bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

A murmur goes through the bar when Aron Lack picks something up that would make a Viking warrior proud: a double-sided axe, nearly a metre (3 foot, 3 inches) long and weighing more than a kilo (2.2 pounds).
The recreational entrepreneur lifts the axe and, with a powerful swing, sends it hurtling into a wall – where it sticks with a thud.
Axe throwing is the latest leisure trend in Germany, which has previously embraced activities like escape rooms, black light mini golf and trampoline jumping.
In axe-throwing bars throughout the country, patrons have swapped darts for axes and take aim at wooden targets embedded on the wall.












View this post on Instagram























A post shared by jijilamouette (@jijilamouette)



WoodCutter, a Belgian company spearheading the trend, has just opened a new location in the German city of Cologne.
The new bar is located on the ground floor of a large hotel, and it is where Lack and his colleague Martin Dencker are showcasing this traditional yet thrilling pastime.
“Axe throwing came from the Vikings via Canada to Europe and also to Germany,” Lack explains.
Over in the United States and Canada, axe-throwing bars are fairly common, and have been for a while – they are also found in Austria, the Czech Republic and Switzerland – but how did the practice take off in orderly, safety-loving Germany?
Despite what you might think, axe throwing is not about brute strength. The sport is very accessible, with a range of axe sizes and comprehensive safety measures, including fenced lanes and mandatory briefings. It is popular both with large groups, like stag parties, and couples on date nights.

Women in particular are “extremely good” at throwing axes because it has nothing to do with violence, says Dencker.
“It’s more to do with finesse and body movement,” he says. The axes are not weapons, but standard tools from a DIY or home improvement store.
Still, he describes the double axe admiringly as “top class”.
In some places, office workers have even been known to go out in the middle of the day to sling a few axes at a bar before returning to work.
Hamburg futurologist Ulrich Reinhardt believes that the Viking hobby represents an “antithesis to everyday leisure activities” which he says revolve more around media and activities at home.












View this post on Instagram























A post shared by Cindy-Marie Kruner (@missiqueen_milka)



Axe throwing is different, he says, not just for the adrenaline rush it provides but also for the community that develops when people post about it online as, despite its growing popularity, the hobby remains niche.
Dencker, an axe-throwing expert who is on a first-name basis with everyone in the room, says that drinking beer in the bar is a “side effect” of axe-throwing.
The rule is that you can throw an axe as long as you are in a condition that allows you to drive, but “when you’ve finished throwing axes, you are welcome to enjoy a beer”.


Israel’s rising air defence sales become its ‘most potent’ foreign policy weapon

Europe’s ‘China shock’ and how political scientist Ivan Krastev sees its future

Burglary of JD.com warehouse in France prompts investigation, speculation

US hits 5 Europeans with visa bans in ‘censorship’ row

Germany

Axe throwing is sweeping Germany, and guess what? Women are ‘extremely good’ at it

Forget darts – in bars across Germany, people are picking up and throwing axes into wall-mounted targets to let off some steam. Photo: Instagram/heldbergs_official

Axe throwing is the latest trend in German bars. Photo: Instagram/woodcutter_hamburg

Stay in Beatles’ suite, use band entrance in US hotel deal marking Fab Four’s stay in 1964

The Beatles wave to a crowd as they arrive in the United States for their 1964 North American tour. Photo: Getty Images

The Edgewater Hotel in Seattle, where the Beatles stayed during their 1964 North American tour. Sixty years later, the hotel is celebrating the Fab Four with a special package. Photo: The Edgewater Hotel/TNS

The Beatles fish out of the window of The Edgewater Hotel, in Seattle, in 1964. Photo: TNS

The Beatles suite at The Edgewater Hotel. Photo: The Edgewater Hotel/TNS

Spain’s Costa Brava beaches rapidly shrinking as coastal erosion washes away more sand

29 July 2024, Spain, Platja D&apos;Aro: Bathers lie on the Platja Gran, &quot;the big beach&quot;. Beaches are dwindling all over the world. In Spain, however, the phenomenon is particularly acute. The newspaper &quot;La Vanguardia&quot; recently wrote that the Platja Gran, the &quot;big beach&quot;, which is now a good 50 meters wide on average, was three times as big in the 1980s. Environmentalists are taking to the barricades and the first coastal towns are taking drastic measures. Photo: Emilio Rappold/dpa Photo: Getty Images

The main beach in the Catalonian holiday resort of Platja D’Aro on July 29, 2024. The beach is a third of the size it was in the 1980s, according to reports, with many beaches on Spain’s Costa Brava coastline similarly suffering from coastal erosion. Photo: Getty Images

The beach in Montgat, a town not far from Barcelona, in 2011. The beach has lost nearly 75 per cent of its sand since July 2023 alone, according to Greenpeace. Photo: Wikipedia/Msoengas 

A beach in Montgat in April 2019. Photo: Getty Images

Why Japan is a retro video game and console collectors’ paradise

Part of the collection of vintage video games owned by game collector Proudro, at his home in Kasumigaura, Ibaraki prefecture, Japan. Photo: AFP

Video game historian and game history book author and publisher Hiroyuki Maeda with a prototype of a handheld Nintendo game at his office in Tokyo. Photo: AFP

Maeda looks through a gaming history book. His considerable collection is housed in an old building near his home, two hours north of Tokyo. Photo: AFP

Vintage video game collector Proudro with some of the gaming memorabilia he has collected, at his home in Kasumigaura, Ibaraki prefecture. Photo: AFP

Viral TikTok handmade leather footballs are ‘cool to play with’. First costs almost US$300

The Original 92, handmade  using Italian leather, was the first football sold by 12 Pentagons. Photo: Instagram/jonpaulsballs

The Original 92, handmade  using Italian leather, was the first football sold by 12 Pentagons, after co-founder Jon-Paul Wheatley’s videos of him making footballs went viral on TikTok. Photo: Instagram/jonpaulsballs

Jon-Paul Wheatley has made a number of one-off footballs, but has only sold the Original 92 so far. Photo: Instagram/12pentagons

A close-up of an Original 92. Photo: Instagram/jonpaulsballs

Lifestyle

Travel & Leisure

Entertainment

Forget the dartboard – in German bars, people are throwing axes at targets to let off steam. Insiders explain why the hobby has taken off


Forget the dartboard – in German bars, people are throwing axes at targets to let off steam. Insiders explain why the hobby has taken off.


Axe throwing is sweeping Germany, and guess what? Women are ‘extremely good’ at it

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Forget the dartboard – in German bars, people are throwing axes at targets to let off steam. Insiders explain why the hobby has taken off

Forget the dartboard – in German bars, people are throwing axes at targets to let off steam. Insiders explain why the hobby has taken off