Short-term (2 to 4 weeks) "environmental" projects in Germany

As a young adult with an affinity with nature, are you interested in a workcamp in the forest with like-minded people? If so, you will find our project the perfect opportunity, to experience and even shape nature in many different ways. Here you can actively contribute to the protection of idyllic walking paths. You will help by taking down protective fences and you can also take care of trees and plants. With our project, you'll dive into the world of forest ecology and at the same time learn a lot about sustainable resource management.

You'll be staying in the town centre in a multi-purpose hall. You will prepare and cook your own meals together in groups.

You'll be staying in the heart of the town of Traben-Trarbach and there you'll have the possibility to make use of the large range of free time activities. Indoor and outdoor swimming pools are directly nearby. Trier, the oldest town in Germany, is accessible by train (around 60km away), as is the town of Luxembourg (around 90km away) and Koblenz (around 60km away). You can also get involved with the daily life of local clubs.

16-26

Traben-trarbach

English

FRA: Frankfurt Main (Frankfurt, Germany)Vegetarian food will be available

In Enkenbach-Alsenborn there is a nature trail which was renovated by last year's workcamp. This year, we will be adding another station to the trail. Besides this, there is a new play area, and together with the group you will be able to help design the green area surrounding it – by planting small trees and other plants, for example.

You will be staying in an empty children's nursery. Meals will be prepared and cooked in groups.

There is a great outdoor swimming pool in Enkenbach-Alsenborn, which you can use for free, located in a beautifully green area near to the Palatinate Forest Nature Park. You can also visit the Hambacher Castle, which is nearby. A tour of the Frankenstein castle at night time is also available. Bikes are available for all participants. Heidelberg, Mannheim or Mainz are all close enough for day trips. As well as this, you are not too far from the French border, so an excursion to Strasbourg would also be possible.

16-26

Enkenbach-alsenborn

English

FRA: Frankfurt Main (Frankfurt, Germany)Vegetarian food will be available

"Die Jugendhilfe Essen" (Youth Welfare in Essen) is the youth farm's provider. Here, children and young people have the opportunity to experience responsible working behaviour when dealing with nature. Around 100 animals live on the huge farm and want to be looked after and fed by young people and children. In summer, holiday activities take place. These involve working with the animals, in the farm's garden (maintaining and harvesting crops) and working with children. Besides this, there will be some manual work – over the last few years, for example, participants have built a goat pen and an insect hotel, as well as many other upcycling projects. There could also be other ecological projects. Tasks will be assigned daily to participants. You should be flexible and enjoy working outside.

A room on the grounds of the youth farm. All participants will sleep in one room. As well as this, there is a renovated construction trailer available for sleeping in. Participants will cook their own meals together

The convenient location of the camp in the Ruhr area means you can visit other interesting towns nearby, such as Dortmund or Münster. Köln and the Netherlands are also easily reachable. On the grounds of the youth farm, you can play football, volleyball and table tennis. A canoe trip available is also available.

An interest and desire to work with animals, in nature/gardens/with children. Knowledge of German is an advantage.

16-26

Essen

English, German

DTM: Dortmund (Dortmund, Germany)Vegetarian food will be available

In October 1940, the Nazis deported around 6500 Jewish citizens from Baden, the present day Rheinland-Palatinate and what is now the Saarland area to an internment camp in Gurs, located in South West France at the foot of the Pyrenees mountains (not too far from Lourdes). Six of these Jewish citizens were inhabitants of the then independent community of Siersburg. Around half of those deported did not survive the first winter in the wooden barracks at this scene of horror. The Rehlingen-Siersburg community wants to establish a place of remembrance as a memory to these former Siersburg citizens and representative of all other victims of National Socialism. You will be helping to establish this place of remembrance, by preparing the necessary surfaces, handling stones from the Pyrenees and setting up stone blocks, and planting small trees and bushes. In the middle of the memorial site there will be a rose bush planted as a symbol of hope. Besides this, part of the camp will include a topical discussion on anti-Semitism and racism in daily life. The local Jewish community will also be involved in this discussion, and guided tours to the synagogue in Saarbrücken as well as visits to other local memorial sites are also possible.

You will be staying in a sports hall. You will prepare and cook meals in small groups.

There are many diverse places to go on trips nearby, such as Saarbrücken, Trier, France or Luxembourg. Besides this, you could visit the natural caves in Niedaltdorf, the Roman museum in Homburg or the Roman villa Borg. In Rehlingen here is also a bowling alley and a mini-golf course. The region is well suited to walks and bike rides.

Interest and motivation for discussion on anti-Semitic topics are an absolute must for participants of this camp.

16-26

Rehlingen-siersburg

English

FRA: Frankfurt Main (Frankfurt, Germany)Vegetarian food will be available

If you want to combine natural adventures with gardening and manual work, then this is exactly the workcamp for you! During a 3 day excursion you can sail with a 2-mast-boat, go kayaking or canoeing, cycling and even stay overnight at the beach. You can learn how to navigate a high rope course and how to do well at archery. Before, during and after these activities you can also show off your creative and practical skills in self-organised workshops on themes such as language, theatre, music and singing. As well as this, you'll be working in the garden and making small repairs to your accommodation and vehicles. During all of these activities you will get to know each others languages, cultures, eating habits as well as creative and practical skills – together with the support from experienced group leaders. The camp is teaming up with Grünen Grashalm – an organisation which primarily deals with teaching and coaching in the international exchange sector. Most of the organisations activities take place outside amongst nature and have a very adventurous framework. Almost 30 employees between the ages of 16 and 64 (two thirds of these are under 30 years old) organise tours, boat trips, ice skating, skiing, cycling, rope climbing and even aircraft activities. The camp will be led by three group leaders, who all have experience with international youth groups. For more info about Grünen Grashalm, visit www.go-outdoor.de. A video from the 2016 workcamp can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDijDJ_XMyE. One from the 2014 workcamp can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38lNQqAaL4M

You'll be staying in rooms with multiple beds. During the excursion you'll be sleeping in tents.You'll prepare and cook your own meals together in groups.

Learning by experience doesn't start in the morning and end by midday. All activities on offer have a strong recreational nature. Through hikes and cycling tours, you will get to know the beautiful surroundings of the area and will be able to visit the Hanseian town of Wismar, travel to the Ostesee lake, go swimming and also sit around the campfire in the evenings.

You should be able to swim and ride a bike, enjoy being on the water and be able to speak English.

14-17

Fahren

English

BER: Berlin - Metropolencode (Berlin, Germany)Vegetarian food will be available

The project will consist of two parts – a practical working part and a study part. The practical working part, which will take place at different parts of the site, will last six hours per day. In the evenings and during the weekend there will be time for the educational and cultural activities. The European Heritage Volunteers Project aims at restoring and cultivating further parts of the historic hotel park. Thereby the old concept of "Parkwald" (park forest) should be regained und brought into presence. This concept, being founded during the 1st 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. In 2025, when Freudenstadt will host a half year "green exhibition" for the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, the hotel park should contribute a singular and outstanding historic scenery.The works, which will be carried out during the project, 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. Finally, a handcrafted historic water suspension system in the hill slope, dating back to 1892, which combines as well technical as artistic construction value, will be restored.Those works and measures will surely help the city of Freudenstadt, its citizens and guests, to realize 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. The garden project can also set an impulse for a highly needed renewal, a new start for the whole old cure district of Freudenstadt.

shared rooms with beds,warm showers, toilets,The 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.

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 and artists. "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 Freudenstadt Association for Heritage is highly ambitious to preserve the splendid architecture as a cultural heritage site of a great age. Therefore it undertakes rooftop repairing and other constructive measures, carries out conservation works as well as preventive measures against the loss of art. 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.This once very characteristic Grandhotel leisure ground had been fallen to oblivion in many years. Forms and structures had gone lost, due to the absence of any gardening and cultivation – until the "Denkmalverein" started to restore paths and interesting places of this traditional ground.

CV + photo, Motivation letter related to the project required

18-99

Freudenstadt

English, German

STR: Stuttgart (Stuttgart, Germany)Vegetarian food will be available

The "Jerselber See" local recreation area, with its bungalow estate, a camp site and a lake for bathing in, belongs to the community of Barleben, located 10km north of Magdeburg. There you will be helping with maintenance work on the beach, clearing out garages and working on other outdoor areas. In Barleben itself, you will be helping out with small building and renovation projects.

You will be sleeping in tents on the campsite at the Jersleber See; Toilets/showers are available. Meals will be prepared and cooked in small groups.

After the working day is done, you can jump into the Jersleber lake, play beach volleyball, relax – basically all of the fun things about summer. Besides this, you can also make use of the skate park and amateur football field in Barleben. For bowling or cinema trips, Magdeburg is not so far away. There are bicycles available for you during the camp, so that you can cycle to Magdeburg or over the gigantic trough bridge to the nearby waterway junction. At the weekends you have the possibility to travel to Berlin, Leipzig or Hamburg.

You should be able to ride a bike. Please bring a sleeping bag and a thermal mat with you.

16-26

Barleben

English

BER: Berlin - Metropolencode (Berlin, Germany)Vegetarian food will be available

The main works will be done in the wood. The volunteers will do various environmental works as well as renovation and construction works on the island and in the forests around the island. Possible tasks are removing bushes and invasive small tree species, collecting rubbish and wood, repairing works and so on. Volunteers should be prepared to be flexible and take part in any work that will support the foresters.

Your accommodation will be very basic. You will sleep in three large tents on camp beds. The infrastructure on the island is very basic without electricity and warm water, not even a warm shower. There is no heating in the tents and on the island you have to use compost toilets. The accommodation is quite isolated so volunteers should come with ideas about how to entertain themselves in the evenings! The foresters of the project have built a nice and comfortable block house where the group will meet and eat

On the island without electricity; Brandenburg, Bernau (bei Berlin 15 km)

You have to be able to swim!

18-26

Wandlitz

English