SERVAS was founded in 1949 in Denmark by a group of students around Bob Luitweiler. Quickly, their idea spread all over the world. Today Servas has more than 15000 members in over 100 countries.
Servas was originally called the Open Door System of Work, Study and Travel. Its current name is derived from the word Servas in Esperanto. This expresses that Servas is to serve peace and international understanding.
Servas has been an observer organization of the United Nations since 1973.
The founding days of Servas have been described by Bob Luitweiler in Seeds of Servas.
Moreover, Dirk Lübbers, Servas member from Hamburg has created two other formats so that the file can be read on e-readers and smartphones with the appropriate app as well as on Kindle readers:
for e-readers and smartphones: Download here (format: epub)
and
for Kindle readers: Download here (format: azw3)
Enjoy reading about the founding ideas and beginning of SERVAS!
Conni Geisendorf
Chairwoman of Servas Germany