Groß Ippener /Los Angeles
“Everything starts with a friendly invitation,” said Arnold Wiechmann, chairman and captain of the Ippener rifle club, at the general assembly in January 2019 – and read out an invitation. The “Phoenix Schützenvereinigung” from Anaheim (USA) wanted to celebrate its 50th anniversary – and asked if the people from Ippen would come too. “The euphoria was great, and many considered whether they could travel with us,” remembers spokeswoman Ilka Eichler. Nine club members between the ages of 28 and 68 are now putting this plan into practice.
Background: In Anaheim, a district of Los Angeles, there is a “German Club”. Its members are mostly immigrant Germans who want to maintain their customs abroad. Under the umbrella of this association there is, for example, a large carnival association, a choir, an Oktoberfest community – and also the rifle club, which carries out its shooting sport with air guns. Because shooting with other weapons would be too expensive from an insurance point of view. The chairman of the association: Heinz Wiechmann, Arnold Wiechmann’s brother who emigrated to America many years ago.
Fireworks every evening
The Ippen group flew together from Hamburg to Los Angeles via Amsterdam. The door-to-door journey takes 24 hours. The group was accommodated in a large rented house with a pool in the immediate vicinity of Disneyland. “If you stood in front of the house, you could see the final fireworks of the amusement park parade every evening,” it said.
In the house you fed together and could sit together nicely. This house is about 20 minutes drive from the clubhouse of the welcoming club. To be mobile, two large SUVs were rented.
The anniversary celebration lasted three days. The food was “typically German”: suckling pig or bockwurst with potato salad. Other clubs that took part with delegations were: Schützenverein Buschhausen from near Osterholz-Scharmbeck, American clubs from San Diego and San José. The American clubs visit each other annually.
The royal shooting had already taken place a few weeks before the festival – because the new king had to take care of the organization of the festivities. As luck would have it, the chairman became king: Heinz Wiechmann.
Since he could hardly crown himself, Arnold Wiechmann, chairman of Ippen, was asked during the course of the celebration to crown his brother, i.e. to put the chain on his shoulders. This took place on Saturday, the main day.
The festivities began on Friday with brass band music, suckling pig and “in civilian clothes” (which was certainly more pleasant when the temperature was around 30 degrees), as well as the obligatory speeches and the presentation of gifts.
On Sunday, Maike Kieselhorst, Carsten Schröder and Thomas Lange took part in the shooting for the shooting club Ippener. They took second place out of seven teams. Carsten Schröder was the best of the day and received an honorary plate. There was also a “participation pennant” for the domestic flag.
Large coat of arms printed
Since the original flag of the Ippener rifle club was not to travel so long and the new king would have to hang up a flag with his homeland symbol in the clubhouse by next year at the latest, it made sense for Heinz Wiechmann to have a large Ippener coat of arms printed now , which the German delegation was able to carry in front of them when they marched in on Saturday.
In addition to the festivities, the travelers also took the opportunity to explore the area. Hollywood couldn’t be left out. Five members of the group had to start their return journey after only one week, four stayed there for another week.
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