Peace is not everything, but without peace everything is nothing!
The “Naturfreunde" (Friends of Nature) were founded in Vienna in 1895 to give workers and their families access to nature and to overcome cultural and social disadvantages through self-help. This means that the history of the Naturefriends movement is closely linked to the tradition of the workers' movement. The “Red Heslach” was shunned by the Nazis for a long time. In the 1920s and early 1930s, in addition to the workers' parties, “the ‘Freya’ choral society, the Friends of Nature and the workers' gymnasts played a major political role” (Frieder Wurm, then chairman of the Heslach SPD district). In spite of the ban, persecution and war, the Heslach Naturefriends kept in touch with each other between 1933 and 1945. After being banned under the Nazi dictatorship, the Stuttgart-Heslach local group was founded in 1948. Today there are 20 local groups in the districts of Stuttgart with around 2500 members. There are numerous activities on offer for members depending on their interests, such as hiking, cycling, sport, gymnastics and culture. Besides such leisure activities, the Friends of Nature are involved in environmental protection and also intervene in current political debates, such as the discussion about Stuttgart 21 and the issue of right-wing radicalism.
The Friens of Nature in Stuttgart South also invented the “Red Socks Trail”. The almost 7 km long trail is designed as a supplement to the “Blaustrümpflerweg” and has numerous references to history, archaeology and the environment.