Austria’s former Chief Scout Walter Weissenstein Gone Home

The European Scout Region joins members of the Pfadfinder und Pfadfinderinnen Österreichs and Scouts around the world in remembering Austria’s former Chief Scout Walter Weissenstein who has Gone Home earlier this month in his 97th year.

Walter had joined the Scout Movement in his native Vienna in the 1930s and was able to safeguard his Group’s logbook throughout the occupation and Second World War. In 1946 he helped restart Scouting in Tirol and later joined the national board of Pfadfinder Österreichs, the then National Scout Organization in Austria. As its national secretary, Walter was part of the organising team of the 7th World Scout Jamboree hosted by his association in the 1951. From 1962 to 1968 he served as Chief Scout of Pfadfinder Österreichs.

Throughout his long life, Walter remained interested in the development of Scouting in Austria and around the world and was a regular and welcome guest at national jamborees and reunions.

When asked which message he would want to give today’s Scouts, Walter replied that they “should always live the values of Scouting and act as free and empowered citizens,” and that they “should respect each other and help those who are in need in their community, in their country and abroad. That is what I tried doing throughout my life!”