After the First World War, the Wandervogel and German Youth Movement joined together to save the castle.
In 1920 they founded the Jugendburg Ludwigstein Association to buy the structure, renovate it, and erect a memorial to the fifty thousand Wandervogel who had been killed from 1914 to 1918.
During the Nazi period, however, the castle became first a training center for the Hitler Youth, then a destination for city children evacuated to avoid air raids during the Second World War.
Also on site are the Archives of the German Youth Movement with their own library and collections of personal papers.
The castle is today the main center of the Bündische Jugend and many German Scouting associations.