The group was founded by three activists, Karl Renner, a law student and future President of Austria, Georg Schmiedl, a schoolteacher, and Alois Rohrauer, a blacksmith.
[1] In the age of incipient tourism, the organisation succeeded in making nature accessible to broader population strata by providing requisite recreational and travel facilities.
[3] They provide environmentally sound travel programmes for their members and run over 700 Nature Friends Houses mainly in Europe.
Nature Friends members, some of whom were immigrants from Germany and Hungary, completed building the chalet style clubhouse in 1923.
The International Young Nature friends (IYNF) cooperated and were supported by the Council of Europe's Directorate Youth and Sport.
As it was founded with the goal of making outdoor recreation accessible to all, particularly working-class families, while emphasizing environmental conservation and sustainable tourism.