Our Life at Lebensgarten

by Declan Kennedy

P ERMACULTURE DESIGNER Declan Kennedy, one of the early settlers of this former German arms factory, touches on social and economic aspects of life in his ecovillage.

THE COMMUNITY OF LEBENSGARTEN was founded when a Berlin businessman bought a dilapidated housing estate in Steyerberg, Germany, built in 1939 as housing quarters for an ammunition factory. In 1984, together with six others, the businessman decided to initiate a spiritual and ecological center there.

The complex has 65 row houses and various community buildings. After the Second World War, it was used as a barracks by the English army. My wife Magrit and I moved here in 1985. By 1987 all the houses had either been bought or rented by people interested in participating in this community experiment. Now over 130 people of different ages, social and professional backgrounds, religions, and objectives live in the community.

We are continually asked how people earn a living in Lebensgarten. There are as many answers as the number of people who live here. A relatively large group practices and teaches alternative healing methods. Another group produces arts and crafts. A seminar group organizes and holds courses for subjects ranging from encounter groups and sacred dance to practical environmental protection. Some residents have created their own work; others have found jobs outside. Some individuals can carry out their free-lance profession anywhere, a few keep their necks above water by drawing unemployment benefits. There are old-age pensioners, people living from their savings for a transitory period until something else crops up, and a few who have come in for an inheritance and are making a completely new start. One couple runs a co-operative shop on a part-time basis. Two members make jewelry. One man has started a bookstore. Another has a shop that sells biological building materials. Two of the members bake three times a week for the community. And many other services are offered which are linked to the people who come as participants in our seminars.

Whether we refer to the questionable results of the so-called Green Revolution, or the exploitation of Third World countries, the global environmental pollution, the debt crisis, or the absurdity of European agricultural subsidies, we are now coming closer to the limits of what we used to define as "progress." The experiments with perma culture in Steyer berg show that our common co-existence depends, finally, on how we break through the narrow and limited attitudes in which we practice. We can imagine a wider use of these experiences of permaculture and spirituality in other ecovillages around the world.

The most important "spiritual" maxim that has made it possible for all these people to live together in Lebensgarten is the perception that the world is our mirror. The difficulties we have with other people (or other physical, economic, or social structures) represent the difficulties that we have to overcome within ourselves. We are not victims, but fellow creators of our own lives. With this, we assume the full responsibility for everything we do and experience.

This spiritual outlook naturally has a whole series of practical consequences with respect to our daily relationships to one another and to the resources upon which we rely for sustenance. The community demonstrates to each individual that change starts within oneself and that everyone is experiencing similar difficulties in the process of change. Similar to the permaculture principle of polyculture instead of monoculture, the heterogeneity in a community makes life both highly fruitful, but also sometimes difficult. Neither our up-bringing nor our sectoral education offer good preparation for such an ecological or social context. This transformational work on ourselves and within the group has cost at least as much time and energy, up to now, as the normal daily work within the Lebensgarten community.

Declan Kennedy, originally from Ireland, is an architect, urban planner, ecologist, and permaculture designer. The European coordinator for the Global Eco-Village Network (GEN), he focuses on the interface between ecology and the built environment, designing, and lecturing on ecovillages and urban ecology.