Why Pioniere Celebrate a Saint Who May Never Have Existed

Zwei Männer in Flecktarn und Gefechtshelm halten von hinten gesehen die Pionier Flagge, beide tragen das Pionier Shirt

Unit History · Pioniere

Why Pioniere Celebrate a Saint
Who May Never Have Existed

Every year on 4 December, Pioniere celebrate their patron saint. The Catholic Church removed her from its General Calendar in 1969 because her existence is not historically proven. The celebration goes on anyway, and there are reasons for that.

Pionier Bundle with shirt, flag and embroidered patch

→ To the Pionier Bundle

The Legend

Line drawing of a tower with battlements and a pointed roof

According to legend, Barbara is the daughter of a rich merchant in Nicomedia. Her father locks her in a tower so that she learns nothing of the world. She becomes a Christian anyway and has a third window put in, one for each person of the Trinity. When her father returns, he understands what that means.

Barbara flees, a rock opens and hides her, a shepherd betrays her. Her father carries out the sentence himself, with the sword. Shortly afterwards, lightning strikes him.

Panel from the Barbara altarpiece in Schwaigern: a man with a raised curved sword grips the kneeling Saint Barbara by the hair — Her father carries out the sentence himself, with the sword.Barbara altarpiece by Jerg Ratgeb, Stadtkirche Schwaigern (detail). Photo: Peter Schmelzle, CC BY-SA 3.0

What Is True

None of it is proven. The story was probably first written down in the seventh century, and several places at once claim to be the site of her martyrdom. That is why the Catholic Church removed her from the General Roman Calendar in 1969. She was not struck from the list of saints, and the Pioniere kept her in any case.

Why the Pioniere, of All People

The rock became the patronage of the miners. Underground, death comes out of the rock, without warning and faster than a man can react. That is exactly what Barbara is invoked against: the sudden death that leaves no time to prepare.

Mine gallery in the rock, lit warmly by a pit lamp — Underground, death comes out of the rock.

From mining, the Mineure came to the military, the men who could dig and blast, and they brought their patron saint with them. In 1810, on Scharnhorst's proposal, the Mineur and Pontonier companies were merged into the Pionierkorps. Barbara stayed. Anyone who works with explosives knows the danger she stands against.

That is why 4 December is no ordinary day in the troop. The Bundeswehr held its first Barbara celebration in 1956 in Idar-Oberstein. Anyone serving in a Pionier battalion today needs no calendar for the date.

Five Words for a Mission

AUT VIAM INVENIAM, AUT FACIAM. I shall find a way or make one.

The line is documented in Seneca, in the tragedy Hercules Furens, said of Hercules on his way out of the underworld. It is attributed to Hannibal as well, as his answer to the supposedly impossible crossing of the Alps. There is no ancient source for that, but the story persists.

Armoured bridge layer in pouring rain, a ground guide with raised arms beside it — Pioniere do not wait for a way, they build it.

Pionier Shirt in Sand worn, seen from behind: back print with Saint Barbara in a barbed-wire wreath and the motto Aut viam inveniam, aut faciam

For Pioniere it fits exactly. Breaching minefields, clearing rubble, building march routes and bridges: Pioniere do not wait for a way, they build it. The motto is not an old Pionier tradition. We chose it because it describes the job in five words, and that is why it sits at the bottom of the back of our Pionier Shirt.

Black Is Older Than the Branch

The branch colour has its history too. It is already in the Prussian regulations: the Ingenieurkorps, the engineer corps, has worn black since 1788, the Pontonierkorps since 1798, the Pioniere since 1808. In the song of the Pioniere, the black collar is called the collar of honour of the army.

What Came of It

Barbara, the motto and the black are all in the Pionier Drop. The Pioniere are the first branch in the Warfighter Collection and the first outside the infantry. Four items and a bundle: the shirt, the Pionier Flag, an embroidered patch with hook-and-loop backing and a premium lasercut patch in Flecktarn.

Embroidered Pionier patch showing Saint Barbara, lying on the chest print of the Pionier Shirt

→ Saint Barbara Pionier Patch Camouflaged combat helmet with the Pionier lasercut patch in Flecktarn, resting on the Pionier Flag

→ Premium Lasercut Patch

How It Is Made

The shirt runs on the Next Level NX3600 in Sand, 100% combed ring-spun cotton, regular fit. It runs true to size, so your usual size fits, and it comes in S to 2XL. It is printed by hand in water-based screen print: the ink sits in the fibre instead of lying on top as a film. No print-on-demand, no catalogue design, and the label in the neck is sewn in.

Close-up of the screen print on the Pionier Shirt: burgundy drops and black outline in the cotton fabric — The ink sits in the fibre instead of lying on top as a film.

Grey Predator Customs mailer with the Pionier Flag, both patches and the individually bagged shirt

Every shirt ships individually bagged, with a sticker, a hangtag and a card, all in a sturdy mailer. The packaging is praised in the reviews again and again. If you order the shirt as a gift for a Pionier, there is nothing left to wrap, and if the size does not fit after all, it can go back within 30 days. Shipping is free from 70 euros, and the bundle of shirt, flag and embroidered patch costs less than the three pieces separately.

For you or as a gift:
→ To the Pionier Bundle
→ To the Warfighter Collection
→ Pionier Shirt · German Combat Engineers
→ Pionier Flag
→ Saint Barbara Pionier Patch
→ Premium Lasercut Patch (120 pieces)

Predator Customs · Made for the Few.