HISTORY

The W.S.V.O.and its members

Desire of walking has a long tradition in our region and was attended to till the late 70ies in small groups or clubs. But the wish for closer contacts and a communal organization had already come up several times.

Eventually in 1978

some walkers from various clubs discussed the topic and after two or three meetings they established the V.D.G.S. as an independent governing body which is officially recognized and supported by the German-speaking Community. The complete denomination of this nonprofit organization is ‘Association of Popular Sports of the territory of German language in Belgium’.
Like the Flemish and the French-speaking popular sports associations the V.G.D.S. also delegates its representative to the Belgian Federation of Popular Sports.

Our objectives and our scope of duties

Clubs going in for one or more popular sporting activities such as hiking, cycling, swimming, Nordic walking or backcountry skiing are members of the W.S.V.O. They pursue neither political nor ideological goals.

Promoting regular sporting activity for everybody is of prime importance to this association. In order to meet these goals the W.S.V.O. assumes a lot of tasks for its affiliated clubs.

Our chairmen

The chairmanship was at first performed by Cottin Norbert and then by Lux Hermann each for some years. They were followed by Emonts-Gast Josef, who successfully ran the W.S.V.O. for 30 years.
Since March,2009 Mr Dannemark Emil and his administrative board have accepted responsibility for the future development of the W.S.V.O.

Our activities

In 1982
an information leaflet was published and handed out to the affiliated clubs; however this initiative was given up after shortly afterwards.

In 1984
the W.S.V.O. mapped out a 100-km route in East Belgium for the first time.
In those localities in the south of East Belgium where rambling clubs were resident facilities providing food and refreshment as well as checkpoints were established. The clubs from the north of our community took over the whole organization concerning starting and finishing line in St.Vith.
This march was also organised in the nine following years and more than 400 participants contributed to an extraordinary atmosphere on this 100-km trail. Unfortunately this great event had to be cancelled due to financial losses.

In 2020

On March 6, 2020 at the annual general assembly the name of the organisation „Volkssportverband des Gebietes deutscher Sprache in Belgien“ short V.G.D.S. was changed into „Wandersportverband Ostbelgien“ short W.S.V.O.