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Celebrating Hostelling’s Proud History

The idea of “Hostelling” began at the turn of the century in Germany, when Richard Schirrmann, a school teacher, began taking his students on multi-day hiking excursions in the countryside. Emphasizing simplicity with just knapsacks and some provisions, the students were housed in empty school rooms and farm buildings. Schirrmann instilled in them a healthy lifestyle and a new-found appreciation of the natural world. A visionary with great energy, on one such outing in 1909, Richard Schirrmann conceived of the idea to create a system of simple overnight student accommodations using empty classrooms each a day’s walk from the next. In 1912, his town of Altena allowed him to furnish some rooms of their 12th Century castle as inexpensive dormitories. Altena Castle thus became the first permanent “youth hostel” and the start of a growing hostel network. Beginning in Europe, hostelling soon spread around the world, and with an expanded mission, from just dormitories to include common rooms where people of different countries could meet, exchange ideas, and become friends, leading to broader international understanding. In 1932, the International Youth Hostel Federation was established with Schirrmann as its first president, to ensure consistent quality standards among hostels and provide international membership benefits to hostellers across Europe.

Hostelling spread to the United Sates through Isabel and Monroe Smith, school teachers and scout leaders, who discovered youth hostels while leading a tour of Europe with their students in 1933. Impressed by the simplicity and idealism of the European hostels, Isabel and Monroe worked tirelessly to open the first American youth hostel in Northfield, Massachusetts in 1934 and to found the American Youth Hostels organization.

The hostelling movement has grown in the United States and around the world. Today, there are more then 4,000 hostels in 80 countries around the globe, which provide more than 35 million overnights annually. Like its early beginnings, the hostelling movement is still based on high ideals of promoting world peace, international understanding, and environmental stewardship.

"Suppose that the thoughtful young people of all countries could be provided with suitable meeting places where they could get to know each other!... That could and must be the role of youth hostels, not only in Germany but also throughout the world, building a bridge of peace from nation to nation."

-- Richard Schirrmann, founder of the hostelling movement and first president of the International Youth Hostel Federation