DAV Sektion Frankfurt am Main: Family Groups and the Youth Climbing Program
DAV Sektion Frankfurt am Main, the local branch of Germany's Alpine Club, runs two genuinely separate tracks for families rather than one combined program. The first is a set of four standing Familiengruppen (Familiengruppe 1, 3, 4, and 5), each built around a specific birth-year cohort of kids so the children in a group are roughly the same age, running their own rotating calendar of day trips, weekend hikes, indoor and outdoor climbing, canoeing, cycling, and multi-day hut trips, mostly planned by the member families themselves on a rotating basis. All four groups are coordinated through the section's Familienbeauftragte (family representative), Karin Gierke, at 06101 5817505. The second track is the DAV Jugendgruppe, for kids aged 8 to 18 attending without their parents, meeting weekly for climbing training at the DAV Kletterzentrum Frankfurt am Main (Homburger Landstraße 283), a climbing center with more than 1,700 square meters of climbing and bouldering surface, split into an Affenbande sub-group for teens 13 and up and a Faul(e)Tiere sub-group for ages 8 to 17, with mountain biking, outdoor climbing, and holiday trips added on weekends and school breaks; no prior climbing experience is required. Both tracks require an active DAV membership first, and Frankfurt's section prices membership per person rather than as one flat family rate: a full adult member (25 and up) pays 95 euros a year plus a one-time 30 euro enrollment fee, a member's partner qualifies for the reduced 47.50 euro rate plus 20 euros enrollment, and children and teens under 18 pay 25 euros a year joining alone but nothing at all once they're part of a family unit with at least one paying adult member. Joining after September 1 cuts that year's fee in half. The section's own site is almost entirely in German, and unlike some larger DAV sections, no dedicated English-language membership track is currently published, so English-speaking families are better off contacting the Familienbeauftragte or the Jugendgruppe's youth coordinators directly to ask about language support before applying.
The Official Rule
Families in Frankfurt looking for an ongoing mountain-sports club, not just a single climbing-gym birthday party, run into two genuinely different tracks at DAV Sektion Frankfurt am Main, the city’s branch of the German Alpine Club (Deutscher Alpenverein). Knowing which one actually fits saves weeks of emailing the wrong group.
The long-term, whole-family option is joining a Familiengruppe. The section runs four of them: Familiengruppe 1, 3, 4, and 5, each organized around a specific birth-year cohort of children so the kids in a given group are roughly the same age. Familiengruppe 3’s own page describes welcoming children born 2007 through 2015 and explicitly states it understands “family” broadly, not only the classic parent-child unit, all family forms are welcome. Activities across the groups include day trips, weekend excursions, week-long trips, hiking, indoor and outdoor climbing, canoeing, cycling, sledding, and hut weekends, with Familiengruppe 4 running roughly bimonthly outings, mostly day trips in and around Frankfurt, while Familiengruppe 5 holds a monthly hike on the last Sunday of the month plus regular climbing-gym sessions. A recurring feature across all four groups is that activities are planned and led on a rotating basis by the member families themselves, not by paid staff. Every group is coordinated through the section’s Familienbeauftragte (family representative), Karin Gierke, at 06101 5817505 or familienbeauftragte@dav-frankfurtmain.de, who is the right first contact for finding which group (or waitlist) currently fits your child’s age.
| Track | Who it's for | How it works | Contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Familiengruppen 1, 3, 4, 5 | Whole family, kids grouped by birth-year cohort | Rotating, member-led day trips, hikes, indoor/outdoor climbing, canoeing, cycling, hut weekends | Familienbeauftragte Karin Gierke, 06101 5817505 |
| DAV Jugendgruppe | Kids 8-18, attending without parents | Weekly climbing training at the Kletterzentrum, plus mountain biking, outdoor climbing, holiday trips | jugendreferent@dav-frankfurtmain.de |
A separate track exists for kids who want to climb without their parents at all. The DAV Jugendgruppe covers ages 8 to 18, meeting weekly at the DAV Kletterzentrum Frankfurt am Main, Homburger Landstraße 283, a climbing center with over 1,700 square meters of climbing and bouldering surface. The group splits by age into an Affenbande sub-group for teens 13 and older (Tuesdays, 5-7pm) and a Faul(e)Tiere sub-group spanning ages 8 to 17 (Wednesdays or Thursdays, 5-7pm, depending on the specific age band), with mountain biking outings roughly monthly and weekend or holiday trips adding outdoor climbing and time at natural rock when the weather allows. The group’s own page is explicit that no prior climbing experience is required (Vorkenntnisse werden nicht benötigt); interested families simply reach out through the group’s contact form with the child’s age and get added to the mailing list.
DAV Kletterzentrum Frankfurt am Main: Homburger Landstraße 283, 60433 Frankfurt am Main, home base of the Jugendgruppe's weekly climbing sessions.
Both tracks share the same underlying requirement: an active DAV membership, and Frankfurt’s section prices it per person rather than as a single flat family rate the way some other DAV sections do. The section’s own fee schedule breaks down as follows:
| Category | Who qualifies | Annual fee | Enrollment fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| A-Mitglieder (full member) | Adults 25 and up | 95.00 EUR | 30.00 EUR, one-time |
| B-Mitglieder (reduced) | Partners of existing members, age 70+, mountain rescue volunteers, 50%+ disabled | 47.50 EUR | 20.00 EUR, one-time |
| C-Mitglieder (guest) | Guest members | 47.50 EUR | None |
| D-Mitglieder | Ages 18-24 (23.75 EUR if 50%+ disabled) | 47.50 EUR | 15.00 EUR (10.00 EUR if in training or disabled) |
| J-Mitglieder | Ages 0-17, joining alone | 25.00 EUR | None |
| J-Mitglieder, family group | Ages 0-17, part of a family unit with a paying adult member | Free | None |
Joining partway through the year comes with a built-in discount: the section’s own notice states that anyone joining after September 1 owes only half of that year’s annual fee. Note that this fee structure covers both tracks at once, a family paying into one Familiengruppe or a teen attending the Jugendgruppe both draw on the same underlying membership, there’s no separate group fee stacked on top.
English-speaking families should go in with realistic expectations about language. Unlike DAV’s larger sections, Munich’s among them, which run a dedicated English-language membership page and an English-speaking international mountaineering group, DAV Sektion Frankfurt am Main’s own site is almost entirely in German, and no equivalent English-language track is currently published. The more reliable approach if your German is still developing is contacting the Familienbeauftragte or the Jugendgruppe’s youth coordinators directly, by phone or email, and asking about language support before submitting an application.
What Real People Say
The clearest first-hand picture of what these groups actually do comes from the family groups’ own trip reports, published on the section’s site rather than written for marketing. Familiengruppe 2’s 2019 annual report walks through a genuinely varied year: a winter trip to Kaltenbach in the Zillertal that went ahead despite avalanche warnings (the group’s own matter-of-fact verdict: “Es war einfach nur Winter”, it was simply winter), a spring walk through Wetzlar’s optical-industry heritage sites, a May excursion to Kassel’s Wilhelmshöhe water gardens, a summer alpine hut tour through the Lechtal Alps with some challenging snow conditions, a September cycling trip along the Main to Mainz, and an autumn hike through the Alzenau wine country.
Familiengruppe 5’s own trip-report archive, spanning 2019 through 2025, shows the same pattern of low-key, locally-rooted outings rather than headline alpine expeditions: a 2024 hike through the Seltenbachschlucht’s moss-covered canyon hunting for salamanders, a 2023 hut weekend at the Erlenhof in the Odenwald where families made their own fire steels, and a rainy July 2019 outing that the group’s own report shrugged off with a line worth remembering before any family trip: “Spaß ist mindestens ebenso wichtig fürs Wohlbefinden”, enjoyment matters just as much for wellbeing as anything else. The overall picture across both groups is less about summiting peaks and more about a rotating cast of volunteer parent-organizers keeping a regular, low-pressure outdoor rhythm going year-round.
Step by Step
- Decide which track fits your family first. A standing Familiengruppe suits families wanting an ongoing community built around trips the whole family attends together; the Jugendgruppe suits a child aged 8-18 who wants to climb regularly without a parent along.
- Take out DAV membership before applying to anything. Both tracks require an active membership with DAV Sektion Frankfurt am Main; budget roughly 95 euros for a full adult member plus a one-time 30 euro enrollment fee, with kids free once part of a family unit.
- Contact the Familienbeauftragte, Karin Gierke (06101 5817505 or familienbeauftragte@dav-frankfurtmain.de), to find which Familiengruppe fits your child’s birth year, since each group’s cohort shifts year to year and some may currently be full or have a waitlist.
- For a child old enough to attend without you, reach out to the Jugendgruppe through its contact form with the child’s age; no prior climbing experience is needed, and the group will add you to its mailing list ahead of a weekly session.
- If your German is still limited, say so directly when you first contact a group leader or the Familienbeauftragte, rather than assuming an English-language track exists, since none is currently published on the section’s own site.
- Budget for the September 1 fee-halving rule if you’re joining partway through the year, it’s built into the section’s own published fee schedule and applies regardless of which track you’re joining.
Compliance Note
This page describes membership fees, group structure, and program availability at DAV Sektion Frankfurt am Main as of mid-2026. Fees, birth-year cohorts, specific groups, and contact details can change from year to year. Confirm current prices, group availability, and application procedures directly with DAV Sektion Frankfurt am Main before applying or paying for membership.
FAQ & Common Pitfalls
Do we need climbing experience before joining a Familiengruppe or the Jugendgruppe?
No. The Jugendgruppe's own page states plainly that no prior knowledge is required (Vorkenntnisse werden nicht benötigt), new members simply join the group's regular sessions at the Kletterzentrum and build skills there. The Familiengruppen are even less about performance: they're organized around shared family trips, hikes, and hut weekends where climbing is one activity among many, not a prerequisite for joining.
Which Familiengruppe fits our child's age?
It depends on the year, since each group is built around a specific birth-year cohort that ages together and eventually closes to new members as the kids grow up. As of the most recent information available, Familiengruppe 3 covers children born roughly 2007 to 2015, Familiengruppe 5 covers roughly 2014 to 2017, and Familiengruppe 4's cohort has aged into the 12-15 range. These cohorts shift every year and new groups form periodically, so the most reliable step is contacting the Familienbeauftragte, Karin Gierke, at 06101 5817505, who can point you to whichever group (or waitlist) currently fits your child's age.
How much does membership actually cost for a family of four?
Unlike some DAV sections that charge one flat family rate, Frankfurt prices membership per person. A typical two-parent household would pay one full adult rate (95 euros a year, plus a 30 euro enrollment fee the first year only) and one partner rate for the second adult (47.50 euros a year, plus 20 euros enrollment the first year), while two children under 18 join for free once they're part of that family unit. That works out to roughly 192.50 euros the first year and 142.50 euros every year after, covering both the Familiengruppe and Jugendgruppe tracks, since both run on the same underlying DAV membership.
Is there English-language support if our German isn't strong yet?
Not in any dedicated, published form. Unlike DAV's larger sections in cities like Munich, which run a distinct English-language membership page and an English-speaking mountaineering group, DAV Sektion Frankfurt am Main's own site is almost entirely in German, with no equivalent program currently listed. If your German is limited, the more reliable move is contacting the Familienbeauftragte or the Jugendgruppe's youth coordinators directly by phone or email and asking about language support before you commit to an application.
What if our child wants to climb without us, or is too old for a Familiengruppe?
That's exactly what the Jugendgruppe is for. It covers ages 8 to 18 specifically, meeting weekly at the DAV Kletterzentrum Frankfurt am Main without any parent attendance required, split into an Affenbande sub-group for teens 13 and older and a Faul(e)Tiere sub-group for the 8-17 range, with mountain biking and outdoor climbing added on weekends and during school holidays.