Source: the venue’s website, checked on 04/11/2026.
On a rocky spur above the Lenne, in the Sauerland, Altena Castle houses the world’s first permanent youth hostel, opened by a schoolteacher. The original dormitory can be visited in the castle museum; the hostel itself still lets its 60 beds to groups.
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In 1909, caught in a storm while hiking with his class, schoolteacher Richard Schirrmann pictured cheap shelters for young people on the road. His first permanent hostel opened in Altena in 1912 and moved into the castle, where it was inaugurated in 1914. In 1919 he founded the German youth hostel association, which now runs 400 houses.
The hostel has 60 beds in 10 rooms, dormitories or single and twin rooms, a dining room and meeting rooms with wifi; meals come from a certified organic kitchen. Groups can arrive from 11 am, and out of season the house reopens for 30 people or more. Altena station, on the Hagen to Siegen line, is 1.2 km away, and a lift bored through the rock climbs to the castle.
Photo credits : Alexandra Fakiri (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0) ; Günter Seggebäing (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) ; Anirban Chakraborty (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0) ; Stephan Sensen (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0) ; AbbyGloom (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) ; ngocchat1014 (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0)
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