Hohenzollern Castle
With over 350,000 visitors per year Hohenzollern castle is one of the most visited castles in Germany. The castle is privately owned by the House of Hohenzollern, with two-thirds belonging to the Brandenburg-Prussian branch, and the balance to the Swabian branch. Since 1952, the Princess Kira of Prussia Foundation has used the castle for an annual summer camp for children. Whenever Prince George and his family are staying at the castle, the Prussian flag flies over the castle.
Hohnstein Castle (Saxon Switzerland)
In 1925 the mighty castle became a youth hostel ("Jugendburg") and was one of the largest and most attractive youth hostels in Germany (with about 1,000 bedspaces). The "Hohnsteiner Kasper" puppet theatre is named after the town and castle and put on its first performance in 1928 in the castle. In the years 1933/34 a concentration camp was established here for so-called protective custody prisoners ("Schutzhäftlinge"), in practice 5,600 political prisoners. During World War II a prisoner of war camp was housed in the castle and, after the war it was a refuge for displaced persons. From 1949 it was extended to become the largest youth hostel in the GDR; at the end of the SED rule an internment camp for 890 political opponents was planned. In 1953 the National Science Museum for Geology, Botany, Zoology and Ecology of the countryside was established here. In 1997 the castle was turned into a Friends of Nature house and youth guest house, to which the museum belongs today.