Deutsche Pfadfinderschaft Sankt Georg

German Scouting organization

The Deutsche Pfadfinderschaft Sankt Georg (DPSG, German Scout Association Saint George) is the largest of Germany's many Scouting organizations. The Catholic association has about 95,000 members of both genders. Via the Ring deutscher Pfadfinder*innenverbände it is a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement. The DPSG is also a member of the International Catholic Conference of Scouting (ICCS) and of the Bund der Deutschen Katholischen Jugend (BDKJ).

The DPSG was founded in 1929. In the preceding years only a few Catholic Scout groups were active, since most German bishops saw Scouting as a Protestant or secular movement. In the beginning the DPSG did not count more than 800 members. After 1933 membership rose noticeably: Most competing youth organizations were disbanded by the Nazi authorities or incorporated in the Hitler Youth while the DPSG still enjoyed some degree of protection under the Reichskonkordat. In 1935 membership stood by 16,000 boys in 457 local groups. This development lasted until 1938 when all religious youth organizations were banned. Catholic Scouting was restarted as soon as World War II was over, thanks to underground networks still existing in some places. The first local groups were reorganized in 1945, mainly in the American occupied zone. In 1946 the national association was restored. When the Ring deutscher Pfadfinderbünde was founded in 1949 the DPSG had about 20,000 members. The number of members of the association rose also in the following years with some temporary set backs until it reached 100,000 in the early 1980s. Since then membership has stagnated. In 1971, the DPSG did open to girls. Today, nearly all local groups are coeducational but there is also a parallel Guiding organization with strong ties to the DPSG: the Pfadfinderinnenschaft Sankt Georg.

The Scout emblem is a blue symbol, a combination of the Scouting fleur de lis with a cross.

The DPSG does not know a common Scout Promise. The promise shall be formulated individually by the respective group and for the respective advancement. Nevertheless some local groups have regular wordings that are in use since the 1960s.