In 1986 as part of “Light in the dark” Christmas action, which was the largest undertaking of such kind, each giver could get small flame brought from Jesus Christ’s birthplace – Vifliem – symbolizing peace, as a sign of gratitude for their help to the church. This undertaking was initiated by a radio broadcasting company in Linz, Austria. This Fire of Peace was a reminder that some day God will return thanks to all who are with him. By passing the fire, people delivered good and happy news that little Jesus had been born. The Fire of Peace was lit by a little Austrian boy in Vifliem and brought to Austria under careful supervision of many Austrian special services. Due to railway connection, the fire was delivered to all towns on December 24.

The beginning of fire spreading by scouts all over the world  
One Christmas night in 1988, a lame elderly woman knocked on Bertl Grunwald’s – an Austrian scout in Vienna – door. Their acquaintance was no more than odd chats in the passageway, saying “hello” when accidentally running over each other or casual conversations. This is why that visit was so unusual. “You must be a scout. I’ve just come back from the train station where I got Vifliem Fire of Peace and thought this can be of great significance to you, too. I can share it with you, if you like”. And of course glad he was. A year passed, last year’s Christmas encounter was forgotten… At a third Vienna unit scout group meeting plans for the approaching Christmas holidays were discussed. At that time O. Posch and B.Grunwald were elderly leaders of the group. They suggested undertaking spreading Vifliem Fire of Peace by introducing the tradition in the coming Christmas holidays. Boys eagerly accepted and supported the idea. Even that year, over 70 scouts from Vienna and all over Austria joined the action. At the beginning Vienna scouts were responsible for organization, but later central scout leadership overtook the responsibility.

Bertl Grunwald writes:
 
1989
Good that we remembered scout groups from Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary acting in Vienna. 1989 was a momentous year for Europe. Massive uprising took place in Eastern Europe. We could not afford not to take the most advantage of such pennies of heavens. So, we managed to pass the Fire to our friends in Prague, Krakow and Budapest. Hungarian scouts took the Fire of Peace to Romania and the Fire appeared atop the invincible Temesvar!!! Before that all kinds of religion showing and, even more, membership in youth and non-government organizations were forbidden in all communist countries. After the uprising 100,000 of young men and women started renewing numerous youth organizations on the territory of former USSR.

1990
The Fire spreads all over Hungary. Scouts from Bratislava organize spreading of the Vifliem Fire using specially decorated train and visit 72! Towns all over the country. One scout from Bratislava recalls: “…you could hear Christmas carols everywhere… it was amazing to see that people finally could again feel Christian humanity and revive spiritually after 40 years of bondage”. In Poland the Fire came to Krakow, Katowice, and Wroclaw and made its way to Warsaw. In Czech Republic one Czech scout delivered the Fire to Prague by train.

1991
Slovenian scouts from Ljubljana passed the Vifliem Fire of peace to scouts from Crete. Hungarian scouts passed the Fire to 32 scout centers in Romania. A scout group in Germany (Passau) joined the action.

1992
Scouts from Innsbruck spread the Fire to North Tyrol, from where it went to South Tyrol. Scouts from Vienna pass the fire to their counterparts in Bologna, who take the Fire to Valencia. Slovenian scouts manage to deliver the Fire to Split, Mastaru and finally to Sarajevo. When reaching Warsaw, the Fire was spread all over Poland. Scouts (it is not known to which group these Ukrainian scouts belonged, perhaps they were members of Plast – remark) from Kyiv and Odessa join the Fire relay!

1993
Thanks to Bertl Grunwald after 40-hour’s challenge the Vifliem Fire arrives to Moscow. From there, the Fire travels to Smolensk and Kostroma. Russian scouts manage to spread the Fire to Vladivostok. Thanks to Budapest scouts, Ukrainian Transcarpathia, part of Serbia and Belgrade also receive the Fire. Scouts from Crete manage to spread Vifliem Fire all over the country. For the first time, The Fire comes to Liechtenstein (Zurich). Quite suddenly, scouts from Luxemburg joined fire relay. From Poland the Vifliem Fire spread to Latvia and Lithuania. The Fire spreads all over Italy (Parma, Trieste). Scouts from Vienna bring the Fire to Hamburg, Passau, Kassel and Hanover (Germany).

1995
Thanks to senior scouts from Germany, the Fire gets to Sweden and from there, with the help of scouts from Luxemburg, to Netherlands and France. “Peace Talk” between scout delegations takes place in Vienna. As a result “Resolution on the Vifliem Fire of Peace” was enacted.

1996
Scouts from Hungary transport the Fire to Bucharest. Romanian scouts from Iaza travel to Vienna to take the Fire over from Austrian scouts. Italy continues spreading the Fire all over the country – Naples, Rome, Milan, Valencia. The Fire comes to Geneva. Thanks to German scouts the Fire arrives to Essen, Dortmund, Bremen and Hamburg. The Fire is brought to the most distant places in Denmark and Norway, in Great Britain – York, Cornwall. Edwin Grunberg traveled on his old truck in 30 degrees below zero temperature through Minsk, Brest, Smolensk and all the way to Moscow, than to Nizhniy Novgorod. Russian scouts spread the Fire to the towns as far as 1200km northwest of Moscow, located beyond the North Pole!!!

1997
From England the Fire spreads to Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Through Germany, as many times before, it went to Denmark, Sweden and Belgium and from there to Netherlands. Special appraises should go to a Romanian scout who brought the Fire to every corner of the country, and Grunwald who traveled thousands of miles to bring the Fire to Russia.

1998
It was tenth Fire handover; mass media widely covered the action. Pictures, reports and articles had been published. Top level Vifliem Fire Handover procedure had been organized in Germany – German scouts brought the Fire to 381 towns! In Italy 4 scout organizations divided country territory each should have covered and delivered the Fire to every place all over the country. For the first time, The Vifliem Fire was delivered to orphanages in North Tyrol. Similar actions had been held in Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Crete, Poland, Luxemburg and Liechtenstein. The Fire continued its way in Denmark, Sweden, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania and crossed North Pole twice (in Sweden and Finland). Then it moved to England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, Czech Republic, Norway, Belgium and Romania. In the end, due to nice scout tradition, the Vifliem Fire was delivered to 22 European countries.

1999
High target was set – Barcelona and Palermo. A delegation of 5 Spanish scouts set for Vienna to bring the Fire to Spain. Italian delegation, “knowing the way to Vienna” for many years, under Fabiano Marzzarello guidance organized spreading of the Fire not only in Italy, but also to people of Sicily. For the first time Belgian scouts came to Vienna. Spreading of the Vifliem Fire by German scouts deserves special attention. That year was announced “All Saints Year”, and pfadfinders (German scouts) agreed with Austrian scouts that the Fire from Vifliem would be delivered not to Vienna as usually, but to Frankfurt. Due to well-arranged cooperation between church of Germany and elderly and senior leaders of Plast, the Vifliem Fire was taken to the farthest corners of Germany. Over 10,000 pfadfinders brought the Fire to over 100,000 families and households. But it’s impossible to deliver that joy and spiritual upheaval which overwhelmed everyone during this action. Think only of those glad smiles, grateful view, sincere “thank you”, kind welcome, super-humane desire and striving to bring the Fire to every home! This upheaval can be described by this simple and at the same time profound words: “…to bring peace and rest to good-will people all over the World… on behalf of all boy and girl scouts. Bertl Grunwald, Vienna, Austria.”

2001
That year at International Catholic Scout unions of Europe and Middle East Convention, which took place in Warsaw, it was decided to expand the territory where to bring Vifliem Fire of peace. That year it was planned to take the Fire to places, where people hadn’t known what the Vifliem Fire of Peace was and did not have a chance to get it. Ultimate goal of the 2001 Fire Handover Action was to transport the Fire by German, English and American scout delegations from Vienna through Paris, London and finally by a Norwegian airplane to Mane and New York. Final was handing over the Vifliem Fire of Peace to Scottish scouts represented by Alfred Trovika and Michael Courtner. The next new and pretty path lay to Greenland (thanks to Swedish scouts), Sardinia (Italian scouts) and Iceland (Danish scouts).

2002
It was impossible for Austrian scouts to deliver the Vifliem Fire of Peace directly from Vifliem because of martial law in the country. An Arab teenager got the fire from Vifliem, secretly passed it to some Jewish children who brought the Fire to Vienna by plane. In 2002 similar complications repeated. Just before the trip to Vifliem, it was reported about terrorist attack with 16 people killed. In spite of this, a group of pilgrims who set off for Jerusalem and Vifliemv was formed. The snap of the voyage was inviting Tel-Aviv burgomaster, organizing numerous discussions with representatives of different religions and organizations who cooperate on making peaceful living of Jerusalem and Israel. 2002 also saw third Fire handover to the USA. This time for free, thanks to Belgian airline company that provided the flight. Transportation of the Fire from Vienna to Brussels was organized by “Scouts of America” representatives in Germany together with Belgian boy- and girl-scouts. It was quite unexpected to see strong desire of Austrian scouts to travel to US to pass the Fire of peace to US boy scouts.  Kurt Bergman, “Light in the dark” action ideologist, and Anthon Faber were also present at this handover. Counterparts in the USA accepted this initiative with understanding. Twice already they received the Fire from Austrian scouts: first time at JFK International airport and second time at St. Patrick Church in New York.

2003
Scouts celebrate 15 anniversary of the action of Vifliem Fire of peace spreading. That year the Fire was delivered to the following countries: Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Germany, England, France, Ireland, Iceland, Isle of Crete, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Sweden, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary, USA! The action began with the Service in Stefankirche in Vienna where over 1000 scouts from 10 countries were present. That year it became possible to invite a group of Palestinian boys and a girl, which was a sign of union of scouts of the world. That year the Fire was also delivered to Malta and Gibraltar. It was extremely difficult for Russian scouts from Nizhniy Novgorod to transport the Fire. In spite of snow and ice, they received the Fire in Belarus, covering 420km.

2004
Another delivery of the Fire to US thanks to Dr. Tomas Ertgalter. That year another Service in the cathedral in Vienna took place, where many scouts from many European countries were present. A girl scout from Africa came to this Service! German scouts, who came to Vienna in a large amount, volunteered to bring the Fire for International Youth Day in Cologne, to which the Pope was expected. Sandor Hayer was specially invited to visit the action in Vienna. Sandor, being one of the first distributors of the Vifliem Fire, in the most severe weather had been delivering the Fire to Hungarian minorities in Romania, was the first to bring the Fire to Bucharest, covering over 500km. German scouts were invited to participate in the celebration of the International Youth Day at Marienplatz in Cologne where newly elected Pope Benedict XVI was present. Everyone was impressed watching scouts hand the Vifliem Fire of peace over to the Pope.

Source of information: Austrian scouts