A grassroot initiative going beyond mere food production.

By Maximilian Rischer

*München ist ein Dorf = “Munich is a village“

Photo 1: Volunteers on the fields gardening near the city of Munich. (Photo: Kartoffelkombinat eG)

Where is the grassroot initiative implemented?

The grassroot initiative Kartoffelkombinat is located in Munich, a city of about 1.5 million inhabitants in Germany. The initiative is organized as a cooperative, owned by all members equally, and is not limited to a certain neighbourhood but spreads throughout the entire city.

Who are the promoters? Who are the beneficiaries? 

Kartoffelkombinat was founded by two citizens of Munich, Daniel Überall and Simon Scholl, who wanted to make a difference in how they consume vegetables and agricultural products. 

The origin of the organization’s name:

“Kartoffel” = Potato; “Kombinat” = Collective combine (typical way of production in many socialist countries, (Farlex, n.d.)

The two founders were disappointed that despite the option that food can be produced regionally, ecologically friendly, without too much packaging and transport, in many cases supermarkets offer only low-quality cheap food, packed in tons of plastics, and shipped from abroad. The first beneficiaries were family and friends at the beginning of 2012 during a test phase of the project. Then, Kartoffelkombinat officially was founded on 30^th April 2012. Since then, many citizens of Munich and surrounding areas have been part of the organization (Kartoffelkombinat eG, 2022). 

In 2023, about forty people are currently working for the organization. However, the initiative continues to flourish also as volunteering becomes the norm. Many helping hands guarantee the organization’s success as I will illustrate in this entry. 

Furthermore, smallholder farmers may profit from this project because they work as partners on equal terms for the organization. Given the strong pricing competition of conventional agriculture, they profit, because Karfoffelkombinat, despite owning farmland, leases land from smallholders and gives them some additional income. At the same time, farmers are encouraged to use more ecologically friendly agricultural practices, as Kartoffelkombinat so successfully does.

In 2023, agricultural products generated by the Kartoffelkombinat provide food products on a weekly basis for more than 2,000 households (Kartoffelkombinat eG, n.d.-b)!

But, as we will see in the following, it is not only food which is the “outcome” of this grassroot initiative. 

How does this initiative engage with climate change? Does it tackle mitigation, adaptation, both, or other dimensions of climate change?

The initiative is tackling climate change mitigation by providing more regional and seasonal food, educating people, and raising awareness about conventional and more environmentally friendly agricultural practices. Food losses and overproduction is minimized. It may happen that certain summer vegetables, like tomatoes or cucumbers, are being produced to a surplus extent. In these cases, excess vegetables are processed and canned, with the help of volunteers from the cooperative. Vegetables that even organic wholesalers and retailers do not accept, e.g., rooked cucumbers, small heads of lettuce, or small cucumbers are still put into boxes (Kartoffelkombinat eG, 2015). Also, the cooperative produces mainly vegan goods, and very few products are associated with animals (like honey). Besides, non-dairy products typically have a smaller greenhouse gas footprint (Carlsson Kanyama et al., 2021).

The initiative further contributes to climate change mitigation by reducing the production of crop packaging and by ensuring an efficient and safe food transportation system. Furthermore, since the initiative aims to follow principles of organic farming exclusively, due to the absence of artificial fertilizer whose production is energy-intensive, greenhouse gas emissions are avoided. According to a meta-analysis by Tuomista et al. (2012), organic farming uses 21% less energy on average compared to conventional farming. The same study also associates a higher carbon sequestration potential, which generally results in increased soil organic matter (7% difference), compared to conventional farming practices.

As another effect, more soil organic matter increases the water-withholding capacity of the soil (Lotter et al., 2003; Tuomisto et al., 2012). Additionally, rotating crops and a more diverse vegetation as typical for organically farmed soil, prevent soil erosion and strengthen the capacity and resilience of soils to cope with extreme weather circumstances like extreme drought and floods (Dumaresq & Greene, 2001; Nair & Delate, 2016; Pimentel et al., 2005). The resilience of the soils gets further enhanced through fertilization using “natural” input, through manure, compost, or straw (Nair & Delate, 2016).

All of this qualifies the grassroot initiative to significantly contribute to climate change adaptation. 

What are the main objectives and main values of the initiative? 

The broader objective of the cooperative Kartoffelkombinat is to develop an independent, highly democratic, and self-organizing institution to provide good quality food, which is organized, grown, harvested, and eaten by people, for people of the organization. The organization is structured as a cooperative. People can buy shares, to get weekly food rations in exchange throughout the year. As of 2023, the cooperative owns agricultural land of about 7 ha and employs more than 40 people for activities like cultivation, harvesting, and organization, fourteen of whom work in gardening activities. 

In addition, many people help on a voluntary basis to enable the functioning of the project. An example of this voluntary work is that the food is transported to various private spaces (e.g., garages) all around Munich, to work as distribution spots, where members of the Kartoffelkombinat can collect the goods from. This voluntary work is thus crucial for the success of the initiative. Aside from employed gardeners, everybody may contribute to harvesting and cultivation activities. 

Subsequent to an one-time payment of 150 € (“buy-in” to the cooperative), every member can choose to pay each month about 75 € or about 47 € (for a smaller box) to receive one box with agricultural products per week. To facilitate the planning and to reduce food losses, each member is expected to pay this amount as long as the member is part of the cooperative. In case members are not available or do not wish to receive food, they get the opportunity to suspend the delivery of food four times a year, which aims to further reduces food waste. Examples of what people receive in each box are illustrated in the following, see also photo 2:

Week 19: 3 apples, 500 g rhubarb, Batavia lettuce, 1 bunch rocket, 400 g spinach, 1 bunch carrots, 2 pieces kohlrabi.

Week 28: 1 stick fresh garlic, 1.5kg potatoes, 2 courgettes, 

0.5kg tomatoes, 400g chard, 1 lettuce, 1 cucumber, 1 bunch basil.

Week 43: 1 head of lettuce, 600g carrots, 600g red cabbage, 500g onions, 600g tomatoes, 2 pieces of fennel, 500g spinach, 1 bunch of chives. 

Besides this, high-quality bread made by a partnering baker and beer produced by the members of the cooperative may be purchased for some additional payment.

Kartoffelkombinat does not only want to provide regional and ecological food but re-think the consumerist lifestyle as it is typical for Western societies. Furthermore, Kartoffelkombinat aims to redefine “welfare”, by strongly advocating for public welfare instead of profit maximization. Through the community approach, economic sovereignty and decisions remain in the hands of citizens. Furthermore, the aim is also to preserve knowledge about agricultural techniques for future generations.

There are a set of advantages of the community-based agriculture approach. This entails, that their goods are mostly vegan (no dairy products and meat), that ecological production is taken up, that goods are more eco-friendly regarding packaging and transport, and that all food is regional and seasonal. Also, local smallholder farms are being supported to survive in the midst of a costly power struggle involving powerful corporations (Kartoffelkombinat eG, n.d.-a).

From an organizational and economic point of view, Kartoffelkombinat follows the principles of the Economy of the Common Good (Gemeinwohlökonomie), which was officially certified in 2016 (Kartoffelkombinat eG, 2016). As the name indicates, companies that follow these economic principles aim to maximize the benefit for society, instead of the corporation’s financial profit. An organization that wants to be certified is evaluated within the organization, but also towards suppliers and clients, against the following principles (Gemeinwohlökonomie Deutschland, n.d.-b): 

• Dignity of every human being;
• Ecological sustainability;
• Solidarity with vulnerable groups;
• Social justice;
• Empowerment and transparency;

What is the timeline? Are there already visible effects?

The initiative started in 2012, and it is still operational since it has strong supporters and many participants. The positive effects of the initiative are all too obvious. Almost 3,000 households are being provided with food on a weekly basis, and the organization has developed from a small CSA cooperative to an organization which provides so much more to the community and the city (see examples and more info later in this entry, Kartoffelkombinat eG, n.d.-c).

Who are the actors involved? What are their backgrounds?

Regarding their prior work experience, the actors involved in the organization’s management have different backgrounds. For instance, people are coming from advertising agencies, the IT sector, photography, and simply higher education. Despite employing professionals from the agricultural sector, Kartoffelkombinat also offers apprenticeships to become a professional vegetable farmer. Like this, the organization attracts young people. Usually, shareholders, consumers, and collaborators have some financial stability and moderate purchasing power.

Which limits (institutional, physical, social, etc.) does it encounter?

The organization has evolved to an organization where hundreds of people collaborate and thousands more benefit from it. However, these huge dimensions would at some point lead to organizational limits or at least huge challenges to cope with. Some more organizational growth to reach even more people seems difficult. 

As outlined above, the Kartoffelkombinat follows the principles of the Economy of the Common Good which comprises reporting about the organization’s values and activities along economic principles. However, surprisingly enough, the organization has only published one report back in 2016. The lack of information on the organization casts a shadow on its future potential and seems to be motivated by a lack of resources, rather than a result of a lack of intention to follow the prescribed principles and values.

Are any shortcomings or critical points visible? What other problematic issues can arise from its implementation? 

The buy-in policy and the relatively high monetary amount of the monthly share indicate that not everybody might be able to afford the involvement in the organization. Thus, certain layers of society might be excluded. On a different level, Kartoffelkombinat could be competing against farmers who follow organic farming principles. Because these farmers likely could not rely on people working for them as volunteers (for “free”), they would need to offer their products at higher prices. Like this, clients of these farmers potentially could tend to buy fewer products from them, but rather use the services offered by Kartoffelkombinat. It is however unclear if this problem deserves attention because the coverage of Kartoffelkombinat (reaching almost 3,000 households) still seems very insignificant compared to the number of inhabitants residing in the city of Munich. 

How would it be potentially replicable in other settings?

It is an initiative which can be replicated in many other areas or cities as well. People willing to start a similar initiative only would need to find agricultural associates to start farming. Noteworthy, Kartoffelkombinat had similarly humble beginnings. Additionally, many networking events and information about the activities of regional groups coming from many countries, are provided by the European CSA Research Group (2016).

Is this initiative conducive to broader changes (law, institutional arrangements, long-term sustainability or community preparedness, etc.)? If yes, which? 

Kartoffelkombinat is promoting and influencing societal change in a broader sense in many ways. Apart from the current organization (Kartoffelkombinat eG), a non-profit association which offers much more than agricultural goods, called Kartoffelkombinat – Der Verein e.V., was founded by the members. The association (in German “Verein”) aims to enable a cultural change in many different parts of society, related to exchange within the community, societal transformation, education, ecology, and research. Examples of each field of activity will be illustrated at the end of this entry. At this point though, two examples will be described in more detail: 

Example 1: ErdLink – A cottage garden transforming the street city (Original in German: Der ErdLink – ein Bauerngarten wandelt die Straßenstadt) 

As one might discover from the name, ErdLink aims to create a connection (link) between Earth’s inhabitants (German: Erdlinge) and nature in urban environments which would have remained inaccessible if the project had not been initiated.

The ErdLink had been a temporary pop-up agriculture area in a concrete-dominating square of Munich (Europaplatz) in September 2021. Specifically, the “nature” of a traffic island was used to create an area for urban gardening.

ErdLink aimed for and succeeded in the following objectives:

• To make formerly inaccessible nature accessible for citizens;
• To demonstrate that supply with agricultural goods is possible, in dense urban environments;
• To increase the city’s quality of life to make it unnecessary for citizens to travel outside the city to enjoy nature

For the project, huge boxes were transported to the area, which contained grown regional and seasonal vegetables, herbs, and other flowering plants, e.g., bell peppers, basil, leek, or sunflower. The content of the boxes was crafted in such a way that anyone could easily grow them in their private properties, both in gardens and balconies. Visitors of ErdLink could also take plants or seeds home. Pictures 3 and 4 illustrate how ErdLink looks like.

               Photo 3: ErdLink at Europaplatz in Munich (Photo: Nick Bergner)

                      Photo 4: Plant boxes from ErdLink (Photo: Nick Bergner)

Most of the nearby living citizens and visitors liked this setting pretty much and associated it with an increase in life quality in the urban environment. Apart from realising a significant change in the appearance of the urban environment, ErdLink also brought along various activities to learn about agriculture, through seminars, workshops, and information campaigns. Examples were guided tours through the ErdLink area, a guided city tour focusing on green and “nature” space in other parts of the city, public readings of children’s books related to nature, or online seminars to inform about urban gardening and urban nature in general.

The entire project was considered by the organizers as very informative and successful as learning was willingly shared between organizers, visitors, and nearby living citizens, who shall take it as input for similar projects in the future. But until today, though, no similar project has been announced so far for the near future (LORA MÜNCHEN, 2021; Meincke, 2021).

Example 2: Discovering Big City Wilderness… (German: Großstadtwildnis entdecken…)

Discovering Big City wilderness was a project executed in August 2021 by offering six four-hour long guided tours for children and young adults through a biotope in the neighbourhood of Obersendling in Munich. Obersendling is a district which is currently undergoing a transition and is characterised by a high degree of density. This makes the natural surroundings in and around Siemenspark even more important to remain recognizable for the citizens of the neighbourhood. The main parts of the discovery tours for the all-in-all 60 participants were: discovering dead wood, trees, meadows, waste or trails used by humans. Among the activities were nature observation, multicolour meadow items collection, man-nature relationship building, building “waste monsters”, marble runs, deadwood artwork, and many more… 

The following pictures shall illustrate some of the activities: 

Photos 5, 6 and 7: Different photos from the discovery tours of urban nature (Photos: V. Westermeier & G. Baumert)

In an exciting and playful way, the young “scientists” were able to experience the nature of the big city with all their senses which awakened topical enthusiasm in them. It also sensitised the participants about the importance of city nature protection (Kartoffelkombinat e.V., n.d.-a). 

As already mentioned earlier, there are several activities and workshops organized by the Kartoffelkombinat e.V. Some of these are (Kartoffelkombinat e.V., n.d.-b):

1. Cultural exchange within the community: Kartoffelkombinat offers cooking lessons in outdoor kitchens, organizes cinemas about sustainability (“potato cinema”), education programmes for children to make them learn about sustainable & regional agriculture, organization of community meetups in urban neighbourhoods; also, Kartoffelkombinat financially supports initiatives in other countries like a project for regenerative agricultural nursery in Portugal;
2. Transformation of the society: Organization of networking events which are not related to agriculture at all: for example, Kartoffelkombinat wants to develop open-source software that CSA initiatives can use to facilitate their organization (“Corporation-free IT”). Many partnerships had been established, which seem to be key for its success; for example, Kartoffelkombinat has cooperations with the Munich Council of Nutrition, with initiatives to promote cycling in the city, with “Save the bees”, and many more…;
3. Education: Organization of “Potato academies” for schools and kindergartens, but also for the broader public through workshops and seminars (“potato dialogues”). Even the famous Oktoberfest is targeted to offer more sustainable food there (#faireWiesn);
4. Ecology: Kartoffelkombinat regularly organizes projects about how to increase biodiversity in urban environments, and invites citizens to participate in these projects;
5. Social aspects: Kartoffelkombinat also has got a working group to promote refugee integration or new immigrants to Germany;
6. Research: Kartoffelkombinat is also doing research, for example, by participating in a research project about opportunities for a sustainable agricultural food economy (NASCENT) by the Carl-von-Ossietzky University of Osnabrück.

The examples presented above show that Kartoffelkombinat eG and Kartoffelkombinat – der Verein e.V. want to achieve a behavioural change in society, not only towards climate change but on a much broader scale to help form a peaceful and dignified life on Earth, where respect between humankind and nature is reciprocal, away from any profit maximisation and nature exploitation motives. Kartoffelkombinat and its members are contributing significantly to reduce potential dependencies and exploitation of people and land in and from the global south, and as such work together to help make the world environmentally friendly and a better place for all.

References

Carlsson Kanyama, A., Hedin, B., & Katzeff, C. (2021). Differences in Environmental Impact between Plant-Based Alternatives to Dairy and Dairy Products: A Systematic Literature Review. Sustainability, 13(22), 12599. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132212599

Dumaresq, D., & Greene, R. (2001). Soil Structure, Fungi, Fauna & Phosphorus in Sustainable Cropping Systems. Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation.

European CSA Research Group. (2016). Overview of Community Supported-Agriculture in Europe.

Farlex. (n.d.). Kombinat. In The Free Dictionary. Retrieved 7 June 2023, from https://de.thefreedictionary.com/Kombinat

Gemeinwohlökonomie Deutschland. (n.d.-a). Gemeinwohl-Matrix. Retrieved 7 June 2023, from https://germany.ecogood.org/tools/gemeinwohl-matrix/.

Gemeinwohlökonomie Deutschland. (n.d.-b). Werte der Gemeinwohlökonomie: Wirtschaft neu denken. Retrieved 7 June 2023, from https://germany.ecogood.org/vision/werte/

Kartoffelkombinat eG. (n.d.-a). Kartoffelkombinat. Blog. Retrieved 7 June 2023, from https://www.kartoffelkombinat.de/blog/uber-uns/die-gartnerei/

Kartoffelkombinat eG. (n.d.-b). Über uns. Ziele und Werte des Kartoffelkombinats. Retrieved 7 June 2023, from https://www.kartoffelkombinat.de/blog/uber-uns/ziele-und-werte/

Kartoffelkombinat eG. (n.d.-c). Was bisher geschah. Retrieved 7 June 2023, from https://www.kartoffelkombinat.de/blog/uber-uns/was-bisher-geschah/

Kartoffelkombinat eG. (2015). Gemeinwohlbericht. https://www.kartoffelkombinat.de/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/GW%C3%96_KK_final_testat_160203.pdf

Kartoffelkombinat eG. (2022). Was bisher geschah – eine Chronik des Kartoffelkombinats. https://www.kartoffelkombinat.de/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2019_Juni_Chronologie_KK.pdf

Kartoffelkombinat eG. (2016, February 16). Schlagworte-Archive: Gemeinwohlökonomie. https://www.kartoffelkombinat.de/blog/tag/gemeinwohloekonomie/

Kartoffelkombinat e.V. (n.d.-a). Großstadtwildnis entdecken… Retrieved 7 June 2023, from https://kartoffelkombinat-ev.de/grossstadtwildnis-entdecken/

Kartoffelkombinat e.V. (n.d.-b). Projektübersicht—Kartoffelkombinat—Der Verein e.V. Retrieved 7 June 2023, from https://kartoffelkombinat-ev.de/projektuebersicht/

LORA MÜNCHEN. (2021, September 9). Mobilitätsprojekte im öffentlichen Raum: Der „Erdlink“ des Kartoffelkombinats. https://lora924.de/2021/09/09/mobilitaetsprojekte-im-oeffentlichen-raum-der-erdlink-des-kartoffelkombinats/

Lotter, D. W., Seidel, R., & Liebhardt, W. (2003). The performance of organic and conventional cropping systems in an extreme climate year | American Journal of Alternative Agriculture | Cambridge Core. American Journal of Alternative Agriculture, 18(3), 146–154. https://doi.org/10.1079/AJAA200345

Meincke, I. (2021, August 30). Der ErdLink – ein Bauerngarten wandelt die Straßenstadt. https://kartoffelkombinat-ev.de/2021/08/der-erdlink-ein-bauerngarten-wandelt-die-strassenstadt/

Nair, A., & Delate, K. (2016). Composting, Crop Rotation, and Cover Crop Practices in Organic Vegetable Production. In D. Nandwani (Ed.), Organic Farming for Sustainable Agriculture (pp. 231–257). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26803-3_11

Pimentel, D., Hepperly, P., Hanson, J., Douds, D., & Seidel, R. (2005). Environmental, Energetic, and Economic Comparisons of Organic and Conventional Farming Systems. BioScience, 55(7), 573. https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2005)055[0573:EEAECO]2.0.CO;2

Tuomisto, H. L., Hodge, I. D., Riordan, P., & Macdonald, D. W. (2012). Does organic farming reduce environmental impacts? – A meta-analysis of European research. Journal of Environmental Management, 112, 309–320. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.08.018

ReparadTUM, a Student Bike Kitchen initiative in Munich

By Santiago Londoño Castillo

ReparadTUM volunteer taking a look at the cogset of a bike during one of the pop-up workshops held in Garching, Munich. Image by Santiago Londoño Castillo

Location:

Munich, Germany

Who are the promoters?

An internal survey conducted in 2022 indicated that over half the students at Munich’s universities cycle regularly. However, many respondents pointed out that they often lacked the tools or skills to fix their bikes in case of breakdown. Based on this information, a group of students from the technical university of Munich (TUM) and recently also from the Ludwig-Maximilian University (LMU) with the support of their respective student unions and their environment department (Referat für Umwelt), and VCD (Verkehrsclub Deutschland e.V), decided to create reparadTUM: a space for bike self-repairs, where tools are available and volunteers ready to give students a hand fixing their bikes a.k.a a bike kitchen.

Who are the beneficiaries?

The internal survey identified the TUM students at the Garching campus (on the outskirts of Munich) as the main beneficiaries of the initiative, approximately 40.000 students. The initial plan of reparadTUM was to establish a permanent bike kitchen on campus, with fixed opening days/hours. However, due to the lack of space on campus and limited funding, reparadTUM started by first hosting pop-up workshops. The pop-up workshops take place for one or two days in open spaces on campus and any student can come to fix their bike or get advice. Hitherto, three pop-up workshops have been held in Garching, almost exclusively for TUM students, and on the 31st of May, the first workshop in downtown Munich took place as a result of a collaboration between LMU and TUM students. In the long run, as more volunteers join and the project grows, the goal is to establish permanent bike kitchens in different locations on campus and to expand the number of people who can benefit from it.

What is cooking up in this kitchen?
Vision, Mision and Climate Engagement of ReparadTUM
The reparadTUM project aims to engage with climate in a manifold of ways, from the political to the more practical aspects of biking in a city, it aims to be more than simply a “green initiative”. The points below summarise not only the connections between reparadTUM and environmental issues but also the values it stands for and its objectives as a project to address those issues.

● Green mobility and mobility justice
House to the automobile giant BMW, Munich has become a city with one of the highest motorization rates in Germany, with almost 1⁄3 of all daily trips within Munich being car trips (Buehler et al., 2016). In the past years, this trend has been reversing, and the city has made a considerable effort to increase green mobility, mainly by expanding its public transportation networks, nonetheless, the transport fares remain too high for many to afford, pushing them to bike or walk. ReparaTUM believes that everyone has the right not only to safe bike roads but also to a safe and functioning bike. By providing free bike repairments, reparadTUM aims not only to boost the use of bicycles but also to keep biking from becoming a privilege that not everyone can afford.

Moreover, as a collective, reparadTUM engages with and supports larger organizations advocating for green mobility, mobility transition and bike safety, such as ADFC (German Cyclist’s Association), VCD (German Traffic Club), and Critical Mass. Among some of the key points these organizations are backing are safer and better-connected bicycle lanes, introducing speed limits in the autobahn and 30 km/h as default speed within cities, and more affordable public transportation fares. ReparadTUM has attended public demos, mass rides, and events organized by these organizations since we know that organizations, operating at a national level and working beyond “bicycle matters”, are as important as small collectives to transition to a greener and more just mobility. Thus, we seek to engage and support already established organizations advocating for mobility justice policies.

● Mutual aid and community building
Everyone involved with reparadTUM is a volunteer and none of its members receive any monetary benefits from taking part, it is overall, a solidarity project. Besides voluntary donations, used to purchase tools, no monetary transactions take place during the workshops, we work there because we enjoy doing it and not because we expect something in return. Moreover, reparadTUM wants to be more than an ordinary bike shop, where people go to just get their bike fixed and then leave, it wants to provide a social space where people go to talk, eat, teach what they know and learn what they do not, a space for the exchange of ideas, free of discrimination where everyone feels welcome, in an era of capitalist alienation we need to build stronger and healthier communities.

ReparadTUM volunteer working on a flat tyre during the last pop-up workshop held in March 2023 in Garching, Munich. Image by Santiago Londoño Castillo

● Circular economy and waste reduction
Last but not least, we live in a time where discarding something as soon as it breaks down has become the norm, and this is a problem that goes beyond individuals’consumerist/wasteful attitude, it is a problem of design, skill and costs. When someone’s bike breaks down, many people cannot afford to take it to a bike shop due to their high costs, at the same time, most people do not have the right tools at home to fix their bike, and if they do many simply do not have the skills. The result is that the person stops using their bike, insists on riding a broken and potentially dangerous bike, or, given the high prices for certain bike fixes compared to second-hike bikes, buys a used bike. The outcome is almost universally the same, a bike, far from completing its useful lifespan, going to waste. ReparadTUM wants to address this issue, not only by providing the tools and assistance for citizens to fix their bikes, but also by teaching them the necessary skills to fix a bike, so that next time not only can this person fix their bike if it breaks, but maybe even assist their neighbours or family, saving yet one more bike from going to waste. ReparadTUM is no ordinary bike workshop, you are your own mechanic and we just help you help yourself!

Timeline

The initiative started in the summer of 2022, the first few months consisted mainly of thinking about how to turn this idea into a reality, i.e. finding the funding, spaces, people, existing literature and similar initiatives in the city and Germany. In this initial stage, reparadTUM came a long way, members got in touch with organisations, initiatives and collectives, official and unofficial, regarding funding, ideas, challenges and limitations. Based on the feedback and information acquired during this time a realistic plan was set, initially, reparadTUM would host pop-up workshops on campus a couple of times per semester, which would provide its members with experience about bike kitchens, statistics which can then be used for further funding and planning and as a way to get exposure, i.e. what is reparadTUM and what they do. To this day, June 2023, four pop-up workshops, which nearly 100 people attended in total, have successfully taken place, three in Garching and the latest one, held on May 31st, in downtown Munich. From the positive feedback received during the workshops and as more students get on board, reparadTUM is planning to start hosting regular workshops, every two weeks, on campus after summer 2023. The idea is to have enough volunteers and attendees to be able to soon establish a permanent location on campus where the bike kitchen will regularly take place and be open a couple of times per week. If this first bike kitchen proves successful, reparadTUM would like in the long term to establish workshops in different locations and potentially expand this initiative beyond university students. Despite having been active for only one year, reparadTUM has got a long way, additionally to the successful workshops carried out so far, and the dozens of bikes saved from an early retirement, the project already counts with a bicycle-specific toolkit comparable to that of a small bike shop, and its active members have gone from a handful last year to nearly 40 at the time being, with more joining every week. Moreover, the feedback from the workshops has been almost exclusively positive, being the regularity of pop-up workshops one of the only improvement areas.

Who are the members of reparadTUM?

The majority of members are university students with very diverse backgrounds. None of us are bike experts or mechanics, many of the members did not have a lot of experience fixing bikes when they first joined the project, we are just a group of bike enthusiasts happy to learn from each other as we go. Despite most of the members being German speakers, we have a very diverse group with many international members, all reparadTUM communications and meetings are carried out in English to make it as international-friendly as possible. ReparadTUM has also received valuable support, both economically and logistically from the TUM student union, in particular its department for the environment, which also consists almost entirely of university students.

Limits and challenges

Being a very new, student-led project, reparadTUM has encountered mainly economic, and physical limitations. To begin with, the project needed initial funding to acquire the most essential tools, reparadTUM applied to several stipends, funds and funding opportunities, both public and private. Finally, after a staggering amount of paperwork and bureaucracy, which seems to be common in Germany, reparadTUM secured its initial funding to kickstart the project. However, the funding itself came with its limitations, in particular, since the funding came from the student union, only students could attend the pop-up workshops, something which has impacted severely the outreach of the project. Another limitation has been space, due to the shortage of rooms at the university campus, reparadTUM has been unable to find a permanent location where to set up its operations, currently, the project could not afford to rent a permanent place and all the tools are inconveniently stored at the student union’s basement.

Bike owner cleaning the chain of their bike during one of reparadTUM’s pop-up workshops in Garching. Image by Dais Davy

Criticism

One significant shortcoming of this project has been its target audience and outreach. Despite having the intention to reach out to as many people as possible, reparadTUM has so far remained almost entirely within the student sphere in Munich, mainly two factors account for this; funding and location. First of all, as was discussed before, since most funding comes from the student union, due to legal reasons reparadTUM can only provide tools and spare parts to students. Moreover, the funding received so far has been able to secure only a limited number of tools and spare parts, making it difficult to increase the project’s outreach without increasing the funding accordingly. Secondly, most of the students involved in the project are located on the Garching campus, 20 km away from the city centre, where so far most of the pop-up workshops have taken place. Due to its distance from the city and the presence almost exclusively of the university in this area, the majority of people biking from and to Garching are students. In the long term, hopefully, reparadTUM will manage to increase the number of people that have access to their workshops and bike kitchens, one step in this direction is already being taken; on May 31st reparadTUM held its first pop-up workshop in the city centre, which proved to be a great success, with a record-high attendance.

Replicability

Replicability is one of the greatest advantages of this project. One needs very little to get a bike kitchen started, from our experience at reparadTUM we have noticed that a great number of the bikes that are brought to the workshops can be fixed with very basic tools: patches, screwdrivers, hex keys and oil. Bike kitchens can be easily started at any scale, neighbourhood, school, workplace, university, or city, one only needs a couple of tools and a group of motivated people who are willing to learn and do not mind getting their hands dirty. Naturally, as the scale of the bike kitchen grows so do the challenges it involves and the resources necessary, which means that if you want to give it a shot, call your friends and neighbours, gather some tools and get to work!

Pop-up workshop held by reparadTUM in November 2022 in Garching, Munich Image by Santiago Londoño Castillo

Is reparadTUM conducive to broader changes?

The power of initiatives such as reparadTUM lies in its simplicity, both in terms of replicability and implementation. Just a year ago, reparadTUM started with a couple of students and bike enthusiasts with some basic tools and very little bike-repairing experience, today, the project counts nearly 40 members, a well-equipped tool-box and many plans to keep growing and doing what we love.

Bike kitchens and projects like reparadTUM want to provide new ways to look not only at bike repair but at community initiatives as a whole. As a living example of mutual aid and community economies, bike kitchens show us that other ways of providing services and interacting with each other, outside the capitalist sphere, are possible, work and are already here. Bike kitchens modify our reality, a broken bike goes from being a potentially very expensive nightmare, into an opportunity to learn a new skill, hang out with your friends and all without having to spend money. Then, the natural question becomes “If this is possible for bikes why not for everything else?”. Big disruptions begin with small changes led by strong communities, which then lead to new policies first at the local and ultimately at the national and global scale. ReparadTUM is just one out of hundreds of community initiatives springing all around the world, ultimately, all these initiatives strive to build a better and more just world, one community at a time.

References

Buehler, R., Pucher, J., Gerike, R., & Götschi, T. (2017). Reducing car dependence in the heart of Europe: lessons from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Transport Reviews, 37(1), 4–28. doi:10.1080/01441647.2016.1177799