Servas Open Doors - First Servas International Conference

First Servas International Conference

• Seeds of servas, Bob Luitweiler

First Peace Builders International Conference, Hamburg, Germany Out of which came the name "Servas" (1952) (L to R) Folke Hertling, Germany, Chris Smith, UK; Nana Fundar, Denmark, Claus Weiss, Germany, Leticia Grove, Bob Luitweiler, USA, Dagny Ingvorsen, Esma Boroughs, UK, Connie Jones, UK, August Budinski, Helmut Hertling, Germany, Krisun Ingvorsen, Denmark

Should I continue my planned trip through South East Asia, the Philippines and Japan or retrace my steps back to Europe? I canceled my plans to continue around the world and took the next ship back to Europe. The first International Servas gathering met at Claus Weiss' and the Hertling's house near Hamburg. Gertraud Hertling who had sowed the first seed for our program was not there but her father took us in like his family. Only England, Denmark and Germany were officially represented. Besides agreeing on some basic procedures, we settled on a name for our program. Esther liked "Open Doors." I liked "Peace Builders" but did not like using an English title. Esma Boroughs, the first International Setvas Secretaty, chose "Servas" that is Esperanto for "serve," in the present tense. We all agreed. The thought was that people who traveled would learn from their hosts how they could more effectively selVe in their home communities to develop programs and human relations that were free of the seeds of war. At no time did anyone suggest that choosing Servas meant we would abandon our original purpose of peace building. The stoty that choosing the name Servas meant we wanted to alter the aim of our program is wrong. We just wanted a name that was more international then Peace Builders which was exclusively English. By the time I returned from India, Claus Weiss with fellow students Joachim Wessloh and Gertraud's brother Volker had established a German working committee and had already gathered around 40 hospitality addresses. Joop van der Spek was leading the program in the Netherlands. Nana Funder who had an outstanding preschool in Denmark and had been a Servas traveler in the US along with Kristen Ingvorsen a manufacturer of roofing tiles, ran Servas in Denmark for many years.In those early years the leadership of Servas in most countries changed frequently.