By Mareike Sophie Drünkler
The people are friendly, the gardens are green, and the bees are buzzing. Is this what paradise feels like? At least that’s what the sign for Eden says. And the 18 vegetarian settlers who turned their backs on Berlin in 1893 and founded the “Vegetarian Fruit-Growing Colony Eden” – the green oasis of Oranienburg.
The Brandenburg settlement is becoming increasingly popular. Probably the most beautiful garden in Eden belongs to Diana Reichenbach. Actually, their “community garden” belongs to the whole of Eden and everyone is allowed to use it, because nobody is allowed to own land in Eden. But the house and the ideas behind the “Edener ApfelKräuterGarten” belong to Reichenbach. Since 2007, when the former secretary and her husband gave up their Berlin apartment and their “second life” began.
The sign for the “Edener ApfelKräuterGarten” by Diana Reichenbach Photo: Christian Lohse
They are among the approximately 1500 people living in Eden today. For them, the five founding ideas from back then still apply: Comrades undertake to reform nutrition and soil, to promote the movement of settlements and cooperatives, to practice gardening ecologically and agriculture alternatively, according to the statutes.
But meat has been allowed to be eaten again in Eden “for a long time”, explains Reichenbach. And alcohol and cigarettes would no longer have to be smuggled to Eden in fruit and vegetable crates.
The concept works, Eden flourishes again. “I feel like interest is growing. People really want to live with nature again. That’s how it was for us too. Our property was abandoned in ’45 and lay fallow until we took it over in 2007,” says Reichenbach. Almost all of the 500 available properties are now leased.
With the help of volunteers like Gabi Giseler (72), Kira Becker (19) and Caroline Schwabe (19), Reichenbach transformed their 6,000 square meters into a natural paradise. Bright marigolds and lush fruit trees grow here, and “old, forgotten herbs” sprout from the earth everywhere. Blue potatoes and nettles twine alongside wild carrots, spinach and tomatoes.
Caroline Schwabe (19) and Kira Becker (19) also help with the gardening Photo: Christian Lohse
“It’s paradise for me,” says the woman from Eden. In 2008 she was still “sitting in the office” and dreaming of nature, today Reichenbach is a trained herbalist and shares her knowledge about nature in seminars – whether it’s about “wild herbs in summer”, healing ointments and homemade jams, “washing with of nature” or a life without a refrigerator.
Diana Reichenbach’s “Edener ApfelKräuterGarten” (Lönsweg 371, 16515 Oranienburg) can be visited after telephone registration – Tuesday to Saturday, between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.