Hostelling International (HI), formerly known as International Youth Hostel Federation (IYHF), is a grouping of more than seventy National Youth Hostel Associations in over eighty countries, with over 4,000 affiliated hostels around the world. Hostelling International is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organisation working with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNESCO and the World Tourism Organisation UNWTO. The youth hostel movement began in 1909 when Richard Schirrmann, a German schoolteacher, and Wilhelm Münker, a conservationist, saw a need for overnight accommodation for school groups wanting to experience the countryside. They started with schools being used during the holidays, and the first Jugendherberge (youth hostel) was opened in Schirrmann's own school, in Altena, Westphalia. In 1912, a hostel in Altena Castle superseded the school building, and as of 2013 a hostel still stands in the castle grounds. Schirrmann thus founded the nationwide German Youth Hostel Association in 1919. More information...
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