During this time he lived several occupied houses in the Berlin districts Mitte and Kreuzberg.
In 1994 while he was still completing his studies he opened Berlin's first hostel,[1] called The backpacker and could be found on the fourth floor of 44 Köthener Straße in Berlin-Kreuzberg.
He gave up his job as a social worker in order to devote himself full-time to the hostel.
[2] From the start Zelck followed the idea to give the hostels an artistic orientation and with this conceived the first Design and Art-Hostel-Concept.
[5] In 2007 a 5 meter tall Superman statue, which is planted head first into the ground, was also a guest at baxpax downtown Hostel Hotel.
With his provocative advertising campaigns, Zelck has several times attracted the disfavour of the Berlin Hostel Branch.