Sieben Linden, currently home to about 100 adults and 40 children, aims to be a true village with 300 residents. (All photos: http://www.siebenlinden.de/)

Its commitment to one-planet living and a spacious rural environment make Sieben Linden an ideal hands-on learning community for classes and workshops.

I returned to Sieben Linden for the Global Ecovillage Network’s general assembly in the summer of 2008. (pp. 178-9 in the book)

Music is an integral part of ecovillage life.

Sieben Linden worked hard to get straw-bale construction incorporated into Germany’s strict building code.

This straw-bale house, with an ecological footprint about 2% that of a comparably sized German home, was built with local materials and no power tools.

When Strohpolis, a 3-story townhouse complex was completed in 2006, it was the largest straw-bale building in Europe

In the early days, Sieben Linden’s pioneers lived in caravans like this one. Today, a few still do.

Sieben Linden works with draft horses for both farming and forestry, which lowers its carbon footprint substantially. During my visit, the horses also played a key role in a funeral. (pp. 143-6)

Sieben Linden’s small ecological footprint, just over ¼ the German average, rests in part on its labor-intensive vegan agriculture and its “Peace Contract” with animals. (pp. 56-7)

Sieben Linden is mostly self-sufficient in vegetables, the mainstay of its organic vegetarian meals.

The lake serves as a source of water in case of fire, a respite from summer heat, and...

...a source of wintertime entertainment.

One might think that Sieben Linden’s focus on material simplicity overshadows all else, but I had some of the best political and philosophical conversations of my journey in this simple-living German ecovillage.