Sammatz School of Life
– six weeks of development!
You’re young or maybe a little older? You want to discover the world, meet other cultures, learn new skills and above all, develop yourself personally? Then enroll at the Sammatz School of Life– we’re the total package you are looking for!
Learn about community, sustainability in both the ecological and social sense; learn very practical skills and find an approach to spirituality with others in our 6-week intensive course – learn to do what you enjoy.
Sammatz is as big as it is versatile – a village that takes care of itself and opens its doors to volunteers from all over the world, to children from difficult backgrounds, to visitors and guests – and to you! There’s so much to discover here that it’s hard to fit it all in. And because we have learned and experienced so much in our almost 40 years in the community, we want to pack our bundled knowledge into an interactive, intensive and challenging course – and you can be part of it! It won’t be a vacation, you will probably reach your limits, but that’s what the course is for! Try it out, dare to make mistakes, discover what community means!
6 weeks – 60 hours input – daily collaboration in different work areas.
Sign up for the Sammatz School of Life, a course that may change your life!
‹If someone had offered me the course back when I was in high school, I would have booked it immediately!› Sara Lou, Community-Member Michaelshof
‹How awesome is that!!! ›Anna, Community Lecturer
Costs of the course: 600€, minimum number of participants: 8, maximum number of participants: 15
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Joy
“What gives you joy, what are you happy about?” If I’m very much in love right now, it will bubble out of me – “That with nameless joy / I am companion to your life,” as the poet Novalis puts it. But what joy I also feel after a long winter as the first trees blossom! Also the special light over a landscape, the clarity of an autumn day, and bathing in a cold mountain lake make me happy. Or to have won the heart of another person, or the way a loved one looks at me.
Joy spreads its gentle wings and carries me towards others as well as towards nature. Indescribable, the fragrance of a rose that blows on me. Jubilation when something occurs that I have longed for for a long time. Joy enchants us. It can be a small thing, a look, a word that makes me laugh, a kiss, a realization that I have struggled with for a long time.
Surely, the joy I can experience depends on the breadth of my point of view. What claim do I have on myself, what kind of person am I? Can I rejoice in the abilities that I bring with me and that have ‘fallen’ to me in this life? Or do I always, in my vanity, have to look for praise? Can I experience my joy of life independent of outward appearances, am I self-confident enough?
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Delicacies from Sammatz
Sheep’s cheese
A mild semi-hard cheese, which convinces with a fine sheep milk note. 100% of the processed milk comes from our Ostholsteiner milk sheep – an old regional domestic animal breed and thus a piece of north German heritage.
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Our sheep’s cheese is a real treat. And it promotes an agricultural diversity that is under threat today. That’s why our longnoses think: ‘There can’t be two opinions here – buy Sammatz’s sheep cheese, after all, we’re all in on it too! Baaa!’
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Attention market customers – 10% discount for newsletter readers!
Sammatz sheep’s cheese is available every Thursday in Bahrendorf and at the Lüneburg weekly market, where our colourful wagon is the only organic snack bar and also sells Demeter organic products from our old domestic breeds. For newsletter readers from the region runs until 15 March a special discount action. If you show the Michaelshof newsletter on your cell phone or whisper the code “NEWSLETTER19” to our stand salesman Tilmann, you’ll receive a 10% discount on Sammatz sheep’s cheese!
Take some more with you right away – you know where your food comes from!
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Michaelshof up to date – at a glance!
Opening hours:
Ark yard:
Mon-Sun 09.00 a.m. – 06.00 p.m.
Farm store:
Mon-Fr 10.00 a.m. – 12.00 p.m.
03.00 a.m. – 06.00 p.m.
Sat, Sun & holidays 10.00 a.m.- 06.00 p.m.
Café at Michaelshof:
The café is currently on winter break!
Der WAGEN:
Weekly market, Lüneburg:
Wed & Sat 08.00 a.m. – 02.00 p.m.
EDEKA Hartmann, Barendorf:
Thu 08.00 a.m. – 08.00 p.m.
We ask you to comply with the Corona safety regulations in force in Lower Saxony.
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They’re here – and how! The mild weather has woken up the harbingers of spring. In addition to the flowers that are already blooming like the snowdrops, crocuses and winter roses are flashing everywhere like gems from the lawn and flower beds. I enthusiastically reach for my cell phone for a photo – but pictures can never convey the impression that the delicate and yet so intense colours make on me.
Do I just pass by quickly? Or do I kneel down, look closely at the plants, let the shapes and colours take effect? Is what I see allowed to come all the way to me? Flowers speak a language of the soul – they touch an inner musical instrument that suddenly begins to sound. Each type of flower strikes a different note – roses different from lilies, tulips different from the almost equally colourful crocuses. These and the other so-called ‘early bloomers’ knock on a ‘very inner’ door – where the conscience in man speaks. A mysterious place that always surprises us ourselves – where does this moral voice come from? It is often quieter than others, but still unmistakable. Like the snowdrops and their friends, so small, but still shining over a whole meadow …
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Spring cleaning – not for the faint-hearted! Are you Team Anton? Then you have the honour of working your way through the Sammatz gardens in 5 degrees, in grey Lower Saxony weather and fine cold rain. Only the best get in to this team. There are some wonderful tasks waiting for you, such as clearing overgrown curbs on all the paths. It’s a few miles for sure, and while you’re doggedly scraping, nose dripping, and your rain gear rustling with every movement, good-humoured, hurried organizational people are throwing you an encouraging “Hey, that looks good!”
The trick is not to fall into a snail’s pace, but to still have energy and motivation despite living far outside your comfort zone. This is where the Anton factor comes into play. Bad mood? Whining? Doesn’t go into the bag at all! Wherever his momentum comes from (is this real or fake?), it keeps you afloat and the team together. You register feelings of Cape Horn circumnavigation pride, adventurer’s whimsy, heroism…. He seems to have a certain surplus of it and likes to give some away. In fact, the madness is fun too? Team ‘extreme’ scratches and rakes its way across the terrain – and leaves behind sparkling garden paths, clean lawns. A cool feeling. You never believe it when it starts. But cleaning is good fun, and not just in the bathroom!
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Hallo zusammen,
It’s your Danish friend Lisa here. I’m writing to you from my home city, Aalborg, where I’ve been living for the past year and a half.
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Here’s the view from my balcony, where I like to have my morning coffee
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You’ve never heard of Aalborg before? Well, you wouldn’t be the first. It might not as big as Copenhagen… nor as trendy. And yet, it is awesome. Why? Here are my top 3 reasons.
1. People here make eye-contact with others in the streets. It should be a no-brainer, right? Yet in many cities I’ve come across, I’ve felt invisible to the people around me! Not here.
2. It’s affordable! So much so I’ve bought a summer house for myself here. It has a garden, a green house and a workshop full of tools. And it is all. Mine. I feel so rich there.
Currently I’m waiting for the season to begin. Once my tulips (that have come home with me from Sammatz) start blooming, I know the time has come for many long, light evenings there.
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And here are some of my morning views from my summer house!
(the middle picture is WINTER BATHING in the harbor)
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3. Finally, it just has that feeling to it. I cannot put my finger on it; all I know is that when I ride my bike through its streets, it happens on the regular that my heart skips a beat in sheer joy. I think it’s called happiness.
So come visit me! I have extra space.
Now, I must go. Could I pause time, I would go spend several months in spring-time Sammatz. The longing to go gets me especially around this time of year, when the birds start chirping. To me it’s the sound of walking through the forest towards the Elbe. Soon it’s been 6 years since that memory was made; and as for me, I was never the same since.
(And thank the lord and whoever else would like some credit for that!)
As it is, I have a party to attend. And in a few days, I’ll be skiing around a tiny corner of Norway. It seems life has many little gifts in store for me these days. I hope it does for all of you, too. So bye! And.
Until we meet again.
X
Lisa
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WE LOVE TO ENTERTAIN YOU
Things on the web that we ️…
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Hip Hop is never Old-School – since we first heard about it, we’ve been excited to share it with you in the newsletter. If you haven’t seen it yet, you’ll fall off your chair: watch the Super Bowl halftime break with Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and other legends united in one fascinating video!
Our friends from the elinor network have started a super cool project together with GLS Bank & Ecosia! Under #accommodation they ask for people & projects that can help. ‘The war in Ukraine concerns us in this country! Refugees from Ukraine will also arrive in our country and will need our support. Here you can provide practical help by offering places to stay overnight.’ Join in!
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Lambs-Craze – Sanne came and got directly at it. During lambing season, our Dutch animal specialist Sanne is on duty around the clock, even taking the weakest home. 37 lambs so far, and all well. Bravo, hats off, we love it! Thank you Sanne, Emma, Sara, Leif, Gabi and all the others!
WOLVES – Also a success story: The reintroduction of wolves in our region is working, the grey gentlemen have now been spotted outside Sammatz. We’re less happy about it – we’re more worried about our sheep. Instead of ‘back to nature’ we say: ‘forward with nature!’
PUMPKIN HOUSE FINISHED – Thank you Construction Team!!! The next house at Flachsenberg – recognizable by its beautiful orange colour – is ready for occupancy. Now we can happily discuss who will move into the new living space – need there is!
CAFÉ-FRIENDS: ATTENTION – Preparation phase has started, in March we’ll open our Café at Michaelshof again! You’ll find the latest news on Instagram and on our website.
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Job of the month: Physician
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Medical practice with a difference: Our beautiful Eichenhof is an old half-timbered house with a lot of atmosphere. At the moment it houses our tea, cosmetic and research area. In the future the whole building shall become a therapeutic center in the countryside. We are looking for a doctor (f/m/d) who will take care of the physical well-being of our employees, their kids and guests (250 to 300 people) as well as people from near and far; both outpatient and inpatient. Dreams of the future – and you can be part of it! Apply!
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For our team we are looking for committed and dynamic people who like to take on responsibility and enjoy country life. Is a meaningful activity more important to you than a “9 to 5 job”? Then you’ve come to the right place!
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We’re looking for specialists in the following areas:
Office:
Hands-on:
- Agriculture
- Horticulture / Gardening
- Construction Workeer
- Electricity
- Janitor
Production
- Market cart manager
- Café operator
- Farm store
People & Healing
- Physician
- Pharmacy
- Pedagogy/Home Education
Your qualification is not listed, but you are still
interested? Just give it a try!
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Lambing time is tackling time!
Support the lambing season with your donation!
At the moment, more than 40 woolly longlegs are wandering through our sheepfold – this year there should be around 70 in total. The farmers and helpers have to work day and night – from giving bottles to sewing lamb sweaters, there is a lot to do. Will you help with a donation? It can make a big difference:
- 10 € – Help us buy a heating lamp
- 20 € – Help us buying chuck
- 30 € – Help us build boxes for the lambs and their mums
- 40 € – Help us covering vet costs
A hearty Bahhh! for your support from the lambs and the international lambing team!
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