20 years Wolf - registered society for the historical re-enactment of the High Middle Ages

In the archaeological theme park Archeon near Alphen aan den Rijn (Netherlands) our society will celebrate its 20th anniversary together with all its friends.

A long time ago, a couple of good friends from the Frankfurt/Main area shared an interest in history and martial arts. In 1987 they therefore founded the IG Wolf to combine both and to make history accessible as a living experience for themselves and others. They decided for the 3rd Crusade as the historical background and later on narrowed that down to the year 1193 AD.

This has been the start of a society that today brings together almost 40 members in the Rhein-Main-Area, at the Baltic Sea, in Berlin, Brunswick, Swabia und honorary members in Düsseldorf and even England. Being one of the oldest societies in Germany in the medieval re-enactment business we experienced Medieval Markets, Medieval Tournaments and similar events popping up everywhere during the years. Since one of our main goals from the very beginning has been to fight a false, romanticized view of the medieval times and accompanying prejudices and as the studying of original period sources has been an essential part of our work, we completely turned our backs on the German medieval scene during the middle of the 1990's and developed a concept based solely on museum pedagogy.

This concept not only has been proven right over and over again since that time, it also has been copied - just like the societies charter and info-sheets - several times and somehow opened a door for other societies to gain access to museums. As one of the main milestones on that way the IG Wolf has had the honour to be the very first re-enactment or living history group to be allowed to perform and put up its medieval camp at the Museum-Village of Düppel in Berlin in 1997, an event that has been repeated yearly since then with great success every Whitsun-weekend. For the years of intensive work on the historical background and its representation the IG Wolf has been presented with the cultural award 'Premio Federichino' on the 8th of October 2006 again being the very fist living history society ever to get that prize. This award is bestowed upon persons or institutions by the Hohenstaufen-societies of Göppingen (Germany), Jesi and Palermo (both Italy) for very special accomplishments in research, tradition and representation of the Hohenstaufen cultural heritage.

Being together as a group without splitting up for 20 years and having been bestowed with such an honourable award it is high time to celebrate in style! It would be unimaginable for us to party without all the friends and comrades we met all over Europe during these years. These are people who don't stop travelling around Europe to study original period stuff, reading loads of books, learn and perfect crafts and handcrafts that are sometimes almost forgotten, invest a lot of money and a huge amount of time going to and from places in order to revive history, correct clichés brought into life by Hollywood movies and to transfer all that knowledge about the Middle Ages in an entertaining, interesting and friendly manner to the visitor who has little previous knowledge of that time period from school or other education.

Fortunately we found an appropriate and nice place for our anniversary in the archaeological theme park Archeon in the Netherlands. It will be possible for all of our friends to put up their camps in a beautiful surrounding having animals and reconstructed buildings and gardens all around them. We are happy and feel honoured that most of our friends will be able to attend the event as never before have all these groups been together at one site hailing from countries like Germany, Austria, Italy, England, Belgium, France and the Netherlands!

We hope that lots of visitors will be interested in that truly unique weekend! Out of respect for the work that each and every group invested in their presentation we kindly ask visitors to attend the site in modern clothing and abstain from trying to 'get medieval'!

Get details on the thempark and directions to Archeon in the Netherlands following this link.

AD 1260, Italien  www.miliziecomunali.org
Apud Angeron 1250, Deutschland  www.apud-angeron.de
Ars Replika, Deutschland  www.ars-replika.de
Carsten Wolfewicz, Deutschland
Claus Meiritz, Deutschland  www.diewerkstaettenseite.de
De Liebaart, Belgien  www.liebaart.org
Die Reisecen, Deutschland  www.die-reisecen.de
Dirk Mumm, Deutschland
Equites Normanorum, Deutschland
familia ministerialis, Deutschland  www.familia-ministerialis.de
Feudal Archers, England  www.feudalarchers.org.uk
Gelach ende Gemoet, Niederlande
Gens Brunorum, Deutschland  www.gens-brunorum.4t.com
Henkt 't Jong, Niederlande
Historia Vivens 1300, Österreich  www.historiavivens1300.at
HMA-Info, Deutschland  www.hma-info.de
IG Volkelin, Deutschland  volk.volkelin.de
IG Wolf e.V., Deutschland  www.igwolf.net
Les Poulaines, Italien  www.lespoulaines.it
Marca brandenburgensis anno domini 1260, Deutschland  www.brandenburg1260.de
Mathilde Alric, Frankreich
Milites Silvarum, Italien
Museumsdorf Düppel e.V., Deutschland  www.dueppel.de
Nadja und Karsten Flott, Deutschland
Oliver Schlegel, Deutschland
Primo Pensio, Niederlande
Ralf Eschner, Deutschland
Samuraigruppe Takeda, Deutschland  www.samurai.de
Tempora Nostra, Deutschland  www.tempora-nostra.de
Viatores Equo, Deutschland  www.viatores-equo.de
Wappentuers van Dordrecht, Niederlande