EGS - European community of historic guilds with a special mission
The EGS stands for friendship between peoples in Europe. As an association, the EGS is non-denominational. The EGS not only does justice to the European idea, but also creates structures for a united Christian Europe.
Today, almost 1 million shooting sisters and brothers and their families are united in around 2,800 brotherhoods, guilds and associations in the EGS. 15 organisations from 10 European countries (Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Austria, Poland, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Croatia) are represented and allied in the EGS.
In 1955, a working group consisting of representatives from shooting associations in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany was founded to form an association for historical shooting in Europe. Under the name of the working group ‘European Community of Historic Guilds’, the EGS was founded as a registered society (e.V.) with its headquarters in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
In 1975, the first European Kings‘ Shooting Competition took place in Aachen. The European Shooters’ Meeting (EST) takes place every three years. At these meetings of all EGS associations, the focus is not only on the competition for the European Kings’ title, but also on the shared experience of all shooters.
In 1989, even before Europe opened up to the East, associations from Poland joined the EGS.
In 1994, the new statutes established the new structure of the EGS. The Presidium of the EGS became the actual governing body, in which, alongside the Executive Presidium, representatives from five regions jointly manage the large European organisation.
It is thanks in part to the efforts of the EGS that shooting has been included in the list of national intangible cultural heritage (IKE) in several countries since 2013.
In 2007, the Association of Ukrainian Cossacks (Region 5) became the latest association to join the EGS.
In 2008, Karl von Habsburg succeeded his father, Dr Otto von Habsburg, and was invested as the new Grand Master / Patron in the Imperial Cathedral in Aachen.
In 2024, Albert Henri Prince of Merode is elected President of the EGS, succeeding his father, Charles Louis Prince of Merode, and takes up his post at the EST in Mondsee.
