Practical trainees and other interested people are welcome to share and experience the way we live and work with people with special needs. We provide a platform for young and old to get involved and be of service made possible by the governmental programmes called “BundesFreiwilligenDienst”, “Freiwilliges Soziales Jahr” and “Freiwilliges Ökologisches Jahr”. We offer apprenticeships in weaving, gardening, farming and social therapy.

The Parzival-Hof is part of a small village called Quelkhorn, in the countryside east of Bremen, surrounded by marshy lowlands. In 1983 the premises, including a historical windmill and farm buildings, were acquired to establish a place to live and work together. It has become a home for about 70 people with special needs. The Parzival-Hof is well integrated into the neighborhood. Our vibrant life is shared also in the village.

Working in the Parzival-Hof

In the Parzival-Hof there are six various workshops that comprise the “Ottersberger Manufakturen”, an accredited workshop for people with disabilities. The workshops are a bio-dynamic market garden and farm, a weavery and a candle-making-workshop, the culinary and the fabric-care-workshop.

Not far from the artists village of Worpswede, lies the community Johannishag, at the edge of a vast swampy region called the Teufelsmoor – the “devils moor”. It was founded as a home for people with special needs in 1995. Residential buildings, workshops, the offices and assembly hall were put up successively. Now it is a home for more than 60 people supported by a staff of qualified co-workers. The Johannishof, a farm in the neighborhood, with an integrated assisted living unit, is part of the community.
Six houses with 7-10 residents make the living units at the Johannishag. Life is shared and shaped according to what is required. Young volunteers from all over the world are welcome to join and encounter communal life and take part in the meaningful work of the personal development of each individual. New forms of assisted living are encouraged - according to specific skills and needs.

Working in the Johannishag

For every individual to find a suiting place of work, there are seven workshops at the Johannishag. The culinary- and house-maintainance-workshops provide inward and outward well-being, while gardening and farming are the responsive attempt to ecological challenges of our environment. The theatre-workshop produces plays performed in and out of the community and the fabric-workshop show an abundant woolen art-craft in living colors. The weavery-workshop and store in the neighboring village of Worpswede serve as a window to the artistic variety of our products.

The youngest of the three communities, the Niels-Stensen-Haus started to be a home for people with special needs in 2007. Formally having been an educational establishment, it now accommodates three living units, several sheltered workshops, the central administration of the foundation and the School of Social therapy and Curative Education.

The Ottersberger Manufakturen produces hand-/artcrafted products, whereas the market garden and the agricultural farm offer their products and services.
The Ottersberger Manufakturen is a certified WfbM (Werkstatt für behinderte Menschen – a training center for people with disabilities) with 170 placements and a tendence to increase.

Workshop areas
Golf Course Care
The Garden
Garden Maintainance
Caretaker Workshop
Coffee Workshop
Candle Workshop
Cooking
Textile Care
Felting Workshop
Theatre + Media
Carpentry Workshop
Weavery

Our market garden and the agricultural farm are considered organic with the certified label “Bio”.

Stiftung Leben und Arbeiten
Foundation for Living and Working

Worphauser Landstraße 55

D-28865 Lilienthal


+49 4208/299-0

Fax +49 4208/299-144


E-Mail contact

 
Lebensort Johannishag

+49 4794/9303-0

Lebensort Niels-Stensen-Haus

+49 4208/299-0

Lebensort Parzival-Hof

+49 4293/9171-0