Wolf, the registered society for the historical re-enactment of the High Middle ages, was founded on 1st January 1987 to provide a framework for the founders' interest in medieval history which went beyond the purely passive acquisition of historical information from books.
On 3rd February 1990 the society was registered as a non-profit association for the furtherance of art and culture. Since then the society has continuously grown and by now has gained members hailing from different regions who pursue various professions or educations in everyday life.
Within a lively fellowship, we re-enact the time around 1193 AD - the time of the Third Crusade.
The name "WOLF" derives from the famous armourers' mark in the diocese of Passau. "WOLF" blades had an almost legendary reputation and were renowned and coveted as far away as the Orient due to their quality and the widespread belief that they were forged during secret ceremonies and thereby gained magical powers.
Our internal library grows constantly and provides us with knowledge about life, culture and clothing at that time. After thoroughly studying historical originals, miniatures, court literature and specialist texts we manufacture our own clothing and equipment which is meticulously handmade and accurate in every detail. At the same time we evaluate the sources and verify these through experimental Archaeology.
We take great care to maintain the highest possible level of authenticity in all our equipment. This had been confirmed repeatedly by historians and museums and has led to WOLF being awarded with the Premio Federichino by the Hohenstaufen societies of Goeppingen, Jesi and Palermo in October 2006.
Depending on the situation we reenact typical characters of different classes and medieval professions with their own personality and social background. At the same time we avoid impersonating real historical figures because, in our view, this cannot be done convincingly. For this reason we decided to create our own medieval characters.
We emphasize working out the differentiation of the social classes especially the contrast between commoners and nobility. With our presentation we convey a vivid insight in the strata of high medieval society. Our characters are typical representatives of the feudal society like nobility, ministeriality, knights, men-at-arms, clericals, craftsmen, peasants, servants and musicians.
At regular meetings we occupy ourselves with the cultural and historical background, the manufacture of equipment, maintenance of the encampments components and the rehearsal of medieval music, a knighting ceremony and historical fighting displays on foot. Medieval craftsmanship and various handicrafts complete our activities.
The results of our work are presented to the public - mostly in close cooperation with archeologists and museums - at medieval events in our camp.
Another important field of work for our association is holding Seminars and lectures for schools and cultural societies.