Gemeinschaft Tempelhof

Context

Globalisation has seen a proliferation of global value chain activities whereby production is fragmented and the division of labour exploits countries whose land, resources, and labour forces are used to serve richer consumer countries. In these centres of consumerism, meanwhile, people can often feel detached or alienated from where products, sources of energy, or food comes from. As climate breakdown and international conflicts expose the precariousness of global value chains, shifting towards a “new model that makes the existing obsolete”¹ A quote by Buckminster Fuller: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” Buckminster R. Fuller. Critical Path (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1982). becomes paramount. Taking this as a challenge, people across the world have begun to create regenerative communities, which understand the word regeneration as describing the simultaneous repair and cultivation of soil vitality, water sources, habitats, communities, and relationships.² Pamela Mang and Bill Reed, ‘Regenerative Development and Design’, in Sustainable Built Environments, ed. by Vivian Loftness and Dagmar Haase (New York, NY: Springer New York, 2013), pp. 478-501 <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5828-9_303> These communities imagine a world living abundantly, while within its limits, and thereby exemplify what the economist Kate Raworth describes as a simultaneous care for people and planet.³Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist (London: Penguin, 2017).

Practice

Gemeinschaft Tempelhof is an example of such a regenerative community. Formed in 2010 as a cooperative by a group of 20 entrepreneurs and activists from civil society movements, they decided to implement such a model of construction and living. Through the cooperative, they managed to acquire a disused 17th-century castle with surrounding buildings as freehold with a term of 99 years. The idea behind Gemeinschaft Tempelhof is to practice sustainable agriculture and live self-sufficiently while sharing ideas and strategy with other international members of the Global Ecovillage Network. The cooperative also collaborates with the local community whose members were consulted prior to the cooperative’s acquisition of the land.

There is no private land ownership at Gemeinschaft Tempelhof. New members can join the cooperative through a one-time contribution and a monthly basic payment for rent and subsistence. Currently there are more than 200 residents on site, each occupying around 24 square metres. Members have a wide variety of professional and geographical backgrounds. There are also state-approved primary and secondary schools whose curricula focus on cultivation and climate. Gemeinschaft Tempelhof is also a member of the Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) network and follows a permaculture and market gardening model in order to supply the the community at Tempelhof and the surrounding community with fresh and high-quality vegetables, herbs, and grains, whilst working on the regeneration of the soil.

Gemeinschaft Tempelhof is one of many practices that cultivate inter-personal relationships and solidarity between producers and consumers, presenting an alternative to conventional agricultural and farming methods that rely on long and complex supply chains. These alternative practices present new forms of economic relations in which “a whole host of practices, initiatives, human relationships and motivations”⁴Ethan Miller, “Solidarity Economy. Key Concepts and Issues”, in Solidarity Economy I: Building Alternatives for People and Planet, ed. by Emily Kawano, Tom Masterson, Jonathan Teller-Ellsberg (Amherst, MA: Center for Popular Economics, 2010)<https://www.communityeconomies.org/sites/default/files/paper_attachment/Miller_Solidarity_Economy_Key_Issues_2010.pdf>, p. 12 [accessed 17 August 2023]. is rethought, made visible, and harnessed for collective benefit.

Notes

• 1
  A quote by Buckminster Fuller: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” Buckminster R. Fuller. Critical Path (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1982).
• 2
  Pamela Mang and Bill Reed, ‘Regenerative Development and Design’, in Sustainable Built Environments, ed. by Vivian Loftness and Dagmar Haase (New York, NY: Springer New York, 2013), pp. 478-501 <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5828-9_303>
• 3
  Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist (London: Penguin, 2017).
• 4
  Ethan Miller, “Solidarity Economy. Key Concepts and Issues”, in Solidarity Economy I: Building Alternatives for People and Planet, ed. by Emily Kawano, Tom Masterson, Jonathan Teller-Ellsberg (Amherst, MA: Center for Popular Economics, 2010)<https://www.communityeconomies.org/sites/default/files/paper_attachment/Miller_Solidarity_Economy_Key_Issues_2010.pdf>, p. 12 [accessed 17 August 2023].