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.
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