The Activersity e.V. is a non-profit organization, formerly known as Zipfel e.V.. It was founded 2010 in the Schwarz10, a project house for activists.
This house is not only a home, it’s a working vision of a more humane future. Our apartment building has no apartments, just project space, offices, workshops, a volunteer-run non-profit vegan pizzeria, living areas, a communal kitchen, shared living and dining room, and space for live-in Activersity students.
We’re interested in a sustainable future and are inspired by the solarpunk approach. Currently, the house community is organizing to buy the house from private ownership in order to take the building off the market, using an umbrella housing organization to protect any future house sale.
The building is an unusual place to live in for several reasons:
In the ground floor, there’s Pizza Lab, which you may already know for its amazing vegan pizza. Pizza Lab is 100% non-profit and run by us as well as other volunteers living in Leipzig. The big shop area at the corner is rented out, but the rest of the building (it’s big!)… well, it’s controlled by us! The only restriction is creating costs or liabilities for the owner, who lives with us. We have two residential floors at the moment, which have a bathroom and a kitchen each, although we all share one kitchen due to practical reasons.
We are able to host a number of neighborhood projects, fundraisers, retreats and direct action projects for adults and children
Food
We share food (there’s a common food budget of 150€/month/person) and we have shared vegan dinners at a fixed time (almost) every evening. They’re not obligatory, but a great opportunity to get to know each other and to bond over nice food. Non-vegetarian food, alcohol, sweets, fast food and personal hygiene products are not included in the household budget. We share the task of cooking for each other, which means cooking once a week – but having dinner every day of the week available. (Due to lots of summer events and possibilities to be in nature in Leipzig, dinner might be cancelled more often in summer though.)
The Task Auction
House tasks (like cleaning, shopping for food etc.) are distributed after the weekly house plenary, where we also discuss ideas and issues. We use the “task auction” to ensure everyone takes part in taking care of the house and the community. It’s very simple and efficient, and can be used as a transparency tool within any smaller organization that doesn’t want to fight over who-does-what-and-how-often.
Interests
The household doesn’t have a particular political orientation – we’re interested in remaining active, making a difference is super important to us. Here’s a few things we like: Matriarchies, environmentalism/eco-activism including urban gardening, sustainability, alternative economies and currencies, politics in general – we are up to date on what’s going on. We love science, logic and reason, in fact we have a couple of scientists among us.
We share skills in hosting events (like flea markets, exhibitions, political discussions etc.), computer networks, linux and other open source stuff, cooking, management, self-development, renovation, graphic design, video-making, book-keeping, (German) NGO law and so on. Every once in a while, we make big renovations happen and have thus acquired a lot of competence in building things.
We‘re obviously queer friendly and make sure to keep a harmonious gender balance in the house. In practical terms, this means less Cis-males than other 😉
Together, we speak German, English, French, Spanish and Hungarian, but the languages mostly spoken in the house are German and English. If you come live with us, you ought to at least be comfortable with speaking and writing English, as there are always people in the house who speak no German.
Every couple of months, we host a “retreat” where we invite our friends, friends of friends, and people who’ve lived in the house before, and we try to all be around for the 3-4 days that it lasts. We schedule political, philosophical and spiritual discussions, skill sharing events, workshops as well as fun stuff like yoga, pick-nicks or other outings, hanging out on the roof or around a campfire in our courtyard, and obviously, a party.
The Neighborhood
Lindenau, a quarter in western Leipzig, is arguably the pre-coolest part of Leipzig. While some of the alternative quarters have already given way to gentrification, Lindenau is still home to many DIY projects and events. This phenomenon is what gave Leipzig the reputation of being the “Better Berlin.” Our neighborhood is home to more than ten housing projects, some of which host alternative projects.
Café Kaputt – Repair café where you can repair technical devices, clothes and furniture with the help of knowledgeable volunteers and using their extensive amount of tools, books and materials
krimZkrams – Here you can find things to upcycle your furniture or to start DIY and handmade projects. The huge shop is entirely donation based: people donate still usable materials, and people who pick them up donate the amount it’s worth to them. krimZkrams belongs to a bigger NGO that also manages an entire house that offers atelier space to manufacturists.
ADI – The “Auto-Didactic Initiative” is an open study space initiative with a little library, desk and meeting space where people can organize to form study groups of all kinds. They also organize communal meals from time to time, as well as language classes for refugees.
Haus- und Wagenrat e.V. – This NGO was founded by some of the first people who started self-organized housing projects in Leipzig. Because they were asked so often for advice by new projects, they decided to offer their expert opinions professionally. They are helping the house community get set up to buy the house as collective.
Kontaktstelle Wohnen e.V. – This NGO connects people who have space for refugees with refugees who are looking for space. The special aim is to evently distribute refugees within the city instead of forming clusters, in order to foster integration.
Handstand & Moral – This housing project offers the space in their ground floor for various political meeting groups, plenaries and educational events throughout the year.
Pizza Lab – Our own project, a volunteer-run non-profit vegan pizzeria that donates the profits to local projects and/or funds the Activersity, is embedded in this vibe.
There is one other notable commercial shop that settled in this area that contributes to the alternative atmosphere: A membership based organic supermarket run by a collective which offer lower prices with very little markup to its members (and normal prices to non-members), which makes the transition to an organic diet easier.
Every year, shop owners, housing projects and random neighbors organize a big summer street festival together where about 4000 people come each year. Housing projects usually open the doors to their courtyards and gardens, offer food, drinks and workshops and peak into their work and lifestyle.