For the first time, Grafenhausen invites you to an international workcamp! It is a village with 2000 inhabitants in the Black Forest that has quite a lot to offer: for example a “Sculpture Park” with 24 artworks, view points and an open air theatre, in which you are going to work. Grafenhausen is 1000m above sea level – therefore, it might still be pretty cold in April! You definitely have to take warm clothes with you and be prepared that it could be snowy!
WORK:
You will have various tasks within the “Sculpture Park”, e.g. renew the paths, exchange the boardwalks through marsh area, renovate a playground, set up a wooden wall covering on the theatre, and so on. You will work mostly with wood, which might be exhausting sometimes, but also includes work like plastering and painting.
ACCOMMODATION:
You will be accommodated in a group house where showers and a kitchen are provided. The house is in the middle of the village, so it’s close to a supermarket and your work place.
LOCATION:
Grafenhausen is a very nice village within a beautiful landscape. The surrounding area is perfect for hiking trips: There are lakes close-by and it is not even half an hour by car to the Feldberg (highest German mountain outside of the Alps). There are regularly train connections to Freiburg (student city) and Lake Constance. The town itself offers a museum of local history as well as an interactive one where you can test your senses. Also, the famous beer “Tannenzaepfle” is brewed here as well and you might be able to visit the brewery.
Your host is the Umweltstation (”environmental station”) of Waldsassen. It is an institution that aims to educate people of all ages, in a non-formal way, about environmental issues. The garden is divided into various areas to creatively teach about topics such as water, herbs, forest and nature protection. It also offers guided tours, seminars and workshops. The “Umweltstation” is going to host its third workcamp now and very much looking forward to continuing the great experiences from last year.
WORK:
This year the “Umweltstation” will start a new project called “Intercultural Gardening”: The refugees in the town of Waldsassen as well as the locals are invited to come together, plant fruits, vegetables and herbs from all over the world and get to know each other. The first day of the project will be on May 31st and this action day will be prepared and carried out with the help of the international workcamp! You are welcome to enrich this day also with typical food from your country. Apart from this task, there will be various other jobs for you: planting, weeding, cutting, and maybe also some renovation work. In short: Support the garden wherever helpful hands are needed.
ACCOMMODATION:
You will be accommodated in a small flat, where you will have a shower and a kitchenette. The environmental garden will also offer you the possibility to cook, so don’t worry that there won’t be enough space!
LOCATION:
Waldsassen is situated in the northeast of Bavaria; the border to the Czech Republic is close-by. About 7000 people live in this picturesque town, which is known for the beautiful old basilica and its convent. The area around Waldsassen is quite rural and offers the possibility to go hiking and enjoy the landscape. Near-by cities to visit are Nuremberg or Hof.
The National Nature Park Hunsrueck-Hochwald is the newest German National Park intended to protect nature. The park was just founded in May 2015. The landscape is dominated by huge forests, steep hills, small brooks and ponds, rocks and marshes. Only small hamlets interrupt the landscape, a perfect region for plenty of different species but also for hiking. Within this National Park you will work under the supervision of a Park Ranger to take care of special marshes situated on the slopes of the hill. These marshes were drained with ditches in the last century to use it as forests, volunteers already started in 2015 with different measures to bring back the special character of this place and keep the water in the marshes. Many different species (especially amphibians and special plants) already returned. This workcamp will continue this mission and will take place in cooperation with the National Nature Park Hunsrueck-Hochwald and the Foundation for Nature and Environment Rhineland-Palatinate.
WORK:
Under the supervision of a Park Ranger you will realise different measures to keep the water in the marshes and to undo the drainage of the area by blocking or filling ditches or by building small wooden barriers. Attention: The work might be physically hard and you will get wet and muddy for sure! Please bring rubber boots and working clothes.
ACCOMMODATION:
You will stay in a holiday home on the local camping of Birkenfeld. This house provides beds, kitchen and sanitary facilities for eight people – quite luxury for a workcamp! You can use all facilities of the camping (small lake to swim, barbecue place…). The camping is about 1-2 km from the city of Birkenfeld. To the workplace it is a 15 minute drive.
LOCATION:
The workcamp will take place in the western part of Rhineland-Palatinate. You will stay in Birkenfeld, a small city with 7.000 inhabitants offering everything you need (shops, pubs, swimming pool). The next bigger city is Trier (40 km), the oldest German city with many Roman sights, a huge cathedral and plenty of things to do (vineyard, shopping, clubs). You can visit the city during the weekend.
NEAREST AIRPORT:
Frankfurt-Hahn or Frankfurt
TRAIN STATION AND MEETING POINT:
Idar-Oberstein, from there bus to Birkenfeld (last bus leaves at 19:20).
REMARKS:
This is a special project for nature lovers and people interested in nature protection work. You will get wet and dirty!
Main work will be in the forest, as maintenance of young stands, field mapping of new trees, planting of rare trees, searching and marking of habitat trees, waters care. Participants will also be doing various manual works to prepare the area around the house of the nature-friends for leisure activities of groups coming from the city. Time of work will be 5-6 hours daily, excluding Saturday and Sunday.
Accomodation & food:
Accommodation will be in a house with several-bed-rooms, kitchen, bathroom, showers. Cooking, cleaning, shopping etc. will be done by the group itself. Like in each workcamp, accommodation, food and travel-costs for excursions are free as well as materials/copies needed for the lectures.
Location & leisure:
Marburg is a historical and picturesque old university town, 100 km north of Frankfurt/Main. It has 82.000 inhabitants, including 25.000 students (from actual 120 different countries). The camp is located approx. 2 km away from the city centre.
Requirements:
As the language course is not for absolute beginners, participants must be able already to communicate in German, at least on a level which ensures simple communication. Participants also must be willing to communicate with each other during the camp in German and not in English or in their own mother tongue for the whole time, not only during the lectures. This is one important part of the concept. Because of the language-course there is an extra-fee of 160,00 EUR to be paid upon arrival. A certificate for participating in the language-course will be given at the end of the camp.
Lohra Castle is located on the edge of a nature reserve area and surrounded both by beech forests and fruit trees. The site has a stupendous size of ten hectare, most of them green areas for which the volunteers will take care – by cutting and collecting the grass at the meadows and pulling up weeds.
Accomodation & food:
shared rooms with 2 - 5 beds in 3 guest houses, warm shower (limited hot water),1 camp kitchen (cold water), coal-burning stoves
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 Lohra Castle begins in the Middle Age. The castle is more than 1000 years old. Today, it includes 20 buildings from different times: medieval fortifications, remnants of a tower from the 11th century, a roman chapel, a manor from the Renaissance period as well as stables and granaries from the 19th century. 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, art-workshops, exhibitions, concerts and international meetings took place in the castle.
Age:
18-99
Location:
Großlohra, 99759, amt lohra 6
Language(s):
English
Airport:
LEJ: Leipzig Halle (Leipzig, Germany)
Trainstation:
Gebra/hainleite (train station), großlohra, friedrichslohra/wartehalle (bus station)Vegetarian food will be available
Main work will be in the forest, as maintenance of young stands, field mapping of new trees, planting of rare trees, searching and marking of habitat trees, waters care. Participants will also be doing various manual works to prepare the area around the house of the nature-friends for leisure activities of groups coming from the city. Time of work will be 5-6 hours daily, excluding Saturday and Sunday.
Accomodation & food:
Accommodation will be in a house with several-bed-rooms, kitchen, bathroom, showers. Cooking, cleaning, shopping etc. will be done by the group itself. Like in each workcamp, accommodation, food and travel-costs for excursions are free as well as materials/copies needed for the lectures.
Location & leisure:
Marburg is a historical and picturesque old university town, 100 km north of Frankfurt/Main. It has 82.000 inhabitants, including 25.000 students (from actual 120 different countries). The camp is located approx. 2 km away from the city centre.
Requirements:
As the language course is not for absolute beginners, participants must be able already to communicate in German, at least on a level which ensures simple communication. Participants also must be willing to communicate with each other during the camp in German and not in English or in their own mother tongue for the whole time, not only during the lectures. This is one important part of the concept. Because of the language-course there is an extra-fee of 160,00 EUR to be paid upon arrival. A certificate for participating in the language-course will be given at the end of the camp.
Nearby the youth accommodation houses which are part of Lohra Castle complex there is a campsite which can be used by groups of youngsters, too. An abandoned former agricultural building will be rebuilt into a sanitary house for campers. Therefore it is necessary to construct a water line to this building. An excavator will dig the line and the volunteers will accompany this work by collecting stones and bringing in an insulating layer of sand. Later they will under the guidance of a craftsman lay the water pipes and put afterwards the material which had been digged out back into the ditch. The remaining material will be used to fill holes and to level the ground at other parts of the castle. Furthermore the participants will take care of the outdoor area.
Accomodation & food:
shared rooms with 2 - 5 beds in 3 guest houses, warm shower (limited hot water),1 camp kitchen (cold water), coal-burning stoves
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 Lohra Castle begins in the Middle Age. The castle is more than 1000 years old. Today, it includes 20 buildings from different times: medieval fortifications, remnants of a tower from the 11th century, a roman chapel, a manor from the Renaissance period as well as stables and granaries from the 19th century. 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, art-workshops, exhibitions, concerts and international meetings took place in the castle.
Age:
18-99
Location:
Großlohra, 99759, amt lohra 6
Language(s):
English
Airport:
LEJ: Leipzig Halle (Leipzig, Germany)
Trainstation:
Gebra/hainleite (train station), großlohra, friedrichslohra/wartehalle (bus station)Vegetarian food will be available
Interform e.V., the integrative environmental education facilities at the old brickworks in Gahlen, is a meeting place and workspace for many different groups of people. As participants of this international workcamp, you can get involved in the following projects: ecological agriculture of vegetables and herbs in permaculture, composting organic waste such as leaves and trees, laying down raised flower beds and shelters using hay bales and loam, planting green roofs, shaping protective hedges, harvesting plants and food, securing seeds for reproduction, garden and landscape art (LandArt) with natural, retro and recycling materials, extending a caravan as well as preparing the harvested food to make your own food during open meetings and projects.
Accomodation & food:
You ll be staying in tents or trailers on site. You ll cook your own meals together.
Location & leisure:
You ll spend your workcamp right in the middle of nature on the grounds which you will help to shape and build. You re invited to try out every kind of outside activity: swimming in the lake, cycling, playing football and during the evenings, sitting around the camp fire and watching the stars. There s a lake for swimming nearby that s easily reachable by bike. And of course, you can spend the evening in the nearby small town of Calau, or cycle around Gahlen, or even travel to Berlin or Dresden at the weekend.
« I had not appreciated that so few people come out in the East Asian countries that my telling them was something extraordinary. This was also the most interesting aspect of the workcamp in terms of trying to expand the awareness of other ways of living, and there was never any hostility or problems because of it. »
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