H. Adler - Panorama

An hour before the train departs, the pack is supposed to meet by a side entrance to the central station in the early evening, the air lovely and warm, almost all the boys showing up on time, their large packs on their backs, each one packed with all sorts of things above and below, left and right, all of it tied down, the smallest looking as if they can hardly stand, yet that appears so only if you look at a new arrival from behind, where he seems to disappear beneath the huge pack and his bags of provisions, but if the same boy suddenly turns around, then he looks quite happy and satisfied, if anything a little excited, and even if the weight is a bit too heavy for him, each one of them is ready to tough it out. Willi, who among the older boys is the first to arrive — his punctuality so well known that during any journey he always takes the lead if they want to know precisely when to meet up with another pack — doesn’t fool around, and says, “Men, don’t wear yourselves out. Set your packs down!” Everyone is happy to do so, and everyone can see how well the boys have packed, even the new ones, for everything looks shipshape, the many little straps a source of pride, though paper sacks and string are frowned upon, since these make them look like philistines, which the Wanderers call almost anyone, especially grown-ups. By “philistines” they mean antiquated men who have no real love of nature, most of the teachers at school being philistines, as along with the parents they hold down the youths by forbidding everything and ordering them around, the grown-ups know no better, nor could they do it better, for they fight constantly and smoke and drink beer, and if they ever go hiking they yell and holler, toss papers into the woods, and drag their little children along, after which the philistines head for an inn, usually right next to the station, buying colored beverages for their kids that no decent young man would drink or even put into his mouth, the elders getting drunk in the meantime. The Wanderers will have nothing to do with that, they are against all oppression, no one should influence them, for they want to start a new life, which they learn about during hikes and in their club, above all in their camp. No single pack wants to get too big, thirty being the limit for each, each new member having to serve a probationary period of six weeks in order to see if he really fits in. Similarly, not just anyone is encouraged to apply, but instead is considered for a while before being invited, and once he’s selected he is expected to fully turn against his parents and teachers, though he shouldn’t be nasty but simply aloof and independent. No grown-up and no stranger is allowed into the club, not even members of other packs or organizations are allowed unless invited, for with other packs they maintain only loose relations, there being an annual meeting of them during the Easter vacation, which many packs attend, though they hike separately and meet up with one another only at the final destination, at which for two or three days they share campfires, talk, sing, and play games, after which each pack heads back alone.

No one wants to know much about other organizations, on the one hand because they are too much like the military and practice battle charges, and on the other because they are too middle-class and seek out the approval of adults, some also being too nationalistic, others too internationalist, others belonging to some church, still others being appendages of political parties that are always yelling out some party slogan, real Wanderers meanwhile not wanting to have anything to do with politics, for Alfred always says that nothing but bad comes from politics, while whoever wishes to do good in the world cannot allow himself to be swept away by slogans, for they enslave people and turn them into philistines, there being hardly any difference between being progressive or conservative, since it all amounts to nothing and, even if it’s true that an individual cannot defeat all the evil in the world, at least the individual can stand on his own and triumph over the evil within himself in order to lead an exemplary life. Nonetheless it sometimes happens that a boy who is initially pleased by Alfred’s central tenets, or who doesn’t really think about them and is only inspired by life among the other Wanderers, suddenly turns and says that none of what Alfred and the others say is true, after which the boy will not allow himself to be persuaded by anything, and so he states that he is leaving and disappears into another organization or simply takes part in nothing more with this one. Alfred then says that one has to realize that hiking doesn’t hold a lot for many young boys, and yet it’s good when one at least has had the chance to spend a little time doing it, as something from it might stay with him nonetheless.

Josef, FHF, and some others believe that anyone who is not a real Wanderer in these times must indeed be a philistine, but Alfred just smiles at that and says that he hopes there are no philistines among the Wanderers, and that none will become one, yet there have always been people who were not philistines, and fortunately even today there were men and women who knew nothing about hiking and yet were not philistines, there even being grown-ups who were fine people, even though the young felt their generation was better than the older one. Josef is still skeptical, and FHF complains that in his family most of them are awful and complete philistines, to which Hans adds, “I think the scouts will be the first sensible generation to exist once they grow up.” The worst is when young boys who for the most part don’t belong to any organization, or at best a phony one run by adults, are complete philistines who have no interest in good books, who don’t want to go for a proper hike, who run out of the rain, long for vacations in a summer resort with a bad orchestra and snack bars, who are interested only in soccer and boxing matches, who read sentimental stories about Indians and bloodthirsty detective novels, who are happy to be led around on a leash like a dog, who like pop music and dancing, and who like the kind of school outings that Wanderers would never participate in, laughing as they do when they come upon one of them cooking his dinner on a spirit stove instead of making a real fire, even when it is raining and the brushwood is damp. A healthy Wanderer hikes every week, even in winter, for he has boots that no mud harms when they are laced up, nor does any Wanderer shrink from sleeping outside overnight, as long as it’s not so cold that he can’t pitch a tent, which is possible almost anywhere, and even when it’s too cold all you have to do is wrap yourself up well in blankets, two boys assigned to tend the fire until morning so that you can always stay warm. Only for the winter camp does the pack rent a lodge in the mountains, where you can have a warm meal in the morning and at night, though for lunch the meal is cold, while it’s hardly ever the case that they pass a night on the straw of some farmer’s barn, this happening only when the weather is completely miserable.

The Wanderer is well outfitted and knows which canteen works best, sensibly utilizing aluminum canisters and watertight pouches, though no paper sacks or cardboard boxes, but instead he has a normal drinking cup, as opposed to a collapsible one, an eating tray with two compartments, no one using regular silverware but instead a large spoon that can be used to eat anything, a fork being a luxury, though everyone has a knife, which is all you really need. A real Wanderer wears a coat or raincoat neither during a hike nor in camp but instead has a waterproof windbreaker that is not thick at all, and which preferably is always faded and old, though in town you dress inconspicuously, because Alfred says, “I don’t want any of you looking like some man from the wild!” Most of all, it’s important to keep clean and to wear nice clothes, most of the younger boys refusing to wear long pants and shirts with ties because they feel foolish in them. The Wanderers have no special insignia, or at least Alfred’s pack does not, since they have all decided that a real Wanderer should be recognizable on the inside and the outside, but not by insignia, which can easily be just superficial. The only shared piece of clothing is the smock, each member of the pack owning at least two, a good one and an everyday one, the difference being that one is new and the other old, the old one used mainly for hiking, as well as the trip to the camp, but for festive occasions and the campfire the new one is used, while for the most part you run around camp in shorts and bare feet when the weather allows.