Hiking weeks

Back to nature

It started in the middle eighties when some of the younger Bruno Gröning friends expressed the wish to spend some time together in the summer vacation in the mountains. Since Grete Häusler was originally from Austria and herself an enthusiastic mountaineer, it did not take much to convince her, the leader of the Bruno Gröning Circle of Friends at the time. So in the year 1987 some 30 or 40 Bruno Gröning friends met for the first hiking week in Maria Alm in the Salzburg region on the banks of the Steinernen lake. Overnight stays were in youth hostels and there were daily hikes in the mountains with coming together in the evenings for a community hour.

The feedback was fantastic and so the hiking week quickly became a firm part of the annual calendar of the Circle of Friends. Since 1988 it takes place in Filzmoos at the foot of the Bischofsmütze in the Austrian Dachstein area. However today it is not anymore the only hiking week; these days more than 3000 friends meet annually at various hiking and mountaineering weeks in Filzmoos.

Also in other regions similar events take place, With the worldwide spreading of the teaching of Bruno Gröning the desire arose in many countries to also conduct such hiking weeks in the home country. Thus every year the number countries increase in which hiking weeks or weekends take place, for example in Switzerland, Italy, France and also in India, Australia and the USA.

These activities are coupled to a conscious approach towards nature in the sense of Bruno Gröning's words "Back to nature" and "Nature is God". To absorb nature in peace and quiet presents a wonderful contrast to the current event tourism and brings the people again closer to God and to the origin of life. In this inner life in nature already many friends have even experienced healings.