaicki. In the end of the 1940s many young people left the scouting teams. Part of them migrated to western countries, and some of them came to Poland. In the 1950s only the scouting team at the Polish school of the Strzecha Association of Poles in Austria conducted social activity. And even that team, after several years, ceased to exist. It was only 1983 that saw a new page in the history of Polish scouting in Austria. In that year a scouting regiment was established at the Polish church in Rennweg in Vienna. The regiment was called "Polonie" and was established owing to the Resurrection father and Scoutmaster Marian Czyżak and vice-scoutmaster Urszula Czyżak. The Polonie Regiment which is conducting a wide variety of scouting activity and has been working until today. It numbers more than 100 scout boys and girl guides.