The international history of association " Friends of Nature "

The association " The friends of nature" was born in Austria in 1895. In those years the working class wasn't entitled to holidays (on the other hand they had very few rights) The friends of nature, a small association of workers invented an unusual way to enjoy holidays. They built wooden houses generally in secluded places in the woods or on the mountains to give hospitality to friends of nature and to their relatives in their free time. With this feeling the first groups Naturfreunde met and organized, formerly in German countries later in Swizerland, France, Holland and successively in many other European countries.

The popular and amateur origin of the first groups didn't prevent the association from growing following the philosophy of the protection of environment, of respect and equality with all people of the world and of knowledge of nature, in the respect of the initial motivation about the defense of the working class.

Nowadays, the association, whose international head office is in Vienna, its country of origin, is made up of 32 national worldwide federations. The association has its seat in the european council. The various national federations and the sections operating in different territories, have distinguished themselves mainly for the protection of the environment. From time to time they have done their best to defend a forest, a beach, all men, from permanent attacks of a society based on profit and to give space to friendship and conviviality. There are about 1300 holiday resorts of the friends of nature all over the world, where all the members apply the principles of our philosophy. Our centers, which are not hotels or residentiel hotels, are situated on the mountains , next to lakes or by the sea, close to nature, very rarely next to urban areas.

The history of the friends of nature can be concentrated in three important periods.
The first, from 1895 to the end of the second world war, the second from 1945 to 1970, and the third from 1970 to nowadays.

The first period is caraterized by the resistance of the working class to the middle class and to capitalism and, later, to Nazi-fascism. The friends of nature became a strong rampart against Nazism, especially in German speaking countries.

In the second period, the association lived a propitious period and extended largely all over Europe, restrained aoly by the iron curtain on the last. Our centers inereased and thanks to some countries as Austria, France, Germany, long voyages to discover new horizons took place and long walk on the mountains and excursions of different kinds became very popular.

The third period is characterized by the opposition of the friends of nature to the deterioration of the environment, due to a great inereazing urbanization to the aggressiveness of a society that's losing the true values of life. In this background we fought to produce alternatives sources of clean energy, the regulated use of water, the reforestation, the energy saving, the recycling, the effort to take knowledge of earth, universe and great fragility of environmental balance.

The friends of nature have finally found the syntheses of their history and philosophy, regaining possession of foundamental values, as green tourism, self menagement and no profit. The great result of fights, experiences and our history is the following:

The self menagement of our centres, the active partecipation of our members to the various activities of the association, the refusal to spend our holidays and life in aseptic places, the will to give a different dimension to our life, giving priority to friendships and mutual respect that are the basis of democracy.

In our sections there are numerous groups that organize workshops, conferences and debates relating to great themes of culture, environment, food and biodymamics.

Every three years all the federations, represented by their presidents, secretaries and national representatives take part to the international congres. In this meeting the international representatives are elected and new themes and subjects are suggested.

Although there are some resistances to more modern and futurist conception of our organization, our aim is to give a contribution to the maitenance of true values and true freedom, to a political and research ethics.

The GIAN, italian federation of the friends of nature, was born in Cecina in 1978.
On 28-29 february 2004 , the GIAN celebrates the 25° anniversary of its foundation.
The association is international, with no political links.

Luciano Busdraghi
Segretario nazionale G.I.A.N.