Talk:Volksmarching

terminology
As a summary of, confirmation of, and addition to what has been said by various parties below (August 2004; March 2012; June 2013):

The term "Volksmarsch" or any related vocabulary does not exist in German language usage. If someone would see the term "Volksmarsch", it would probably be associated with 19th Century brass band music.

The term commonly used on posters and flyers is "Volkswandertag" (= people's hiking/rambling day), and refers to the very date such an event is planned. Related terms ("Volkswanderung", "Volkswandern", etc.) do exist in theory, but are basically never used. Otto von B. (talk) 16:17, 18 April 2017 (UTC)

August 2004
Um, we seem to have a word of mixed languages. It isn't really an English word, is it? And the German word is Volksmarschung. -- Zoe


 * Zoe I am sorry, Volksmarschung is even worse, there is no German word like that. The German word would in fact be Volksmarsch, but as I wrote further down, this word does not exist in the German language. Sunstarfire (talk) 12:53, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

Yeah. Volksmarch is the term used by the American Volkssport Association which appears to be the United States branch of the IVV (I won't dare try to spell it.) The IVV actually uses just Wanderung although I see Volkswandurung used frequently (My German is a bit rusty.) Volksmarch seems to be a neologism (via the U.S. military) but it is the officially sanctioned neologism. -- Kirkjobsluder


 * I've only come across this page, and I must say that the very first sentence, "Volksmarching is a form of non-competitive fitness walking that developed in Europe", is as vague as you can get in terms of localizing the origins of that sport. And what do Americans understand by "Volksmarching"? A whole nation getting on their feet on a, well, Saturday or Sunday and walking around aimlessly? Please explain in some more detail. 16:01, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

March, 2012
Actually, as a german I think the whole term was overrated by some tourists that visited the south-western parts of germany.

The link to the DVV can act as a perfect example: dvv-wandern; _wandern_! (german for hiking) We say "Wandertage" ("hiking days" or "days of hiking"). And the all the bigger organizations in germany, austria and switzerland use the term "Wandertage". Search for it: you'll get a lot of hits on german speaking website. All the "Volkssport"-pages are using it too. A lot of announcements of "Wandertage", not a single "Volksmarsch".

Only some american and canadian sites are using "Volksmarch" (btw. sounds like an hiking activity relabeled by the Hitlerjugend... maybe that old nazi chum that crossed the ocean after WWII brought that term with him) and quoting again and again the Volksmarch entry in the english Wikipedia -- which doesn't make it right.

The Leipziger Wörterbuch knows it from the Passauer Neue Presse, were it qoutes an entry of a local club -- that doesn't make it common. Regarding the right-winged tendency in the countryside: I would even say _questionable_.

Neither the Duden of 1986, nor 2004 knows "Volksmarsch" -- so it's rather not common. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.35.141.147 (talk) 16:29, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

June 2013
I just stumbled over this. I must agree with the person before me. Everything "Voks" has this Nazi-atmosphere to it. There is not really anything in German we use which would be close to that term. A "Volksmarsch" would be something like a huge public gathering of lots of people with the purpose to hike somewhere. It has nothing to do with "for the masses" or "easy", which the term seems to try to imply in English. Actually, it's simply hiking, nothing else. Or maybe not even that, just leaving the house for a walk. That's what we do. And yes, there are different levels in that. You can hike in your city. Or you can hike up to the Hoellentalklamm or something like that. Apart from that, it is typically American to create a hassle around something which is supposed to be hassle-free. Sunstarfire (talk) 12:51, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

Stub - comment
Cleaned up a bit, but this stub would probably be better off as short section or paragraph in a larger main article (maybe hiking or a similar article?). GermanJoe (talk) 23:43, 20 January 2015 (UTC)