Vindobona Hash House Harriers History Please note that this history is still "work in progress"
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The Hash House Harriers had its humble beginnings in 1938 with an Englishman named Albert Stephen Ignatius Gispert, in what is now Malaysia. Having a fondness for the "paper chase," he gathered together a group of expatriates - including Cecil Lee, "Horse" Thomson and "Torch" Bennet - to form a group in Kuala Lumpur that would later become a worldwide legacy. The fraternity received its name from the Selangor Club Chambers, which due to its lacklustre food was commonly referred to as the "Hash House."

Almost a dozen runs took place, although attendance could sometimes be counted on one hand. The sport was cut short during World War II, but then re-established when peace returned. It was some time before the international phenomena we are familiar with today began spreading around the world. A hash was formed in 1947 in Bordighera, Italy (near Milan) by some former members of the original Hash House Harriers. It ceased operations for many years but was reborn in 1984 and is now quite alive and well as the Royal Milan and Bordighera HHH.

It wasn't until 1962 that the next official group was formed in Singapore. The Singapore HHH was slowly followed by others until by the 1,500th postwar run in 1973, there were 35 known hashes around the world This figure climbed into the hundreds by the 1980's and there are now well over 1,300 active hashes.

The main difference between hash groups is their emphasis on the sporting versus social aspects of hashing. Some choose to maintain the tradition of a live hare hash chasing runners while they lay a trail after being given a few minutes head start. They thrill in the hunt the occasional catch and the notion that there is a real pursuit in progress during the event.

Other hashes have shunned the competitive nature of the live hare hashes, pre-laying the trail with a number of marks designed to keep the pack together. These gathering checks and other delaying marks allow the hashers of the dead hare hashes to sing and make merry from point to point, emphasizing the social aspects of the sport.

Regardless the event, hashing knows no age boundaries, with family hashes and children's hashes, as well as members from all ages, with hashers in their 70's or even older. So there's no reason to not join. As one popular Hash House Harriers' motto goes: "If you've half a mind to join the hash, that's all you need!" More History (ZiPpY's Press Kit)
 

The first run of the VH3 was set by Hans Saxinger (Australian Embassy) and Lan Yarbrough (US Embassy). Hans came to us from the Hong Kong Hash and Lan ran with the Carthage Hash in Tunis, Tunisia. They distributed a Flier around the Embassies and other places to generate interest and announce the first Hash in Vienna.

The First Re-Hash was written by the On-On Sec Andrew Smith (UK). The stats for the first year have been lost, but here is a Stats Page from May 1983, that includes all those that ran in the first year.

Those that ran in the first year were allowed to buy a red T-shirt, provided by Beanman, so long as they had completed 5 runs.

Extract from the First Re-Hash :- There was an Irish terrorist who was sent out on his first job. He was told to blow up a government car ...... He burned his lips on the exhaust pipe!
(This just goes to show that Hash Trash has not improved in the all the years of VH3).

The run itself was laid by Tom Brennan, Munk and Danny. Tom Brennan (BeanMan) arranged a ride around Vienna in a Tram. It was quite amazing to see the look on everyone's face when a Tram arrived at the Opera with VH3 on the front. On our tour round the Ring, we started to run out of beer. Fortunately we were just passing the Hash Beer wagon (a.k.a. JR's Lancia) and were able to stop the tram and pick up more supplies.

Hash Trash: Did you hear about the Irish wolf hound sitting by the fire and gnawing a bone - when he go up he discovered he only had three legs left!
 

The Hares were Tom Beanman, Andrew Smith, Gertie and Lan Yarborough. This was the first run attended by Hashers from out of town. There were 27 Hashers from Budapest, which boosted the number on the run to around 100.

Hash Trash: You know its going to be a bad day when :-

You put your bra on backwards and it fits better, You want to put on the clothes you wore home from the party and you can't find them, The woman you've been seeing on the side starts to look like you wife, Your twin sister forgets your birthday.
 

The Hares were Chris Burton, Tom Brennan and Mark O'Connell.

This was the run where it snowed and we were introduced to tobogganing with black plastic sacks. After the run was the first Austrian Open Russian Omelette Championship! In the evening Munk did a marvelous rendition of Barnacle Bill the Sailor. Believe it or not, JR did the write-up of this run!
 

The Hares were Munk, Richard Cook and Mark O'Connell.

It was absolutely freezing at the end of May (just like this year!), and a bottle of bourbon was dealt with before the run started! The run lasted about 2 1/2 hours and was followed by a brief On-On in the car park. Visitors came from UK, Prague, Belgrade, Budapest and Zagreb. We were also joined by the famous Robbie McLikker from New Zealand, who was doing a world tour of Hashes. Most of the drinking that day was done in the Gasthaus down the road, as the car park was too cold. Yumma, from Zagreb, got lost and arrived just as we were about to send out the search parties. There was an interesting competition in the evening involving various backsides being displayed.
 

The Hares were Munk, Richard and Rob.

Hashers came from Prague, Budapest and Zagreb. To commemorate this run some horrible green and yellow shorts were produced, but they arrived 6 months after the run! The memorable part of this weekend was run 251, which started from the traditional place, Heldenplatz. This run was set by Christian Haas and Helmut Georgi. Everyone was split into teams and given a set of instructions which turned out to be a kind of treasure hunt around the 1st district of Vienna.
 

The hares were Danny Bridi, Rob and Martyn.

The Re-hash for this weekend was a magnificent effort, complete with photos of the main event and is well worth a re-read, for those of you who have not seen it, copies are available from JR the JM.
 

The Hares were Gaby, Wendy, Donna I and Franz (from Zagreb/Bangkok).

This run will be remembered for the number of people who did a Down-Down, almost everybody! and the number of people thrown in the pool. The party ended up sometime in the Manchester Club, with a game of 'Fuzzy Duck'. For the next week, John Morris was trying to remember where he left his car.
 

The hares were Munk, Doug and Peter.

The weather was raining up until the run, but miraculously the rain stopped and the sun came out just before the run started. There were visitors from the UK, Strasbourg, Prague, Budapest, Belgrade and Zagreb. Around 75 Hashers set off on this marathon which lasted 2 1/2 hours for the slow runners and walkers. The Gasthaus were not impressed when we ran through their front garden and then after the run drank our own beer in their car park. Just to show that the run was not that difficult our own Hash Cash managed to walk it 5 months pregnant! Most of the visitors had to do Down-Downs and then the hares had to do an Australian Down-Down (standing on their heads).
 

According to the Original Announcement, the programme was as follows - Friday night, we met at the Golden Lion Pub and had a pub crawl around the Red Light district. The main run on Saturday was at Exelbergstrasse at the 1st car park. Party, Saturday evening was at the "Pirat" Rowing Club on the Alte Donau and the outfits worn by certain Hashers were quite amazing, see Photos of Party (Adults Only!) and Photos by CD of Saturday Party. Sunday morning Hangover run in the Prater starting from the Mexican Restaurant (Estancia Santa Cruz) in the Hauptallee.
 

This run was John "Glo-Balls" Russell's 500th run. Re-Hash of Glo-Balls 500th Run (with photos)
 

V4+1 Original Announcement

The hares were Peter "No Mercy Master-Baitor" Venton and Peter "Gawd Almighty Cute" Howe

There were visitors from Basel, Bratislava, Milan, Prague, Tasmania and Zagreb. The run was a torture, taking over 3 hours to run from Kahlenberg to Haschberg and back, with several circuits around Weidling. V4+1 Re-Hash

Run Number 744 - Heldenplatz - 7 September 1997 - V4+1 Run

The hare was Ralph "King Ralph" Weber

This was the traditional hangover run in the city centre and it was very pleasant after the torture of Saturday. Many songs were sung, during and after the run, and many down-downs were performed to the amazement and for the entertainment of the tourists. #744 Re-Hash
 

Bill & Monica's Virgin Run - #777 Original Announcement

The hares were Karl "Marie Tamponette" Siegl and Tom "Rowdy Tom" Volkmer. #777 Re-Hash

Run Number 778 - Karlsplatz - 26 April 1998

The Hangover Run

The hares were Karl "Marie Tamponette" Siegl, Arthur Henry "Munk" Munkenbeck III and Hakan "Barrcuda" Ozcelik. #778 Re-Hash
 

As the Austrians had decided to include a certain party with dubious principles in their coalition government, they have been excluded from many meetings of the EU, hence the Europariah title of this weekend. Follow this link for the Original Announcement for this weekend.  Here is a Re-Hash for the weekend.

This was the year of BSE (Mad Cow's Disease) in the UK, so the theme of the weekend was the Mad Cow. Follow this link for the Original Announcement and a List of Hashers that participated. Here is the Re-Hash for the weekend.

For the 20th Anniversary run, we went away to Langschlag in the Waldviertel. Follow this link for the Original Announcement and a List of Hashers that participated. The main run on Saturday was followed by a ride on the narrow gauge railway (Waldviertelbahn). Here is the Re-Hash for the weekend.

1st Austrian Nash Hash - 17 to 19 June 2005 - Payerbach, Austria

As the Graz Hash was founded in August 2004, it was decided to hold the First Austrian Nash Hash (with VH3 and GH3 as the hosts). Follow these links for the Original Announcement and the List of Hashers that attended this event. On the Saturday, we took the train from Payerbach up to Semmering, and then ran down the mountain part-way for a lunch break, before getting on the train again for the ride back to Payerbach. The circle was held just across the river from the main hotel and was followed by the fording of the river by most of the participants, led by our host and owner of the hotel. Here are some collections of photos from Glo-Balls (actually taken by Private Dancer and Yankee Dong from Prague HHH) and our Hash Flash (My Pint of View).

Moonzart Hash (75th Full Moon Run) - 8 to 10 September 2006 - Soboth, Austria

In 2006, we decided to commemorate 75 runs by the Vienna Full Moon Hash Harriers. We went down to the border between Austria and Slovenia to a small place called Soboth in Styria. Follow these links for the Original Announcement and the List of Hashers that attended the event. Photos from our Hash Flash (My Pint of View) are at This Location. This was a smallish event which was well-organized by the Kun't Dynasty.

On the same day (25 April), we met at the same location (Grüß-di-a-Gottwirt) as the first run in 1982. Only one Hash (Red Jumper, a.k.a. Andrew Smith) made it to both runs.  Beanman (a.k.a. Tom Brennan) sent his apologies for missing this run (unfortunately he was in Manila in the Philippines). Photos of this run taken by our Hash Flash (My Pint of View) may be found at This Location and a re-hash written by Marie Tamponette at This Location.

On the weekend of 22 to 24 June, around 100 Hashers from Vienna and many other places made their way to a small village (Horitschon) in southern Burgenland. Follow these links for the Original Announcement and List of Hashers that attended this event.. This weekend was preceded by a warm-up run on the Thursday evening and followed by a normal run in Vienna (actually in Guntramsdorf). On the Saturday, we took minibuses out to the start and then spent a short time running followed by a rather longer time on the railway trolleys which brought us back to Horitschon. The main event of the Saturday run was the singing of the "Good Ship Venus", on a bandstand in the main square of Oberpullendorf, much to the amazement of the locals. This was 5 runs in 5 days for some Hashers in good condition (e.g. Stormin' Norman and Glo-Balls). Many photos were taken over the weekend, including collections from our Hash Flash (My Pint of View) and Tickly Tart.

The Red Dress Run has been held in Vienna for several years and we now have a special page to document the various re-hashes and photos taken at these runs.

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