CHEAP LODGING: Hostels provide an exciting and affordable place to stay while traveling abroad.

100 Years of Hostels

By: Brendan Monroe

Posted: 12/4/09

Like any country, Germany is famous for things both good and bad. Beer, depending on which category you'd put it in, is free flowing in the Deutschland, where some of the world's best are featured. Sauerkraut and Bratwurst are two culinary exports from the country as is Weiner schnitzel and curry worst. It's a country that has produced men as loved as Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Sebastian Bach, as revered as Ludwig van Beethoven and Albert Einstein and as controversial as Friedrich Nietzsche and Karl Marx. It's a land that has seen the good times - the fall of the Berlin Wall, prosperity and prominence in the creation of a European Union and currency - but which has also suffered through the bad: the rise of the Nazi party and two World Wars that left the country economically and politically devastated.

But Germany is responsible for something else, something that has greatly impacted the world, and particularly youth culture. Because aside from being the country that designed your dad's flashy BMW, Germany is also responsible for giving millions of backpackers and student travelers refuge each year in the form of their most famous, yet least credited export: youth hostels.

The Youth Inn (or hostel), Jugendherberge as it is translated in German, has impacted our world more than all the German beer, cars and politics could have hoped to. Just think about it. The word itself is synonymous with travel, and a stay in one is vital for any "student abroad" cliché. Hostelling has entered the public lexicon, too, and has inspired both rose tinted portrayals of the wandering American seeking refuge in a foreign land - the excellent documentary "A Map For Saturday" - and blood tinted portrayals of the wandering American seeking refuge in a foreign land - the not-so-excellent, but nevertheless engrossing, Eli Roth film "Hostel." I bring this all up to call attention to 2009's most significantly underreported anniversary. As you no doubt learned when you peered down at the title under final-weary eyes, 2009 marks the 100th Anniversary of Germany's greatest export. And it all started because of some rain.

It was Aug. 26, 1909 and German schoolteacher Richard Schirrmann was leading an eight-day hiking trip in the German countryside with a group of students when the rain began to fall. Schirrmann and his students generally stayed in farm buildings they came across but on this particular night they had to resort to an empty classroom the local schoolmaster allowed them refuge in. The experience implanted in Schirrmann's mind an idea that started a revolution.

"Villages could have a friendly youth hostel, situated a day's walk from each other, to welcome young hikers," he wrote in a 1910 magazine article. "Two classrooms will suffice, one for boys and one for girls. Some desks can be stacked away, thus freeing space to put down 15 beds. Each bed will consist of a tightly stuffed straw sack and pillow, two sheets and a blanket ... each child will be required to keep his own sleeping place clean and tidy." Later that year, Schirrmann started the world's first Jugendherberge in his own school in Altena, a town in West Germany.

One hundred years later, the hostel industry is alive and thriving. Over 4,500 youth hostels exist today attracting tens of millions of visitors from around the globe. Most impressively, unlike the recent dip in hotel occupancy, hostels have stayed as profitable as always, even more so according to recent studies. While hotels can average over $100 per room per night, hostels charge anywhere from $3 to $30 dollars for a bed per evening which, when taken into account that hostel rooms can contain as many as 20 beds, makes for the successful business model of an increasingly profitable industry.

But staying in a hostel isn't just about having a cheap place to stay - it's also about companionship. When I hear my more "fortunate" friends scoff at the idea of hostelling, preferring instead to spend holidays in Europe or elsewhere in luxury hotels, I often try to convince them. What they don't understand is that hostelling is about the social element. I have met some of my closest friends during scattered stays in hostels across the globe, and why not? In a foreign country, in my case, all alone, hostels provide a great opportunity to meet some of your fellow global students. Plus, who would pass up the opportunity to bunk at a place called The Naughty Squirrel? Curious names aside, I can honestly tell you that this social element alone has changed my life…for the better! Nearly all hostels contain a meeting room or gathering place where students can link up and share travel stories. Some absolutely serendipitous connections can be made here and, whether it's a first time acquaintance you spend the evening walking through the Piazza San Marco with or a friend you're reflecting with in one of the numerous cafes that litter Prague's historic Wenceslas Square, without hostels it simply wouldn't be so easy.

The "hostel on a hill" in Germany has survived Nazi and Communist occupations, the erection and fall of the wall, and has served for a century to stand as one of Germany's greatest contributions to the world. To this day, the hostel in Altena that started it all continues to offer accommodations to weary backpackers. The door is always open, and for that we celebrate. A land that was once bitterly divided has, for 100 years, had a hand in uniting us all.