Dear friends!
Here comes the Michaelshof newsletter for the end of the year! What happened in Sammatz this year, which new things came about and where did old things have to make space? What successes did we celebrate and where did we find stumbling blocks? We’ll take you on a journey through 2023 and give you a little insight into our goals & dreams for the coming months!
We’ll take you through our working areas, which we have divided into 11 themed ‘Villages’; together they form the basis for the work on our ‘Michaelshof’ project. Each village in turn has its own teams – for example, the ‘Green Village’ is divided into garden, agriculture, preparations, vegetables and medicinal plants. So, let’s get started with the greenest of the Villages!
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The gardens of the ‘Green Village’ have once again provided us with spectacular views and many beautiful nature moments this year. Each season brings its own special charm, and the gardens show us almost every week how changeable nature can be.
You can already look forward to springtime at Michaelshof! Because from the end of February, the early bloomers herald the start of the garden season and from the end of March, we start the wonderfully colourful tulip season together.
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We have also created a great event with the perennial festival in autumn, with which we celebrate the perennial flowering garden companions. This year, we have already invested a lot of time in plant propagation, so you will certainly be able to stock up on perennials for your own garden at the beginning of the new year.
Soon we’ll be heading towards Flachsenberg in terms of garden design, where we’ll be creating some hedges, flowerbeds and garden elements – we’re already looking forward to it!
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Another part of the ‘Green Village’ is, of course, the vegetable area, which is lovingly tended by the vegetable team.
Next door, the medicinal plants are also thriving in their new field. Many are harvested early every morning for the medicinal plant manufactory. Even in the evenings, you can feel a very special atmosphere there, which is reflected in the quality and effectiveness of the high-quality oils and other products.
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There was also a lot going on in our agriculture this year. Despite heavy rainfall in the summer, we were still able to bring our harvest into the barn.
Our Ark animals have had a grassy-green grazing season and are now enjoying the cosy open stables on the Ark farm. Unfortunately, most of our Skudden herd fell victim to a pack of wolves, despite the fence and the pasture’s location close to the village. A great loss and many unanswered, fundamental questions …
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Claudia puts her heart and soul into running the ‘Eichenhof‘ in the Healthy Village – you realise this as soon as you enter the house. The atmosphere is very special, because the focus here is on caring for and healing people and nature. Last year, we completely renovated several rooms: on the upper floor for tea and natural cosmetics as well as climbing pictures, a form of ‘image-creating methods’; on the ground floor for thesigraphy, an ecology room and the small natural science library. There is also a treatment room for first aid cases and another where Bjarne helps patients with physiotherapy and Imke with eurythmy therapy almost every day.
Next year, we hope to have even more of our natural cosmetics officially certified as organic and be able to share them with you. Step by step…
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‘Smart Village’ deals with all questions of infrastructural supply – from the construction site to infrastructure and energy, water & waste management to the machines that make it all possible.
This year, we were able to achieve a lot on the Flachsenberg and complete three new residential buildings with basements. This leaves us with the finishing touches to two more residential buildings for next year before the ‘Flachsenberg’ era comes to an end after 5 years of construction. At the same time, the Landbau-team is already working on the exterior design. The ground levels are currently being measured and paths are being laid out so that planting can begin in the next months.
In 2023, the construction team also renovated elsewhere at the same time, for example in the bakery, but mainly in the aforementioned remodelling of the Eichenhof.
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We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people, companies and institutions who have helped us to continue building at full speed, even in a very difficult year (in terms of construction)!
More building projects? Sure, they’re already waiting for our hard-working construction team!
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So, after the Flachsenberg, we’re finally heading to the Mainhouse, where we want to build some office and conference rooms in the upper floor. A few tiny houses are also planned in Sammatz in the coming months. And if everything goes well with the planned B & F plan change, our hotel dreams are also getting closer again…
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A lot has also happened in the energy sector. Our local heating network is of course put to the test a little more with every new house on Flachsenberg. The stove & infrastructure team works hard, sometimes late at night, to ensure that the system runs reliably. In order to be well prepared for the coming winters, we would like to welcome two new, ‘employees’ to the infrastructure team in 2024: a combined heat and power unit and a heating machine will arrive in Sammatz. We are really looking forward to our weather-independent energy supply!
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In the ‘Young Village’, we were able to celebrate a great success with our Selma Lagerlöf School in the neighbouring village of Wietzetze in the middle of the year: the small school received its official recognition after three years!
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We are very much looking forward to continuing to teach the kids knowledge and practical skills in the coming years with lots of good humour and clever ideas. If all goes well, we will even move into a small additional room next year and expand the school a little.
The international school with boarding facilities also remains one of our big dreams for the future. We are working on the realisation …
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Our children’s and youth welfare centre Peronnik has had a not always easy, but overall very nice year and a great holiday time with the kids in need of care of the soul. A number of very special children have found a new home with us, while others have made their way into adult life. We will soon be moving into our eighth Peronnik residential group at Flachsenberg. The ‘Peronnikers’ have long been an integral part of Michaelshof – without their radically honest, warm-hearted nature (and sometimes the chaos that goes with it), we can’t even imagine Sammatz anymore. Inclusion has always been a natural part of life here.
Also new this year: the Sammatz youth club, equipped with lots of different play equipment for the little ones and even the grown-ups. Its home: the play mobile on our ‘Spielplatz Kunterbunt’.
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This village is all about the sausage and the cheese, the bread, the products from the preserving kitchen, the tea & cosmetics area and all the outlets that sell our own products: the café, the farm shop, the canteen, the market cart and our external customers.
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There have been many changes this year, especially in the bakery! Firstly, we were able to remodel our bakery and gain a lot of space in the somewhat minimalist building with two modern wood-fired ovens.
Secondly, since this year Jakob has been baking our super tasty and above all the very digestible honey-salt bread for you (be sure to try it!).
In the patisserie, Marta has not only baked hundreds of cakes and tarts but has also brought a little bit of Portugal into the café with the new Pastel de Natas. Muito obrigado!
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At Meierei, we have continued to develop our feta into one of our most popular products and are looking forward to the coming milk and cheese year.
For next year, we hope above all that our long-cherished dream of a larger and more modern organic store will come true.
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Michaelshof up to date – all opening hours at a glance!
Ark-Farm:
Mon-Sun. 9.00 – 19.00
Café: open daily until 6 January, then
Mon-Fri closed
Sat., Sun. & holidays 9.30 – 18.00
(we are open all winter on weekends – plan your trip to us!)
Farm store:
Mon-Sun 10.00 – 12.30
15.00 – 19.00
Der WAGEN in Lüneburg:
Wed & Sat 07.00 – 13.00
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Here everything revolves around Michaelshof’s communication with the world – and its realisation through social and print media.
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Jesús, our Colombian social media lover, has created a lot of exciting content for us in recent months and is currently immersing himself in the development of our new online shop.
Who knows, maybe the main website will also get a new look soon?
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We’re also really enjoying our new large-format printer. From advertising banners to posters, from small labels to large art prints – everything is possible in outstanding quality.
So there’s a lot going on in the ‘Media Village’, where the motivated teams from social media, design and print come together.
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The ‘Basic Village’ is something like the good soul of the place, without which Michaelshof could not function at all. Everyday things such as staff issues, services, rentals, car sharing and – particularly important with so many community houses – the caretaker area make up the Basic Village.
Without any ground-breaking innovations, but as a helping and caring village, there really is always something to do here. We would like to take this opportunity to say a special thank you to our caretaker crew, who are on call during the day and – if necessary – also at night. THANK YOU to Marc, Johanna, both Michaels, Bruno and, brand new to the team, Els for your commitment!
And while we’re on the subject of personnel, Bruno asks himself:
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We are looking for committed and dynamic people for our team who are happy to take on responsibility and have a taste for country life. Is a meaningful job more important to you than a “9 to 5 job”? Then you’ve come to the right place!
We are looking for specialists or interns in the following areas:
Social:
- Teacher
- Educator / social worker
Office:
Hands-on:
- Gardener
- Construction worker
- Retailer
- Food manager
- Pharmacist
Your qualification is not listed, but you are still interested? Just give us a try!
Please send your application with photo to claudia.brady@sammatz.de – we’ll be in touch!
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Everything to do with culture can be found in the ‘Culture Village’. On the one hand, of course, our event programme with its many different events from the Rose and Family Festival to nature walks, exciting seminars and international concerts to the annual Apple Day. Look forward to the 2024 cultural programme, which is sure to have something for everyone!
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A lot has also happened in the area of publications! Malte and Hans-Michel are still working on the next publications at Verlag am Michaelshof, both in German and in English translation.
After months of sifting and sorting and a lot of work by Nadja, Hilke & Co. we will soon be able to reopen our library – initially only for the community, but certainly soon for the public as well.
Here are a few snapshots from the Christmas days in Sammatz. Despite the rainy weather, both the Christmas market and the Christmas play were very well attended and managed to convey a real Christmas atmosphere. It was a wonderfully contemplative festival – we hope you enjoyed it too!
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Our new event programme for 2024 will soon be ready. After a short winter break, it’s back to the Culture Village in March!
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The ‘Global Village’ brings together all the areas that look after our guests – whether they are travelling from Wendland, northern Germany, Europe or around the world.
This gives our small village in Lower Saxony a very unique drive and flair: this year we were able to welcome 830 students and interns as well as around 550 volunteers from a total of 63 nations to our international community.
In Sammatz, people from all over the world meet who would probably never have met in other circumstances – they discover that deep down they all have the same questions, fears and needs and use the opportunity to weave dreams and ideas for a peaceful and positive future together. We are already looking forward to next year in our small global village!
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There was also a lot going on in our House of Nature in 2023. We were able to host numerous happy Michaelshof visitors.
Still thinking about where to go on your next (educational) holiday? Then go ahead and check in at Michaelshof: pure relaxation in a special mix of farm idyll, exciting events and an international community atmosphere!
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In order to be able to finance all the great projects above, we are of course dependent on our ‘Finance Village’. Every month, it takes an analytical look at our numbers and provides the individual areas with feedback on their profitability.
As a non-profit organisation that does so much to help not only community members, volunteers and students, but also over 70,000 day visitors every year. In order to convey nature, beauty and recreation, we also rely on the benevolent support of our larger Michaelshof community all over the world, for which we are very grateful. With your help, for example, we were able to raise over €270,000 for the house of our new Peronnik-house on the investment platform Xavin.
Would you also like to support our future projects? There are many ways to do this – from a donation to a loan to a sponsorship for a Michaelshof area of your choice. We are happy about any kind of support!
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We end our newsletter tour in the ‘Social Village’, which focuses on the community itself: on processes, dynamics and individual needs, on situations that require help. After all, it’s not always easy to live in such a large community and to behave at all times in a way that is expected of a community. Sometimes you need helpful ideas and dialogue, and that’s what the Social Village team is here for. Our most important asset at Michaelshof: always talking honestly with each other, listening to each other and knowing that human weaknesses are part of life. We try to be brave with each other and stay true to our values that have evolved over 38 years of community work.
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We are still happy about the many small moments of simple humanity when people from all over the world, together with long-established Sammatzians, their children and the Peronnik kids, create a peaceful coexistence that is not only incredibly colourful and exciting, but also contains a lot of love. The realisation that it ultimately depends on each individual, that each individual is personally asked when it comes to keeping a community alive, is a fundamental one that, seems to apply not only to Michaelshof, but should also be considered far beyond it.
For the New Year, we would like to make a small appeal to humanity in general. A call to love – not only my neighbours and all people, but also myself -, to seek peace and freedom. If we all strive for this, the world would certainly be a better place. Let’s go to the future!
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So much for today!
I would like to take the opportunity to personally wish you a good start into the New Year, a 2024 with a clear head, a warm heart, lots of positive thoughts and good ideas for a productive life together. And good friends!
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Best wishes and see you next time from Anna
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