Here I found an example, where the club had the schützenhaus (left) and the rangebuilding (right) on its postcard. Its located in the far east of Germany, close to the Polish border. Well, the picture is from 1903, back then it was nearly in the middle of the German Reich...

And a nice rhyme which I tried to translate for you!

Biggi,

Thank you for this post, truly enjoyed the photos and the history.

Kevin B.

If any thread deserves to be a STICKY, this is the one!
Biggi - Thank You Sincerely for the great detail words supporting the pictures.  Thoroughly enjoyed reading the thread back from the beginning several times

Here is another postcard dated 1903 . With the schützenhaus and the separate range building.

I tried to figure out what happened to this schützenhaus, but no track...

It was located in Saxony-Anhalt, close to Luther-Stadt WIttenberg. And they had the socialistic GDR regime from 1945/49-1989, where the traditional schützen clubs were forbidden. If the building survived WWI and WWII, it was used for something else after 1945, but for sure no schützen club.

All those traditional schützen clubs in east Germany (in the GDR) had to close after WWII. No shooting license, no guns in civil hands. The Sovjet occupying forces made the strict law. Shooting was just possible in the 1952 founded GST association. This was a pre-military organisation of the army. It was a governmental ruled mass organization "Sport and Technology Association", like shooting, motor sports, diving, radio. Only hard-liner socialists were allowed to join the GST shooting departments.

After the GDR broke down in 1989, the shooters founded new clubs, but nearly nothing with tradition. Mostly they couldn't get back their old buildings (if they still existed), because all was disappropriated and in governmental possession. 
I think some buildings survived and may still exist, as a company building, school, political club house or whatever.

Dear readers, here is the next story!
Hope my English is okay... *smile*


Here is an interesting postcard of a so-called "Schützenhof Delitzsch" near Leipzig (former GDR).
With a longer research I could find out what happened to the building.

Huge building, erected 1890 and opened in 1891 with a big Schützenfest:
They had a parade, concerts in the park, a 3-day-match, and electric illumination by night.

The club was founded in 1697, when the researched information is correct.

Before they built the huge Schützenhof, they had a nice regular schützenhaus in the town.
The new building was located at the northern city limits.
Back then, the town had a population of approx. 9000 habitants.
So it must have been a real shooting enthusiastic town at that time.

All the town events and festivities took place in the new schützenhof.
They had a huge hall with stage, a smaller ballroom, a billiard room and a restaurant.
And for sure they had a range! 
You can find parts of the range hall on pics of the first and second postcard.
Must have been 20 firepoints or more.

In 1895 the club had approx. 75 members. And in the year 1897 they celebrated their 200-years-Jubilée.
It was a big event, other clubs showed up for the parade with their banner flags. And for sure they had a jubilée match.

Over the years they had a lot of society and business events, exhibitions, conventions, concerts, theater in the big halls of the Schützenhof. Shooters wirh their buildings were very honorable back then.
They enlarged the range in 1910/11 with long distance ranges on 300 and 175 meters, a pistol range and hunting targets. The restaurant and halls were renovated too.

In 1913 they run the "Provincial-Bundesschiessen" with 400 shooters and with a big parade.
About the years of WWI I couldn't find any information about shooting activities, but probably they had their weekly practice matches with military rifles - as öong as they were not soldiers at the gront line.
The annual schützen-fests were held in the 1920s again, after the inflation years.

In 1924 they renovated the range and celebrated an internal re-opening practice match.
With the renovated range they could organize again the big regional Provincial-Bundesschiessen. A lot of shooters showed up for the 6 day match. They could win 150 material prizes.

All this German history, and memory of the meal you showed us a while back when you were here made me get hungry for some Bavarian atmosphere of my own. So, I took the wife to dinner at a  good German restaurant tonight. Oh, man, am I stuffed. Couldn't even eat the cake. Thanks my dear lady.

I want to add to the last post of the Schützenhof in Delitzsch:

The Schützengilde of Delitzsch was prohibited in 1945, like all schützen clubs back then. While the west Germans got back their traditional schützen life round 1950, the east Germans in GDR just had the chance to shoot in the GST (the pre-military organisation) and just in the "Olympic disciplines". No tradition at all.

Near the town of Delitzsch the socialists erected some shooting ranges for sportive competitive shooting in the 1950s. Those were in use till 1990, when the GDR reunited with Germany. 
In the same year, a new shooting club was established, and they took over the name of the traditional "Schützengilde Delitzsch". They erected a new shooting place on the property of an old airport in the region.
Their website doesn't show anything traditional, concerning to the old Schützengilde or the history of the old "Schützenhof".