Altena Castle
A hilltop fortress above the Sauerland that gave the world an idea as much as a monument: the first permanent youth hostel, opened inside its walls in 1914.
At a glance
Burg Altena rises high above the wire-drawing town of Altena, in the Märkisches Sauerland of North Rhine-Westphalia. A medieval hill castle of the twelfth century, it is famous far beyond Germany as the birthplace of the youth-hostel movement, and today houses museums, including the World Youth Hostel Museum.
History
The castle was built in the twelfth century — around 1108, by tradition — by the brothers Adolf and Everhard von Berg, after Henry V granted them land in the Sauerland for their service. For centuries it was a stronghold of the Counts of the Mark, commanding the valley below.
Its second life began in 1914, when the schoolteacher Richard Schirrmann opened the first permanent youth hostel here. The idea had come to him in 1906, when a group of pupils caught in a rainstorm struggled to find shelter; he imagined a network of simple places where the young could stay while travelling. The original hostel survives inside the castle as a museum, and the movement it started spread across the world.
What you see
The castle is a compact medieval hilltop stronghold of towers, gates and ranges, reached today by tunnels and a lift bored through the rock.
Within it, Schirrmann’s original hostel dormitory is preserved in its early state, alongside the local history and smithing museums that fill the other rooms.
Cultural significance
Few castles have exported an idea so widely. From Altena’s walls came the youth hostel — a quiet nineteenth-into-twentieth-century revolution in how ordinary young people could travel — and the castle remains its acknowledged birthplace and museum.
Key facts
- Built: 12th century (c. 1108), by the brothers von Berg
- Youth hostel: the world’s first permanent one, opened here by Richard Schirrmann in 1914
- Origin: Schirrmann’s idea came after a 1906 rainstorm on a school walk
- Today: houses the World Youth Hostel Museum and local museums
- Location: above Altena, Märkisches Sauerland, North Rhine-Westphalia
Practical information & getting there
Altena is on the Lenne valley railway between Hagen and Finnentrop; the castle is reached from the town by a rock-cut lift and tunnel, or on foot up the hill. The museums are open to visitors.
Sources & resources
- NRW Tourism — Altena Castle
- German Culture — “Altena Castle: World’s First Hostel”
- Sauerland.com — Burg Altena
- Wikipedia — Altena Castle
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