Figure 1.--Here we see German Boy Scouts / Pfadfindern with the Crown Prince. The caption reads, "Besuch des Kronprinzen bei den Pfadfindern". (Visit of the Crown Prince with the Boy Scouts.) Note the destinctive Scout uniform. The photograph is undated, but was probably taken some time aroud 1910-14. A reader writes, "The Crown Prince is in a peacetime uniform of a regiment he was assigned to after 1910 or so. After World War I broke out, he would have been at the front as commander of the 5th German Army and in a distinctively different war-time uniform." We are not sure who the Scout leader is or the identity of the military and civilian individuals in te background.

We have little historical information on German Scouts. The first important German youth movement was Wandervogel. Scouting in Germany began soon after the Movement was founded in Britain. German Scouting or Pfadfindern was founded (1909). We are yet sure who the individuals were that founded Scouting. We have little information about early German Scouts. We do not know how many members there were. The limited number of images we have been able to find of early German Scouts suggests that the membership was fairly limited, but we have no actual data. The uniform was destinctive. Many other countres copied the British Scout uniform. The German Scouts had a kind of South Africa bush hat and wore knickers rather than short pants. We know that Scouting developed in Germany in the early-1910s as it did throughout Europe. As in many other European countries, separate Scout associations were fornmed by different groups, primarily on religious lines. We are not entirely sure just when this process began. As far as we know there was no one Scout Association, although our information on the early movement is very limited. Scouting does not appear to have been as popular in Germany as in other European countres. A factor here may have been the association in the poublic mind with Britain. World War I erupted only a few years after Scouting was founded. We do not yet have much information on German Scouting during the War, bith how it fared and what part it played in the War.