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Article:
The Truth About Youth Hostels by: Marcus Hochstadt How youth hostels provide the magic power to surprise almost everybody. Here is the little known (yet true) story of the origin of hostels. In August 1909 the German teacher Richard Schirrmann had been caught in a violent thunderstorm on an eight day migration with his pupils and found accommodation in a barn by a farmer. While the pupils were sleeping, Schirrmann was laying awake the whole night. The thought attacked him suddenly, 'One would have to create places, at which move-joyful young people and pupils receive a safe and inexpensive overnight stay'¯. He published this idea for the first time in 1910 in an essay about 'Voksschuelerherbergen'¯ ('elementary school pupil lodgings'), ''¦also the boys and girls of the common man must practice fresh merry moving as counterweight for the room stool time of their school years... how do I imagine now appropriate and sufficient lodgings for the enormous army of the elementary school pupils?... each city and nearly each village has an elementary school, which almost waits in holidays with empty areas for it, into a sleep and a dining hall for move-merry children to be transformed. Two classrooms are sufficient, one for boys, one for girls. The banks are set partly one above the other. That gives free area for the list of 15 beds. ... each camp place consists of a tautly with straw plugged bag and cushion, 2 sheets and a blanket... each child is stopped to bring its camp place back in order finely neat... ' After publication of this essay in the 'Koelnische Zeitung'¯ (Cologne Newspaper) numerous money and gift contributions in kind and support offers came from whole Germany. In 1912 the first youth hostel was opened in the Altenia Castle, Germany The first youth hostel was arranged according to Schirrmann's plans: 2 sleeping halls with 3-storied solid wood beds, a dayroom, kitchen, wash and shower rooms. First hostel warden was Richard Schirrmann. He lived directly above the hostel rooms. In the same year Schirrmann also published the first hostel listing with approximately 140 addresses. In many of these lodgings however were not even basics of accommodations, e.g. for girls were nothing at all. In 1913 were already 301 youth hostels in cities and villages. One year later one counted already 535. In 1920 the first expenditure of the 'youth hostel' magazine appeared, and with approximately 700 addresses the first manual with addresses by youth hostels were published. >From 1924-1929 with the first lottery in favour to the youth hostels 1.5 million realm Marks were gained. In 1932 had already been '2
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