St Hubertus Jager Ball, 7 Mar 2026: If there is one event of the year that we attend because of, and not in spite of the food, it has to be the annual Hunters Ball in Des Plaines. Not only is the food great but with nearly 400 attendees, you are bound to run into a lot of friends, I know we certainly do. Two of our very favorite people, Below.
Rheinischer Verein Maskenball, 14 Feb 2026: Karneval kicks off annually every November 11th, and the BSV was there to celebrate, along with Chicago’s oldest Mardi Gras Society, the Rheinischer Verein-Chicago, (Scroll down for some pics). However, the height of the ‘Fifth Season’ is inarguably Maskenball, which takes place each year the Saturday before Ash Wednesday. This year Maskenball took place at the beautiful Marunde Ball Room at DANK Haus, and the BSV-Chicago was there in force, and in a a new uniform.
(L) Dahra (M) Eric and (R) The whole hive take a break from the action
The King and Queen Shoot for 2026 was held 11 February and was hugely successful as we all had a terrific time. The competition began around 8:00 and finished at 12:30, although the party didn’t end then either. For those of you unfamiliar with this fantastic club tradition, we shoot annually to determine who will be the King and Queen for the following year. There are also awards given out to those who manage to sever one of the two claws or two wings that are then awarded in the Spring at our meeting in uniform.
We begin by randomly selecting our shooting order and then taking turns, one after the other to shoot off the Eagles right wing, before shooting for the left one, followed by the left talon and then finally the right talon, in that order. Interestingly also is the fact that traditionally the new Eagle is painted by the current King as one of the last official acts of his reign. In this case, Matt Hoppe did an amazing job of preparing unser Adler dieses Jahr.
Although for various reasons, not all of the assembled members elected to participate in the shoot itself, we still had a nice sized group of about 27 to compete against, as the roster above demonstrates.
A couple of those who participated, (Below)
The winners, Ann Pausha-right wing at 8:44, Anne Mickey-left wing at 9:00, Melissa Fuller-left talon at 9:52 and Mike Zink-right talon at 10:02 Congratulations to all of our winners. Before continuing on and determining our new King and Queen elect, the club took a short break to refuel, thank you to everyone who brought food for us to enjoy. Ann Pausha is a repeat winner having shot the Lt Wing last year, Double Trouble
After the pause we reconvene, and those members who meet the minimum qualifications and who have the ability and inclination to serve as one of the Royal pair for the next year begin to take turns, the girls in shooting off the tail, and the boys to sever the head.
The reverse side of both the head, and tail from this year’s competition. The tail proved to be particularly stubborn this year, keeping us in suspense in determining who our new Queen elect would be until nearly half past midnight, but in the end John Fuller and Susanne Mickey emerged as the Royal Paar for 2026
Beyond our normal weekly get togethers, January featured our first big club function of 2026 hosting the DANK’s Auction Winner. While we are always pleased to participate in these great events, it takes a lot of help to do so safely, the BSV’s number one goal, and to ensure our that hosts have fun and we hope also learn something along the way. Below are a few additional photo’s from the 2026 function.
The final event of 2025 was our annual Christmas Party and we were lucky to have about 30 members come together and toast the season. Everyone got in on the action including Kris Kringle himself. Merry Christmas and a joyous 2026 to all!
Although 11/11 officially kicks off the start of Karneval every year, in 2025 the RV got the party started on November 8th, and we were there, along with some great friends of the club. The BSV usually sendsa large contingent to Maskenball, (14 Feb 2026) but it was nice coming to the kickoff event to the fifth season. Here are a few pics
Speaking of entertaining, the busiest band in the world, our very own Erich Freibergers’ Paloma, played the Karneval kickoff. To see more about Paloma and their storied history click here, for their FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/germanmusic For booking information you can reach Erich here: accordion13@comcast.net or https://thepalomaband.com/
October 18th, 2025 we sent a team down to St Louis to represent the BSV at their annual St Hubertus competition. As always, a big thank you to those members who made the trip down. Our club away trips are always a lot of fun, and the club does its best to help compensate members financially for their expenses, so if you are interested, consider joining us in 2026.
Open House Chicago 2025, October 18-19. Our eighth year in a row helping DANK greet hundreds of visitors to our home and showing off what we do. Another example of how active the club is, and how much we have become involved in our community.
The fabulous Warren Perlstein documented this year’s Open House photographically and in addition to lots of pics from the entire event, there are a bunch of BSV-Chicago images as well. Click the link to view them all and thank you once again Warren!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/warrenp/albums/72177720329766217/with/54865079981
October 5th at St Benedicts. Just a couple of more pics for your enjoyment (Below).
Can you find Sabina’s mother (Rt)? We were thrilled to meet her and have a safe flight home!
On October 4th the German American Police Association celebrated their 50th anniversary with an Octoberfest party at the Elmcrest in Elmwood Park, Illinois. Reigning BSV King Matt Hoppe, BSV President, and wife Mr and Mrs John Fuller, as well as the BSV Schiesswart, and his bride, Gale and Nancy Fabisch and BSV member Dagmar Freiberger all were in attendance. Notably, BSV member Erich Freiberger, and his band Paloma provided their usual level of excellent entertainment. Pic Below.
This year, as we do every year we look forward to the beginning of September and with it the annual von Steuben Parade. 2025 proved to be yet another successful year with perfect weather, food and drink. Thank you to the everyone who came out and to Matt for providing the keg, Monte for his cooking talents and Jason for providing us with the grill. Particular thanks to Dahra and Melissa who dressed the float, and to all of you members who helped put it all together. Below are a few photos-enjoy
BSV-Chicago Annual Karl Frentz Memorial Picnic, August 2025. To many friends to thank here for pulling the event together, but you know who you are. Here are a couple of pics.
Attention! An important safety notice from the BSV-Chicago and the NTSB. When transporting loved ones, and precious cargo, always make sure the little ones are safely seat belted in. Tragedy was barely avoided at this year’s picnic; please don’t let this happen to your family.
2nd Vice President Gale enjoys a good laugh at the 2025 BSV-Chicago picnic. The club would like to recognize all of Gale’s hard work during the year with a hearty Thank You.
Milwaukee German Fest, July 2025: The BSV joins with their Schuetzengeschwister from across the Midwest to celebrate the Schuetzen tradition at Milwaukee’s annual Folks Festival. In treue Bruderschaft-the Midwest Schuetzenbund
Hannover 2025-the world’s largest Schuetzenfestival takes place here every July. This year we had two different members attend the fest, and as promised, we have started to add some of their photo’s, with more coming. Enjoy!
No trip to Germany is complete without diving into the cuisine and Hannover 2025 was no exception. Matt sent us some great pics, truly we had no idea he was such a gourmand, for you to enjoy.
It is nice to see the BSV King’s Travel Chain putting on some miles; Mit eine Flasche of Tannenzaepfle-lecker! (Above). Marching photo’s and video from Hannover (Below).
To see a video of the entire Schuetzenausmarsch, which was broadcast live in Germany, click the link below, and to see Matt and Brittany marching with Hannover Bothfeld, start the video before the 9:40 minute mark until just after the 10:00 minute mark. You guys both look great! https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/doku-und-reportage/schuetzenausmarsch-in-hannover/ndr/Y3JpZDovL25kci5kZS9wcm9wbGFuXzE5NjM3NTU1MV9nYW56ZVNlbmR1bmc
If you would like to learn more about our friends from Bothfeld, click here: https://sg-bothfeld.de/
Fortunately, it wasn’t all work for the BSV-Chicago representatives as they were able to find a little time to elevate themselves with careful thought and introspection which was fortunately captured here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM5VgI2PdR4
As most of you know, a conflict rages in Germany that is as acrimonious as Bears-Packers, or Yankees-Red Sox. While attending the Schuetzenfest this year, BSV correspondent Matt Hoppe attempted to discover which of these two is the best. We are afraid to ask him, but you can…
Needless to say, making friends at the Schuetzenfest in Hannover is as commonplace as the Gemutlichkeit is great. Here Brittany poses with a few friends in 2025
If you know him then you know that King Matt is no shrinking violet either, here he is making new friends for the BSV-Chicago.
This June we really enjoyed attending the Forest Park Festival where both of our favorite bands, Paloma, and Pieptone performed. BSV-Club Member, John McLaughlin was singled out by RV Prinz Art for his contributions to the German-American Community and was bestowed an Orden by the Prinz in recognition of same. Congratulations to John and to all of the BSV members who has been so honored. Below
True Dedication, below. Members meet before the June ’25 meeting in uniform to discuss the important topics they would like to see added to the agenda. Thanks for the dedication and hard work guys.
2025 Maifest begins…Above and no, you are not seeing double, the two Hoppe boys are bookending two morons. Good times and thanks everyone.
A few more pictures from the 2025 King and Queen Ball, enjoy.
Every year in preparation for our annual ball, we paint and prep the range, but in 2025 we went a step further and physically updated it to accommodate the ‘Orion’ electronic scoring system. This would not have been possible without the essential help of John Mickey who deserves all the credit for this transformation. Thanks, John
For those interested in learning more about what the Orion system actually is and does, just click this link: https://www.scopos.tech/orion
2024 Karl Frentz Memorial Picnic, 8 BSV-Chicago Queens assembled together at one time. Can you name them all?
Maifest 2024 is over and once again the BSV distinguished themselves through their hard work over the five days. More than 30 of our members participated, all the while sending a team to shoot in Cincinnati the same weekend. Gut gemacht alle!
The RV Prinz und Prinzessin, Mark & Lynda Hoppe, slumming at the 2024 Maifest
For an interesting look back at the roots of the BSV and at a snapshot of America, at the end of the Cold War, click on this link. http://www.coldwarhistory.us/Exhibitions/Articles/Brandenburger_Schutzenverein/brandenburger_schutzenverein.html
Meeting in Uniform, June 2023
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Brandenburger Schuetzen Verein Chicago 