Living in the Obenaus Community
A call from our time
When we know the days of the consumerist, carbon energy life are counted.
When we are aware that small core families can’t serve children or ageing people.
When we know that food matters and must be healthy.
We decided to experiment with low carbon living and see what it’s really like to live in a wider community frame beyond the family core.
As you will read and see, it takes work. And can be extremely enlivening and joyful.
Living naturally
What is a way of life that expresses Human and Nature in balance?
Far from knowing all the answers in advance, we are experimenting and developing living in a self-selected voluntary community, in the countryside with fresh water and clean air, foster close connections and communications in the day-to-day, work with body and mind, outside and indoors, care for the quality of soil and food to name just a few essential elements.
The Obenaus Community began with people moving from Brussels to South Styria and inhabiting a run-down farm place with the intention to live healthily and with Nature as a guide.
We are now entering a new phase with the support of the commune of Ehrenhausen. We’ll be able to develop the whole estate, rebuild the buildings and invite more residents to join us here. Especially digital nomads find here a place you can call home.
A lifestyle in balance with the biosphere
In Obenaus we take care to only use materials we can give back to the local environment as they are. Composting is the rule. We have our own water well and a local biological sewage system. We use the fully biological cleaning products from Terra Gaia, which you can also get from us. Heating is with local wood, and since 2023 we produce our own solar electricity. All these installations are robust and can be overseen by ourselves. We’re getting off the large grids and live with simple direct systems.
Technology supports the new lifestyle. We can connect with the whole world thanks to internet and live calls. In 2024, we’ll be connected with glass fibre broadband! We meet people online now for close and intimate conversations as much as for business meetings. As a consequence, there is no need to commute to an office or even to live in a city. We can live on the countryside and work with our colleagues wherever they are. We enjoy fresh air, clean water and live in connection with green nature.
A developmental space
All humans develop over a lifetime. Here in Obenaus, we deliberately observe and support our growth of human capacity so we expand ourselves between our capabilities and our potential.
There is the need to practice timeless skills, from turning the compost to chopping wood or tending to the fire in the kitchen stove, baking bread or using a scythe for cutting grass.
There is an ongoing need to reflect on what one is doing here, and what mankind does at large with nature, our resources and our lifestyle.
There is continuous practice of hosted reflections on how we live here as a community, what we learn and where we (need to) develop.
The practice to co-sense and co-decide on matters of the day-to-day life of the community.
The practice to be seen in your journey of life and receive or give mentoring across generations.
The various discovery practices of systemic work, developmental assessments and coaching, Art of Hosting, Yoga and many more.
Living in community
Humans need a variety of close human interactions and connections. We envisage a residence group of over 12 people in Obenaus, allowing a variety of interactions across all generations. We share our kitchen and take at least one meal together every day. We share our tasks in the houses and gardens so that we enjoy our common spaces. All have their private rooms or small apartments so we can close the door behind us and be with just ourselves.
We share the larger space, the community kitchen, washing machines, internet connection and so on. Thus we can keep the financial cost of living low and accommodate modest budgets and many professions among our community.
Joining the community as a resident for a period of your choice
The Obenaus community is a voluntary space. You can join us and leave again as it fits your life and plans. As the commitments for you here become more lasting the longer you want to stay, we see three various stages of engagement. As a community member, be it for a limited or unlimited period, you have a co-decision right and voice in shaping the day-to-day life of Obenaus. Learn more about visiting Obenaus or joining the community.
Healthy food
We eat vegetables from our own garden and meat from our own sheep, supplemented with shopping and supplies from our neighbors. We produce our own herbal teas, jam, fruit juices, bread and more.
A place for gatherings, workshops, trainings
Every summer we organise a few workshops, especially the systemic work intensive workshop and training. People come from all over the world and share the Obenaus lifestyle for a couple of days or weeks. Visitors and guests meet us here the whole year round.
Investing into building a natural future
As from 2022 onwards, Obenaus has entered a building and development phase. Supported by the village, the Obenaus ground has been classified as recreational area in the middle of greenland. We can now transform former stables and barns into living, working and meeting spaces. Over the next 10 years we will invest up to 3 Mio € into eco-friendly buildings and infrastructure.
People can invest in the project with loans or shares. Investors in Obenaus receive a guarantee backed up by the value of the land and the revenues of the community, preferential access to Obenaus products, stays and seminars, and a long-term dividend.
Investors in shares are invited and entitled to take part in the overall investment plans and decisions for the development of Obenaus.
The Obenaus development plan gives you more details.
Become a Sponsor
We invite you to meet with the wider world web of Obenaus friends to support the developments of the place and to connect online. The suggested membership fee is 95.00 € per year. You are welcome to support us with a higher amount. In return we invite you for regular Warm Data online gatherings “People need People” 9-10 times a year. When you travel to Obenaus, the first two days of your visit is free of charge, and we offer you a reduction on all our workshops, online or in Obenaus.
Register here.
English (UK) 
Deutsch (Österreich)