In 1969, Hans Höffmann is only 16 years old when he has the idea of organizing a children’s holiday camp. His father, a civil servant with the railway, does not earn very much and so the family of 11 doesn’t exactly live a life of luxury. They can’t even contemplate going on long distance trips or to faraway countries.

And anyway, the small village in the north of Germany is extremely sleepy and not interested in what happens outside their little world. However, this isn’t enough for Hans Höffmann, he wants more, he wants to see the world and experience adventures. So the idea is born and developed.

A few months later, in the summer of 1970, his first holiday camp takes place with a total of 86 proud participants taking part in this virgin voyage.

Over the years, based on his childhood dream, hard work, yearning and fantasy, Hans Höffmann builds up a large company. In 1987, the Hans Höffmann GmbH is founded and in 2001 he also founds the Höffmann-Reisen GmbH with their registered office in Vechta. With the opening of the first branch in the capital Berlin on February 1st, 2002, the company’s development reaches an all time high. So please let us take this opportunity to present our company and therefore also our work.

Between high and low moorlands, ringed by the Thülsfeld Barrage and the Dam Mountains, in the Northwest of Germany, lies the Münsterland of Oldenburg with its two counties of Vechta and Cloppenburg. Vechta, the seat of a bishop and a university town, with several high schools and institutes of higher learning, numerous general and vocational colleges, with its generous sporting facilities and swimming pools, an indoor wavemaking pool and many public facilities, with nearby recreational areas and shopping malls, a vigorous club life and famed for its horse breeding, is an innovative middle-sized town, as is the neighbouring town of Cloppenburg.

Affinity to their land and staunch Christian faith have coined the people of this region whose prosperity is backed by their ambition and hard work. They honour past traditions with special care, and it is with pride that they present their famous Outdoor Museum, al large village that recaptures the rural culture and lifestyle of a bygone age with painstakingly reconstructed settlements. Here, in the heart of the Münsterland of Oldenburg, is the homebase of Höffmann-Reisen GmbH.

Unbeknown to us, the future of our firm began with our first holiday camp in 1970. Ever larger numbers of participants are interested in our leisure offerings. By and by, our destinations extend to places like the Holstein Lake District and the Eifel Mountains, the Sauerland and the Black Forest, the Allgäu’s alpine approaches and the forests of the Westerwald. We visit Kiel and Hamburg, Ahrweiler and Cologne, Bonn and Koblenz, Freudenstadt and Fribourg, the Feldberg mountain and Lake Titisee, the Triberg Waterfalls and the Rhinefalls at Schaffhausen, the Europa Park at Rust, the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the Strasbourg Cathedral and Zurich Airport.

We tour the pilgrims’destinations of Maria Laach and the Benedictine Monastery in Fährbruck, climb Mount Zugspitze and rest at Lake Chiemsee. We visit the Olympic Stadium and Our Lady’s Church in Munich. We go on a steamer ride on Lake Constance, revel in a sea of flowers on Mainau Island, see the local sights of Kufstein and dip into the Olympic Pools of Innsbruck. In Vienna, we frolic in the Prater Amusement Park and roam the Inner City up to St Stephen’s Cathedral.

In Kitzbühel, we watch the paragliders and in Chamonix, we follow the skiers on Mount Blanc. In Angers, we put up our tents in sight of a castle on the Loire, and are fascinated by St Malo and St Michel. Paris is unforgettable, of course, and Notre Dame, the Pompidou Center and the Eiffel Tower fill us with dreams and images to stay with us for the rest of our lives.

In Italy, we meet Don Amedeo. We live in Terracina and see Rome, the Eternal City. Standing by the Tiber, we marvel not only at the Vatican, St Peters’s Cathedral and at the City of Angels but are just as thrilled by the Quovadis Chapel on the old Via Appia, the Lateran Church, the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain.

And by Fossanova, Pompeii, Monte Cassino, Mount Vesuvius, Pozzuoli, Naples, Capri, Tivoli and Frascati - they all overwhelm us. We are received in a private audience by the Pope and visit Pisa, site of one of the seven wonders of the World. Italy becomes a second home to us.

Budapest, too, puts us in its spell as this unique city spreads out before our eyes in the glow of a thousand lights from the deck of a nocturnal Danube steamer. The Citadel, Mt. Gellert, the Royal Palace, the Castle Quarter, Fisherman’s Bastion, Mathias Church, the Chain Bridge, Margaret Island, the City Park, the Szechenyi Baths, the Heroes’ Square, the Hungaria Cafe, Parliament and St Stephen’s Cathedral, Szentendre, Visegrad and Esztergom are all unique experiences. We hold our own Olympics in the People’s Stadium, plunge into Lake Balaton and are guests at a concert at the Budapest Congress Centre especially put on for us.

Hungarian youths share our holiday camp ever since. They become part of our family and travel with us through the world. On the Iberian Peninsula, we visit Portugal. We take group photographs on Belem Tower and chant songs at the Benfica Stadium. In Lisbon’s Rua Augusta, we climb Portugal’s Eiffel Tower, and the Christo Rei Statue above the Tagus River.

We enjoy visiting the cliffs of Cascais, the most western point of our continent, „Cabo da Roca” and the mountain city of Sintra again. Under the starry sky of Portugal the night becomes day in the camp’s own stadium.Discos and dances, camp Olympics and water parties, playback and dance competitions, kareoke and talent competitions, games without borders and castle building competitions and natural bathing in the Mediterranean or Atlantic oceans are likewise part of our large camp programme.

Time and opportunity are used to the full and our camp Olympics in the Marble Stadium in Athens are held during our summer holiday camp 1996. Our great „Camp Olympics” is a welcome alternative to the Olympics Games taking place in Atlanta at the same time. The Lord Mayor of Athens welcomes the many camp participants who have come to the capital city of Greece for this day as athletes.

140 police officers are on duty. Our large bus convoy cruises through the metropolis. Television and radio stations are represented, editors and photographers are present at our alternative Olympics in the antique stadium. At this moment we hold the undivided attention of the city.

The national flags from our countries are hoisted as are the Olympic flags. Our camp participants enter the historic stadium as athletes to the sounds of the flourish of trumpets. A moving scene. Adorned with scarves in the Olympic colours, they form the Olympic rings in the shade of the Acropolis. An impressive spectacle. Then it becomes silent and the national anthems ring out.

The many girls and boys wave their Olympic scarves to the sounds of the European hymn „Freude schöner Götterfunken”. A splendour of colour becomes visible and the Olympic spirit of a wonderful community becomes perceptible.

On the next day the Greek press report on our unique Olympics at the historical site where the Olympic Games of the modern age began exactly 100 years ago. The organisation, the spectacle, the discipline and especially the community atmosphere were praised to the skies. Large colour photographs characterise the special pages of many newspapers reporting about us on this day.

In the late evening we transmit the television pictures in the camp on our large screen which have been reporting on our unique Olympics during the day. „Being there is everything!”

Foam party and camp Olympics, karaoke and playback events, singles party and fashion shows, talent shows and fantasy show, sporting events and swimming fun, excursions and sightseeing tours, discos and beach parties, barbecues and film nights, all this is part of our holiday and still not all wishes have been fulfilled.

Activity holidays are in. Many girls and boys want to use their holidays to try something for themselves. Riding, diving, sailing, surfing, dancing, walking etc. etc. To fulfil the dreams and wishes of our many camp members, we have a wide range of supplementary activities we can offer. As far as it within our means we expand our range of activities every year and offer individual courses and activities.

The young people gladly take part and use their time and opportunities available and in this way fulfil many of their childhood dreams.

Respect and attention is part of the source of life and this is why we are feeling on top of the world in 1998. The Federal Minister of Finance, Dr. Theo Waigel, has agreed to be our patron and has invited everybody to a great reception in the Beethovenhalle in Bonn. Our headmasters have even given the children the day off school and Theo Waigel is taking plenty of time, signing autographs, giving speeches, distributing presents and dancing with us all.

In Andalusia, we are invited to visit the Mayor of Marbella and on the balcony of the town hall we also receive gifts. The Mayor lifts the compulsory night-time rest hours and we are able to celebrate until the early hours of the morning in the light of the television station’s spotlights.

During our visit to Morocco we are invited to the royal palace in Tangier. We drink out of silver cups and enjoy royal dishes. For a short while we feel like princess and princesses.

In Porto Banus we meet Roberto Blanco, who makes an on the spot decision to come and visit us in the camp. Together we sing and dance and have a great time. The atmosphere is great and together with Roberto we enjoy a beautiful evening under the stars in Spain.We are a part of it all, for a few days we are the centre of attention.

It was simply unbelievable! You can imagine our surprise when we were invited to a private audience with Pope John Paul II in 1982 for the first time. This meeting is so unusual and unique that we didn’t even we’d ever meet the Pope in person again. But as it happens, things turned out quite differently.

Over the next few years, the Pope repeatedly meets the young people and holds a service with them. These are followed by personal audiences. We are given numerous general audiences and seventeen private audiences during the pontificate of John Paul II. The private audiences with the Pope especially make a big and lasting impression on us. The children talk with the Pope and during the relaxed and informal atmosphere, the Pope even signs autographs.

We in turn present the Pope with a football and a T-shirt, some Oldenburg black bread and some smoked ham from Westphalia. The pope is also given an insight into our food stocks when we give him some sausages and Nutella.

It is a very special honour for our cooks not only to cook for our many camp occupants but also bake a cake for the Pope. They handed this special cake over to John Paul II with sparkling eyes.

In Greece we set a sign against violence and extremism. As the largest group of young German people outside our own country, 1,800 of us visit the site of the massacre in Kalavrita. Here, on December 13th, 1943, more than 1,300 male inhabitants of the village from the smallest innocent child to the oldest man were massacred by German soldiers as revenge for the shooting of 81 German soldiers by Greek resistance fighters.

On April 27th, 2000, our Federal President Johannes Rau places a wreath from the Federal Republic of Germany here as an apology, on July 27th, 2000 we cover the blood soaked soil in 21,000 red and 18,000 white carnations in the shape of a sacrificial lamb as a symbol of innocence.

More than 350 journalists from all over the world have come, radio and television are also present and the mayor of Kalavrita welcomes the young people from Germany in his speech and in the name of the village thanks us for our unusual visit. The German ambassador in Athens and our patron this year, Dr. Kuhne, welcomes the young people at the ceremony in the hills.

The bishop, the German consul and Hans Höffmann take turns to speak and then Franzeska Nika, an eyewitness at the time speaks: ”I would like to embrace you all and kiss youÓ and with tears in her eyes she thanks all the young people from Germany ” for allowing me to be here and experience this today, you came here, so many of you, you decided to come here where you are in the sun instead of going to the refreshing sea, you have set a sign for peace and forgiveness and for that I will be forever grateful.Ó

We have visited America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa with our groups of young people. We are the centre of attention everywhere. ”The Europeans are hereÓ. That is the headline in a daily newspaper in San Francisco in the Easter holidays in 1995. Time and time again, the young people in our group are in the limelight. Many American television stations transmit reports about us. The girls and boys give numerous interviews.

Members of the New York Times arrange to meet us in the Hilton Hotel just outside Manhattan. Our group is presented to the interested public the next day. Everybody marvels at the group’s discipline.

Every year during the Easter holidays we visit far away continents with our group of young people. Whether in San Francisco or Yosemite National Park, whether at the Grand Canyon or in Beverley Hills, in Florida or Los Angeles, in Las Vegas or New Orleans, in Washington D.C or in New York, in Singapore or in Melbourne, in Canberra or in Sidney, Ayers Rock or the Great Barrier Reef, in Cairns or Kuranda, in Johannesburg or Gold Reef City, in Pretoria or in the Krüger National Park, in Port Elisabeth or in Cape Town, in Auckland or in Rotorua, in Wellington or in Queenstown, in Te Anau or in Christchurch, we feel at home everywhere.

In the course of time „parents’ journeys” have also emerged out of our youth journeys. Our offer has already covered a wide range for many years. Many adult groups travel with us. Our „parents’ journeys” are enjoying increasing popularity. We visit the most different continents in small groups. Local tour guides welcome us at the airport and accompany us through the country.

A sound knowledge and adequate information enrichen our journeys. Staff from our office take care of the individual groups during the trip and are available at all times as contact persons and/or as interpreters. Commitment, competence and specialised knowledge complement each other. Our travel guests are very satisfied. No exotic cheap flights but scheduled daily return flights from renowned airlines offer a high standard of safety.

Good and first-class hotels guarantee clean and perfect accommodation. A diversified and balanced programme guarantee an impressive journey, rich in adventure. Our trips around the globe are successful in all seasons, not least due to the fact that the cost effectiveness is right!

Long-term experience and a wide range of equipment ensure that we will soon be active in a unique field in the travel branch. Large school trips will be organised and carried out by us. Not only the classes and/or grades of different schools make school trips with our bus but also complete schools go on journeys with us.

Visiting the Eternal city of Rome with 1,000 pupils (St. Mauritz Münster) or Vienna with 650 poses no problem for us. We are always there and let our long-term experience flow into the planning and realisation. When our large kitchen van is set up, full catering is ensured for all. Tents are there as accommodation but also caravan parks with small apartments are available.

Parents, pupils, school heads and teachers place great trust in us. Pupils and teachers get to know each other from another side; mutual impressions, mutual experiences, mutually on the road together. Stress, pressure to do well and strict discipline remain in the school building. You’re a different person on the road and coming together is less complicated and easier. The feeling of belonging grows. A great possibility to promote the school community. We’re in on it!

The grammar school Leoninum Handrup (Emsland) wishes to undertake a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela with more than 1,000 pupils. Transport, accommodation, catering, care, medical care and supporting programme are only a few of the aspects which have to be organized in detail. The greatest challenge however is the pilgrimage itself.

For four weeks one of our members of staff explores the Spanish Camino for us on his mountain bike and records everything in pictures and text, caricatures and sketches. He returns with an exclusive, informative 312 page stage journal which reminds us of a doctoral dissertation.

On Tuesday, June 13th, 2000, a church service takes place at the school and with the blessing of the diocesan bishop Franz-Josef Bode, the pilgrims get under way. Over the next days individual groups of pupils set off on one of the 100 stages of their pilgrimage and arrive at their quarters tired and hungry in the evening. Drinks and a small snack are ready upon their arrival. A short time later it is time for their evening meal which is followed by a night-time snack. After breakfast, the next morning, a buffet, they set off again. Our helpers and truck drivers, our cooks and doctors move on to the next stop. In the evening, everything must be ready and set up at the new location to greet our weary wanderers.

The last day of the pilgrimage is the highlight of the trip. The large group of pupils and teachers of the Leoninum grammar school has covered the entire 720 km of the Camino in Northern Spain, praying and singing as they walked.

The personnel on our long-distance tours works on an honorary basis and without remuneration. Many who had been on our tours as youngsters are now part of our specialist ranks as young adults. Some are already in training or have even started their careers.

Nurses, medics, social workers, educators and teachers, managers, craftsmen, clerks, businessmen, theologists or legal pros meet their challenge as camp directors, guide, interpreters, photographers, video operators, nurses, supply drivers, team leaders, doctors, referees, electricians or disk jockeys. A first-class blend of competence and commitment.

During camp times, mothers of participating youngsters help out on an honorary basis in the camp kitchens under the supervision of experienced chef cooks to ensure adequate catering for so many boys and girls.

In the Spring of 1997 we decided to extend our range of services and buy our own busses. Equipped with leather seats, satellite TV, video, air conditioning, on-board kitchen, microwave, stereo system, CD and DVD player, side wall heating, toilet and root wood. The best for the best.

We continuously expand the range of trips we have to offer. Town sightseeing trips, sightseeing trips, cultural trips, school trips, day trips and short trips for both adults and young people are added. We not only let the bus, we also organize the trip and book hotel rooms for our clients. We ensure that the trip is varied and are always prepared to provide something special.

Service and comfort are always great. Many groups, associations, schools and private people book trips with us. They all enjoy the superb equipment in our luxury long distance busses and the friendly treatment by our qualified drivers.

As a travel agent we frequently are given better conditions than our clients. Naturally we pass these discounts straight on to our travellers. They like and remember that. In the meantime, our busses travel throughout the whole of Europe.

Providing several meals a day for 1,800 children is a great challenge for our mothers. It is not unusual to have that many children in our holiday camps. We need 400 litres of milk, 2000 eggs and nearly 4500 bread rolls for breakfast. For lunch we need to peel and cook 550 kg potatoes and fry 2000 pork escalopes.

For our evening meal we need more than 180 kg of noodles some days and on hot days we need up to 6000 l of chilled lemon tea.

It is obvious that this cannot be accomplished on small camping cookers. This is why we always take a mobile, industrial scale kitchen with us to ensure that we can feed our camp members anywhere in Europe. We are able to fry 4,800 steaks within one hour and to make 3,600 l of tea. The participants serve themselves in the cooking pavilion. We serve a total of 518,000 meals during the summer holidays.

We are proud of our mobile sanitary and power generation facility which brims over with technology and allows us to set up camp anywhere in Europe.

The core of our supply and disposal centre is the water tank and power generator vehicle. Theoretically, we have enough power to provide 10,800 hot showers at a temperature of 33 ¡C a day. To save energy, the waste water heat ist recycled by the power generator while at the same time, feed water is heated up by solar cells. These two devices permit reducing power consumption by some 35 % in this case. Heating coils supplied from a power truck then raise the water to the final temperature.

Our generator units puts out 443 kW of power. Its motor is a water-cooled 4-stroke diesel engine with direct fuel injection. The unit is turbocharged and has a 12-cylinder V-motor. The engine power is 1,00 PS and its speed around 1,500 rpm. The generator is permanently installed on a truck, ready to be used anywhere we go in Europe.

A mobile unit meeting all these functions, and which we can take along wherever we go.

Special steel toilets, generously dimensioned shower cabins and proper water drainage, built - in power and water supply - a clean and tidy solution.

For public campsites, too, our mobile sanitary unit is a great asset as it helps relieve existing facilities. While many campsites do offer enough space, our efforts are often limited by a lack of adequate treatment facilities.

These problems do not apply to us as we have the solution in tow! Our toilet and shower cabins, kitchens and own power supply can be put to good use anywhere in Europe.

The trips with our young people do not go unnoticed. Soon the media take note of us too. In fact, soon it is more than just taking note, in many European towns we soon fill long columns and entire pages.

The radio and television stations also agree that it is well worth reporting on our activities. In Italy they talk about international encounters between young people, in Hungary they talk about international understanding, in Portugal about the largest youth exchange of all times, in Greece about reconciliation and in Spain about a meeting of friends.

Even the paper of the Vatican ”L’Osservatore RomanoÓ reports on our visits to the Pope and a hot wire is set up between the holiday camp and our papers at home.

In the summer of 2001, SAT1 breakfast television comes to visit. For an entire week, parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents, friends and millions of viewers take part in our camp life. The breakfast television team will be accompanying us to our camp in Malaga in the Summer of 2002 also and will be transmitting our greatest experiences all the way home.

In February 2002, SAT1 will be presenting us as a reliable youth travel organizer and naturally, how else could it be, we are of course extremely happy about this fact.

To be committed to working with young people should be the least anybody can do. Many of the daily newspapers are superb partners which do this. We stand up together and the publishers take over the task of advertising our young person’s trips as ”Young reader’s travel packageÓ in their daily newspapers.

The commitment for the young reader’s has a great response and soon we will be represented throughout Germany. Our offers appear from the North Sea to Bavaria and thousands of young people make use of it.

We organize our information evenings regularly with the help of the daily newspapers in more than thirty towns. Parents, sons and daughters, grandparents and all those interested are very welcome.

Everywhere, whether in Düsseldorf or Aachen, in Ulm or Munich, in Würzburg or Nürnberg, in Tübingen or Braunschweig, in Lübeck or Marburg, in Bayreuth or Münster, in Kempten or Saarbrücken, in Trier or Remscheid, in Solingen or Gie§en, in Berlin or Vechta, in Nidda or Hamburg, the guests appreciate the commitment of the daily papers and our company.

Together we fill the town halls and rooms, co-operation which has no equal.

For a long time now we have wanted to win over famous personalities in public life for our international trips as patrons. Manfred Carstens, member of the German Federal Parliament and later on Secretary of State in the Federal Ministry of Transport is our first patron.

This is followed by the Ministry for Youth Welfare and the later President of the German Federal Parliament Prof. Dr. Rita Süssmuth. For our holiday camp in Hungary the Minister of the Chancellor Office and later Federal Minister of the Interior Rudolf Seiters is our patron. For our trip to Portugal, the Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher volunteers to be our patron and in the following year we are pleased to have the Chairman of the parliamentary group Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble as our patron.

In 1998, Dr. Theo Waigel, Minister of Finance and patron of our trip to Malaga, invites all those taking part to a big reception in the Beethovenhalle in Bonn. Even the Chancellor Gerhard Schröder agrees to be our patron for the 6,000 participants of our trip to Greece in 1999 and therefore honours our work in a very special way.

Personalities from abroad also agree to become patrons for our international holiday camps. In the Pope’s country, Don Amedeo Passeri from Terracina is the patron of our holiday camp.

The „Höffmann Group” Travels to France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Austria and Italy. But a look over the horizon takes it in Hungary as well. The day, the barbed wire comes down and the border is lifted for the East Germans hauled up in the German Embassy in Hungary, Hans Höffmann is on the way to the Hungarian capital. Endless is the queue of oncoming cars of the many East German families but Hans Höffmann swims against the tide once again. In Budapest, he makes contact with the Hungarian Ministry of Youth Affairs, laying the foundations for an intensive relationship.

Hans Höffmann assists the Republic of Hungary with the establishment of a new department for youth-related work. In 1992, his work is especially honoured. The Republic of Hungary awards him the Order of Merit for International Cooperation. At a celebration at the Hungarian Embassy on 17 June 1992, Ambassador Dr Attila Csenger-Zalan hands Hans Höffmann the award certificate.

We are convinced that we should have contacts near our customers. There are many girls and boys in our capital city who do not know what we have to offer. We are convinced that many young people in Berlin would like to experience our unique trips. It is our duty to contact the young people in Berlin. We opened our branch office in Berlin at the beginning of January 2002.

Christian Wohlfarth is our contact in Berlin. After completing his ÔA’-levels at the grammar school St. Mauritz in Münster he went to study Tourism at the Berufsakademie Ravensburg. He completed his practical training with our company. When he was 13 years old, Christian Wohlfarth took part in our summer camp in Portugal for the first time. Since then he has joined us on our trips to Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Austria, Norway, Australia, China, South Africa, New Zealand and Iceland.

Christian Wohlfarth is an experienced, committed and sensitive member of staff. He will be heading our branch in the capital as procurist.

We visit many European cities and opportunities to receive individual members or small delegations of youngsters abound.

Thus, we are guests of Minister Seiters at the Palais Schaumburg in Bonn. In the presence of many cabinet members, the Portuguese Minister for Youth Affairs receives the winning village of our camp olympics to lunch at his ministry in Lisbon. The mayer of the Portuguese capital bids us a cordial welcome at Lisbon’s City Hall. Minister of Youth Affairs, Rita Süssmuth, receives our camp choir at her ministry at Bad Godesberg while MP Werner Münch receives camp members at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

During our stay in Budapest, our group is received at the Hungarian Parliament while in the Vatican, His Holiness Pope John Paul II receives a small group of escort personnel at his private library.

A few years later, more than one hundred girls and boys feel like royalty during our visit to Morocco, when they are invited as a delegation of our camp community to a reception in the royal palace and the mayor invites all the camp community to the town hall in Marbella.