Summer fete in Stadtleben Ellener Hof

A full house, delicious food, lively conversations until late into the evening. So it was at our summer fete on 1 September, held in the Kulturaula in the new Stadtleben Eller Hof residential quarter, which was developed by our corporate member Bremer Heimstiftung. Uni Bremen vice-rectors Professor Michal Kucera and Professor Maren Petersen joined us there, and a few politicians, all graduates of the University of Bremen, also found their way to Bremen-Osterholz: Franziska Tell, Member of Parliament for Bündnis90/Grüne, Thomas Röwekamp, Member of Parliament for the CDU and the President of the Bremen Parliament Antje Grotheer, SPD, who delighted attendees with a short humorous speech and an enthusiastic commitment to the alumni association (YouTube-Statement).

To get the party started, a guided tour of the new social-ecological quarter served up plenty to marvel at.

Close to the city but still in the countryside. Climate-friendly and committed to neighbourliness. With people of different generations, cultures and religions. These are the defining attributes of the model residential quarter Stadtleben Ellener Hof, which Susanne Schöbel, long-time coordinator of the project, vividly brought home to us during our highly informative 1.5-hour tour of the new quarter. Where a just few years ago there were meadows, wilderness and old trees, sustainability is in the making on 10 hectares, and not only in the buildings. (Almost all of the old trees have been preserved.) There is the Holzbude, a seven-storey residential complex built mainly of wood, housing 66 students, rooms rented at 350 euros per month. The students also benefit from other, purposefully encouraged features of living together in Ellener Hof – gardening and cooking, sharing, repairing and exchanging things. Then there’s the Hindu temple, the colourful and richly decorated Sri Varasiththivinayakar Temple that opened this summer and is the largest Hindu temple in northern Germany. It is dedicated to the god of luck, Ganesha.

Some of this aura seems to have imbued our summer fete. It was a lovely event. And the words of welcome from Vice-Rector Maren Petersen were also gratifying: "I would like to thank you all, because the alumni of the University of Bremen are active promoters of our university and support many projects that, for the university and especially for the students, are of great value.”