Auf dem Jagd

9:40am and the blare of the hunting horns announce the gathering for the hunt to the small town of Greimersburg. This was a big hunt for the town. 93 shooters and 20 drivers had been invited for this hunt by the Dutchman that owns the hunting rights in this village. He had wanted to plan a large hunt to invite a number of his friends from Holland to participate. They made up about half the shooters and drivers.

With the horns, the 113 hunters came together at the town community center to hear the rules of the hunt, first in German, then in Dutch. The hunt was to take place from 11:00am to 1:30pm. Effort should be made to take the injured or old. Be certain of you target before you fire, there are hikers as well as drivers and dogs out there. The primary game was wild pigs. Deer and foxes could also be taken.

Wild pigs have become a major problem in farming communities in Germany. These pigs are quite destructive to the farmer's crops. Their increasing population seems related to the increase acreage devoted to farming corn. Corn has not been traditionally farmed in Germany. It seems to provide the wild pigs with a food source and cover from hunters. More than one farmer has told us that the pigs like to go into the middle of a corn field and eat their way out, so their destruction is not noticed until too late.

And then again the horns, this time announcing the beginning of the hunt. The shooters were divided into groups, each group was a assigned a leader from the area. The leader was responsible for positioning the group members. After all the shooters had left for their positions, the drivers where divided into 4 groups and positioned for the start of the hunt.

The land around Greimersburg is mostly cultivated. But there are some steeply sloping area where the forest has been allowed to grow. The set up for the hunt was classic. Shooters were position on the edges of these wooded area facing outward towards the surrounding fields. The drivers and dogs would work through the woods trying to encourage the game to move into the fields where they could be seen by the shooters.

At 11:05, the driver's for the group I was in fanned out along the road and entered the woods. For the nest 2 hours and 30 minutes, we moved in a line though the woods and berry patches that were in our way, periodically yelling "hup, hup, hup" to scare and pigs near by and to inform the shooters and other drivers of our position. Sometimes we would re-group to start another pass through the woods. As luck would have it, during all this time, we were only able to see a single deer but it was moving too fast for the shooters to get a good shoot.

While we were unable to find the pigs in our area, we could hear shots being fired in the distance. Other groups appeared to have better luck.

At 1:20, our leader called a halt and we made a last pass in the direction of the autos. We loaded up and headed off to the hut to celebrate the hunt. At the hut, warm gulash soup and Zwiebelkuchen (onion tart) was waiting. We warmed ourselves by the fire watching each of the groups bring in their game. In all 12 wild pigs, 8 deer and 4 foxes were harvested.

In the ceremony that ended the hunt, each successful shooter was given a small branch from a pine tree. The meat from the harvest would be processed and sold to help pay for the hunting rights. The party was the real reward for the hunters. The drivers were given a little extra for their work, a kilogram of Dutch Gouda cheese. The sound of the hunting horns signaled the end of the hunt, but the party at the hut continues a while longer.