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ENTERPRISE
W
hen people started good energy was needed to income. Apart from members Above:
to re-settle in makethingsworkatLebensgarten: who rent rooms to guests Maypole
Lebensgarten 16 years the settlement had been used for (Lebensgarten can comfortably dancing is
ago, few probably knew how it military purposes from 1939, host up to 60 guests), there are one of the
would affect their lives. During functioning as a labour camp about 10 people permanently events that
the first years, Lebensgarten during the war and was finally employed by the association as attracts
residents carried out an intense abandoned 10 years before the kitchen, cleaning and house- inhabitants
renovation of the houses and community arrived. keeping staff as well as those from nearby
the community centre, and So with this background, who work in the accommodation villages.
discussed the overall purpose of it seemed natural that healing office and do the bookkeeping.
the ecovillage. The first period and teaching should become Recently, there have been fewer
was marked by idealism and the two important activities in the members from the community
attitude that we could change community. In 1985 the first running courses themselves,
the world, but soon the basic seminar took place in but there is a steady demand
questions of how the community Lebensgarten, and soon many for using the seminar centre as
should function, and above all, members began to give courses a venue for courses being taught
how the members should make a on subjects mainly related to by teachers from outside the
living, became central issues. healing and self-realisation. community and even from other
Steyerberg, the closest village, Members built new seminar countries. This again presents a Photos by:
is located 50 km (30 miles) from rooms, a guesthouse was opened challenge, as it requires more Agnieszka Komoch
both Bremen and Hanover. With and the accommodation office professionalisation, financial
its traditional focus on agri- and the kitchen were upgraded. investment and development of
culture and industry, the area Today the association of the facilities. For this purpose a
didn’t offer interesting oppor- Lebensgarten Steyerberg holds team of executive officers was
tunities for people joining the three to ten day courses nearly created in 1999 whose job is
community who wanted to do every week. The adult education to make sure that the economic
something different. A lot of program is a great source of aspect of the seminar program
WHAT IS AN ECOVILLAGE?
Ecovillages are urban or rural communities that strive to combine a supportive social environment with a
low-impact way of life. To achieve this, they integrate various aspects of ecological design, permaculture,
ecological building, green production, alternative energy, community building practices, and much more.
These are communities in which people feel supported by and responsible to those around them. They provide a
deep sense of belonging to a group and are small enough for everyone to be seen and heard and to feel empowered.
People are then able to participate in making decisions that affect their own lives and that of the community on
a transparent basis.
Ecovillages allow people to experience their spiritual connection to the living earth. People enjoy daily interaction
with the soil, water, wind, plants and animals. They provide for their daily needs – food, clothing, shelter –
while respecting the cycles of nature.
They embody a sense of unity with the natural world, with cultural heritage around the world and foster
recognition of human life and the Earth itself as part of a larger universe.
Most ecovillages do not place an emphasis on spiritual practices as such, but there is often a recognition that
caring for one’s environment does make people a part of something greater than their own selves. Observing natural
cycles through gardening and cultivating the soil, and respecting the Earth and all living beings on it, ecovillages
tend to maintain, recreate or find cultural expressions of human connectedness with nature and the universe.
Respecting this spirituality and culture manifests in many ways in different traditions and places.