You will work in several small groups on different stations along the discovery path. There is a "how far do animals jump"-pitch that needs to be completely remade, some display cabinets which need cleaning and new glass sheets, a quiz-wall that needs to be completed and a tree-phone in need of a new tree trunk. Most stations are placed under wooden shelter constructions which need renovation and repairing. In addition, you will replace all the old signposts with new ones and then put back up the repaired info boards. This means that there will be a lot of manual labour involved, especially wood working, some shovelling and also some painting. If there is time left, you will also repaint the barbecue huts at the entry of the forest path.
Accomodation & food:
You will be sleeping in the local gym and festival hall of the village. There will be mats and mattresses, but you will need to bring your own sleeping bag. Showers and toilets are inside the building. The village has a supermarket and a bakery, which are within only a few minutes walking distance from the gym.
Location & leisure:
Kirchardt is a small community situated between Heilbronn and Heidelberg in southern Germany. The area itself is very rural, so perfect to enjoy nature and outdoor activities. Nonetheless you can of course organize trips to bigger cities, for example to Heidelberg which has a beautiful historical city centre. Also the nearby car and technic museum in Sinsheim is worth a visit.
Help the community of Kisslegg set up a garden of biodiversity on an abandoned plot of land Your task will be to clear parts of the area, build a path to lead through it, set up insect hotels, birds nesting boxes and other places for biodiversity to take over the land. Your own creative ideas are very welcome to turn the area into a beautiful garden this summer. Once the biodiversity garden is finished, people will have the possibility to walk here, to observe nature and animals and learn more about biodiversity and why environmental protection is important.
Accomodation & food:
You will be accommodated in the house of the local voluntary fire brigade. If you need to cool off after a hot summer day, you can use the local outdoor swimming pool nearby (which includes a pool as well as access to a small lake).
Location & leisure:
Kisslegg is a town in the district of Ravensburg in Southern Germany. It is embedded in a lake landscape, which is great for cycling and hiking. One of the town s lakes has an outdoor pool and pitches for campers. In the area, there is a protected natural habitat called Hochmoor. Kisslegg has its own brewery, a mineral water plant and natural springs. The Alpes, Lake Constance, Switzerland and Austria are just a stone s throw away.
International volunteers are invited to improve the grounds of the centre. Tasks are likely to include construction, gardening, maintenance and renovation works. It is planned to create corners relaxation, to paint playground equipment, to maintain the water playground and similar tasks. Other environmental and construction works are possible. Please be aware that you will not work with children!
Accomodation & food:
You will live in small bungalows. Up to 4 volunteers will share a room. Bed linen will be provided. The sanitary track with showers, WC and a washing machine is situated next to the bungalows. Close to the sleeping place you will have your own common room, a place to meet and relax in the evening. All meals will be provided in the centre. The catering is well organised, with set meal times for the different groups of children accommodated at the same time. Furthermore, you should know that the centre provides food which is usually intended for children.
Location & leisure:
There are bicycles and boats which you can use, a hobby room, a disco hall and table tennis hall. There are possibilities to visit places of interest:
Nearby:
Kindertierpark Frauensee, Spreewald
Further afield:
Capital city Berlin and its famous sights for example, German Parliament (Bundestag), Zoo, Museums and Theatre and Potsdams castle park of Sanssouci and the Film Park Babelsberg
Age:
18-26
Location:
15754 heidesee
Language(s):
English
Airport:
SXF: Schonefeld (Berlin, Germany)Vegetarian food will be available
You'll be helping the surrounding communities with mowing fields and collecting hay. Sometimes, the fields are on a slope and are difficult to reach with machines. In nearby orchards, you'll be repairing fences and protecting trees from being gnawed away by sheep. You'll take care of rough grazing land, in order to conserve the habitats of endangered plants and animals. You'll also be pulling out small tree saplings from the meadow in order to prevent them spreading in this particular habitat – therefore learning a lot about conservation in the process. For one week you'll be at the Domberg Hill at Freising, where you'll be working on paths to protect them from erosion and repairing sheep shelters and fences around the meadow. An absolute highlight for nature lovers is a 4-day trip to the Alps, where you can go hiking. Bring your hiking boots!
Accomodation & food:
You will be staying in a large, cosy, self-catering house for nature lovers, 7km outside of Freising in an idyllic hillside location.The group will prepare and cook meals together.
Location & leisure:
You can reach Freising by bike along the river Isar. From there, the S-Bahn train travels to Munich. In Munich you have the opportunity to visit many museums, the English Garden or the famous Munich Hofbrauhaus. In the area surrounding Munich and in the Alps, you can go hiking and enjoy nature. Due to the close proximity to Hallertau, the largest hop-growing region in the world, there are many typical beer gardens.
Requirements:
The camp lasts 4 weeks. You must be able to ride a bike. Ankle-high hiking boots/wellingtons and warm, waterproof clothing are necessary both for working outside and going on hikes! There is an extra fee of 80€ for this camp.
The project consist of two parts – a practical working part which will last 6 hours per day and a study part, which takes place in the evenings and during weekends. The European Heritage Volunteers Project 2019 will be a continuation of similar projects that took place at the same heritage site in the years 2017 and 2018.The project will focus on the recultivation of the former hotel park. While restoring and cultivating further parts of the historic hotel park the old concept of "Parkwald" ("park forest") should be regained und brought into presence. This concept, being founded during the first decade of 20th century solely in Freudenstadt, means a specific and delicate kind of cure and wellness infrastructure. The "park forest" idea had come out as a unique pioneer act made by the Freudenstadt town builders of those years.The project will include a conceptual und intelligent sweep of the green wilderness, which has captured the originally garden site. This means the clearing of small or middle aged trees and plants that are not typically for the park as well as the excavation of garden structures with century old origin currently covered by leaves.In addition, the reconstruction of a historic path which has been started in the previous project will be continued.Finally, a sand stone wall that accompanies the main access path to the former hotel will be repaired.All those measures will help the city of Freudenstadt, its citizens and guests, to realise the enormous treasure of air-bath heritage and livelihood during the golden age, when this formerly rural town deep down in the woods became a world famous spa resort.In 2025, when Freudenstadt will host a half year "green exhibition" for the state of Baden-Württemberg, the hotel park shall contribute to the exhibition with singular and outstanding historic scenery.
Accomodation & food:
ACCOMMODATION: shared rooms with beds, warm showers, toilets.FOODThe meals will be prepared together as they are part of the community life, what means that every participant will be responsible for the meal at least once during its stay. So it would be very nice if the participants could bring typical recipes from home in order to introduce each other to the preparation of food from all over the world.
Location & leisure:
The "Waldlust" Hotel in Freudenstadt, founded in 1899, was a first choice resort of a noble society of spa guests. It stands as a historic architecture building, as a cultural heritage treasury, as a long time social meeting place in a high rank – a unique symbol of a former golden period of town development. During the 1st third of the 20th century the hotel took a breathtaking career, carried by the arrival of many world famous guests – kings, queens, princes, poets, artists and also the international jet set. Also during its second blooming period after World War II the "Waldlust" had been a catwalk for the high society. "Waldlust", the leading hotel of Freudenstadt, came to success by the entrepreneurial genius of a widespread hotel dynasty, the Luz family, who owned and managed several well known houses in Freudenstadt, Baden-Baden and Austria.Today the old palace with its impressive size and scenery and its glorious "personal" history offers us a review back to a golden era, almost unimaginable for such a small town deeply embedded in the Black Forest woods. The "Denkmalverein Freudenstadt" (Freudenstadt Association for Heritage) is highly ambitious to preserve the splendid architecture as cultural heritage site of a great age. Therefore it undertakes rooftop repairing, water containment and other constructive measures, carries out conservation works as well as preventive measures against the loss of art and assures the houses' safety by constant controls. The association also informs about the great history of the heritage site by guided tours and by public relation efforts of all kinds.The "Waldlust" Hotel is surrounded by a wide park area, which formerly served as an old style wellness and leisure time retreat for the noble high society clientele: with broad promenades, nicely built in the steep hillside, with stone walls and stair cases as well as intimate sitting opportunities, which offers marvellous outlooks far to the East up to the "blue ribbon" of the Swabian Alb. This once very characteristic grand hotel leisure ground had been fallen to oblivion in many years. Due to the absence of any gardening, cultivation forms and structures had gone lost – until the "Denkmalverein Freudenstadt" started to restore paths and interesting places of this traditional ground.
Requirements:
Motivation letter related to the project and CV + photo required
Age:
18-35
Location:
Freudenstadt
Language(s):
English
Airport:
ZWS: Stuttgart Railway Station (Stuttgart, Germany)Vegetarian food will be available
The hilly massive around Lohra Castle is listed as National Nature Reserve. Open Houses supports the Reserve since several years with volunteering activities. In a forest near the Castle the participants will remove trees and bushes which are not corresponding with the protection aims in order to clean the paths and make them enjoyable again. They will also will collect the wood remaining after maintenance works, load it on a truck, unload it at the castle and split and stack it for wintertime or for the fireplace. Besides that, the volunteers will continue the maintenance of the green area at the castle.
Accomodation & food:
ACCOMMODATION:shared rooms with 2 - 5 beds in 3 guest houses, warm shower (limited hot water), 1 camp kitchen (cold water), coal-burning stovesFOODThe meals will be prepared together as they are part of the community life, what means that every participant will be responsible for the meal at least once during its stay. So it would be very nice if the participants could bring typical recipes from home in order to introduce each other to the preparation of food from all over the world.
Location & leisure:
Lohra Castle is situated in the heart of Germany in Northern Thuringia. The castle, which is surrounded by a scenic hilly landscape, is located on the edge of a nature reserve area. Being one of the largest castles in Thuringia, the history of the castle Lohra begins in the Middle Age. The castle is more than 1,000 years old. Today, it includes twenty buildings from different times: medieval fortifications, remnants of a tower from the 11th century, a Romanesque chapel, a manor house from the Renaissance period as well as stables and granaries from the 19th and the early 20th centuries. The ensemble is situated in the centre of a beautiful forest. For years Lohra Castle was vacant. In the 1990s Open Houses started to restore the castle and to revive it by cultural activities. Since that time, a large number of Workcamps, Building Weeks, exhibitions, concerts and other activities with international participants took place in the castle.LEISURE TIMEThe camp places are mostly situated in small villages in rural areas, so the participants should not expect busy places and normal city activities for the leisure time during the working days. Small trips in walking distance are possible in the afternoon. On the weekends it is possible to organise an excursion to nearby cities or to have other leisure activities.
Age:
18-30
Location:
Grosslohra, germany
Language(s):
English, German
Airport:
LEJ: Leipzig Halle (Leipzig, Germany)This project is suitable for disabled volunteersVegetarian food will be available
The Western part of the ground is characterised by a historical wall from natural field stones. Because of long-time lack of maintenance the upper part of the wall is damaged. Its rebuilding started in 2018 and, under the guidance of an experiences bricklayer, the volunteers will continue to restore the wall. Since the manor's park was long time out of use it is partly still abandoned. The volunteers will continue some of the ren works that had been started during Workcamps in the previous years – they will cut bushes, level the ground, repair fences and construct new paths. At Gantikow Manor stove heating is used for the cold seasons. Therefore another task for the volunteers will be to cut, split and store fire wood for winter time. Finally, the participants will support the restoration works from the previous Buidling Week by transporting materials where they are needed - as for example to transport bricks to the roof level to repair chimneys.
Accomodation & food:
shared rooms with beds, warm shower, toiletsFOODThe meals will be prepared together as they are part of the community life, what means that every participant will be responsible for the meal at least once during its stay. So it would be very nice if the participants could bring typical recipes from home in order to introduce each other to the preparation of food from all over the world.
Location & leisure:
Gantikow Manor is situated 100 kilometres north of Berlin. The house is surrounded by a nice village with a medieval church and a lake. The manor is a picturing example of a former baroque building, changed in the late 19th century in neo-baroque style. Over centuries, the houses belonged to the Earls von Platen, which sold it in 1872 to a civil family which started soon, in 1877, with the modernisation of the house and kept it in their ownership till 1945. After World War II, the house was first used as a refugee shelter and after that the community used the house as a village centre, hosting the community office, the local store, the school, the kindergarten, the doctor's room, the kitchen of the agricultural cooperative and several apartments. With its many rooms the large building is perfect to be used as a Youth Accommodation House. The house is surrounded by a beautiful park with old trees which reached originally up to the lake. LEISURE TIMEThe camp places are mostly situated in small villages in rural areas, so the participants should not expect busy places and normal city activities for the leisure time during the working days. Small trips in walking distance are possible in the afternoon. On the weekends it is possible to organise an excursion to nearby cities or to have other leisure activities.
Age:
18-30
Location:
Gantikow, kyritz, germany
Language(s):
English, German
Airport:
TXL: Tegel (Berlin, Germany)This project is suitable for disabled volunteersVegetarian food will be available
Your tasks will include different kinds of green works like cutting bushes and overgrowth, cleaning the hiking trails and rebuilding fences. In the gorge the paths might need to be rebuilt, and collapsed walls need to be removed or fortified. Parts of the castle ruins will be prepared for professional maintenance works and it is planned to build two big insect hotels at the trail through the vineyards as well as nesting boxes for birds. Be prepared for lots of manual work in the fresh air
Accomodation & food:
You will stay in the club house of the local rambling club in the district of the town called Roellfeld. It is located at the edge of the town surrounded by forests. There are mattress dormitories for up to 38 people, divided into 4 rooms, kitchen, shower and a lounge.
Location & leisure:
Klingenberg is located at the river Main on the edge of the nature park Spessart in the Bavarian region called lower Franconia. It is famous for its red wine and during the camp there will be a festival of local wine growers taking place from August 15th to 18th You will surely be invited for a glass or two. Also, you will have time to explore the beautiful region and make trips to cities close-by like Wuerzburg, Aschaffenburg and Miltenberg
« I would recommend participating in a workcamp, especially with VAP, who ensured that I found a project to suit me and provided essential training for me in preparation for my trip. Being part of a workcamp really is a life-changing experience, oh, and it looks great on your CV! »
