Moving to Germany...

[Mikey P]

Well, from August this Summer, I'm moving to Germany for 3 years. I have no idea what the German attitude to bushcraft is, and what legal issues there are about using tools, knives, trespassing, wild camping, firelighting, etc.

Anyone got any experience of bushcraft in Germany?

The area I'm moving to is the sort of Western-central region, near Kaiserslauten and Saarbrucken. It's an hour from Francve, not too far from the Black Forest (where cake grows on trees - yay! ), and I'm only 3 hours from ski-mountaineering and alpine climbing in the...er...Alps. Can't wait to go but would love to carry on practicing my skills and - even better - learning new ones specific to the area.

Help!

 

[spamel]

Fires are supposedly illegal here, but I have never been questioned by the many people I have seen, but then I try to stay away from the public and visit areas that others stay away from. If you control the fire and dispose of it properly, leaving no trace, you shouldn't have any problems. A friend of mine got stopped by a forestry commision type who asked him if he new how much trouble he could get in. He said no, he wasn't aware, but when the guy saw how well the fire was tended and managed, he said it wouldn't be a problem.

I do need to look into the legality here, I would like to have an open fire more often, I don't get the same feeling from a stove I'm afraid. It's the same as most things though, the few idiots who burn down the place spoil it for the ones who would do it properly.

My wife has just told me that with a landowners permission, fires are allowed, which is also the rule in the UK. I'll do some investigating, although you'll have to wait until I get back from Canada for an answer!

 

[Mikey P]

Nice one. What is the general attitude towards carrying knives/axes? Is it like the UK in that it's very much a case of 'out of sight, out of mind', or a bit more like Sweden/Norway, where they are seen as important tools?

Enjoy Canada!

 

[spamel]

Not to sure on the knife carry laws, I really should aquaint myself with them!! But to be honest, if it is out of sight, you won't have any problems. A lot of people carry them for mushroom and fungi collection, later in the year especially, but I expect it all depends on the type of knife you carry, if you are in a built up area and what you are doing with it at the time.

I put my knife in my daysack or baldrick carry under a light jacket. Nobody knows I have it and therefore it doesn't pose a problem to anyone. I think that if you are carrying a big daysack full of outdoor gear, you'd get away with carrying a 'sensible' knife with you, unless you were trying to cut someones' ears off!! And to any of the uninitiated, sensible means not a sword!!!!

 

[R-J]

its ok, i'm on the dutch boarder near dusseldorf and its been good, but the time is to move one...

anyway, some of the forests are hudge, they seem to go on forever! you also have the bonus of pig, forest red (much bigger than the hill type) & pine martins.

technically your not suppose to leave any of the public foot paths, or breath in the wrong areas but in my experiance 90% of the foresters are just tring to keep out of everyones way and have a beer. if they catch you, they'll moan and try and intimidate you to move on, thats if they see you. you can get fined quite alot (5,000 euros so i'm told) if they want to press it.

your also not suppose to camp/sleep out and you can also get fined alot. but i've not had any problems, i've not (yet, not wanting to tempt the fates) been caught. as long as its low key you seem to get away with it, like i said most of the german foresters arent that observant/interested/under 60.

the knife thing is under 10 cm, i'm led to belive.

i found the german way of doing things a little bit stuffy/formal for my likeing (hence the move back to the uk, in august), but hey have fun.

hope this helps, if u've got any other questions just ask.