Freienwaldschule - heart-based school in free sponsorship

Heart-based democracy

“Heart-based democracy is a form of democracy that flows from the wisdom of the heart. It is loving, empathetic and mindful.”

Probably as early as 1142, a similar form of democracy was established by Deganawidah, the so-called Great Peacemaker, brought to the Indian peoples of North America and anchored in the Law of the Great Peace. This law also gave rise to the Seven Generations Principle which states that every action should be chosen in such a way that the coming generations, including the seventh, will find a beautiful and liveable earth.

The social order was based on the principle of wholeness in which man was perceived as a part of the whole and the whole as a part of man. In the council meetings, in addition to clan leaders, ordinary men, women, and children were free to voice their concerns and participate in decision-making. Women were equal to men and even held a central function in the community as so-called “Clan Mothers”. Decisions were usually made by consensus, where everyone actively participates in finding a decision, which is for the good of the community, together.

The social order based on the Seven Generations Principle has been and continues to be practiced by the Haudenosaunee (also known as the “people of the longhouse”).

This law also gave rise to the Seven Generations Principle which states that every action should be chosen in such a way that the coming generations, including the seventh, will find a beautiful and liveable earth.

Our school

Our school is a loving space in which everybody can perceive and recognise themselves in their own wholeness, can be blissful, feel at ease with themself and fully develop their natural potential in a holistic way.

Our school is a loving space in which everybody can perceive and recognise themselves in their own wholeness, can be blissful, feel at ease with themselves and fully develop their natural potential in a holistic way.

Essential school subjects such as Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Geography are combined and taught at our school in a natural, lively and creative way.

In addition to these subjects, a broad range of learning experiences are included, such as free play, handicrafts, theatre, knowledge of the wilderness and permaculture, music and instrument playing, movement, Slavic culture and its languages, song and dance, philosophy and psychology, as well as gratitude.

Our school will open at the beginning of the 2021/22 school year as a preschool, elementary school and high school, including after-school care, with children aged 5 to 15. The school may grow to a size of 60 to 80 pupils in the first number of years.

Free play, handicrafts, theatre, knowledge of the wilderness and permaculture, music and instrument playing, movement, Slavic culture and its languages, song and dance, philosophy and psychology, as well as gratitude.

Democratic education

At a democratic school people can independently decide what, when, how and with whom they want to learn.

The children find themselves in mixed-age groups in harmony with their interests and abilities. They naturally switch from the role of learner to the role of teacher and vice versa, thereby developing essential competencies of being human.

According to neurobiological findings, we learn particularly well when we follow our own inquisitiveness and interests. This is exactly what our school offers; a loving space for free, self-motivated learning at one’s own rhythm and pace, following one’s inner compass.

This is how authentic, happy, lively, self-aware and self-confident people develop.

Community living

Growth and development thrive particularly well in a loving environment in which we are seen, respected and valued.

At the Council meetings held at our school, all members of the school community have equal voting rights and all school related issues are decided for the good of the school.

Experience shows that communal living in love and freedom, joy and appreciation, trust and clarity, peace and gratitude lead to a healthy and blissful humility of being.

Gratitude acts as an anchor for happiness and leads to a healthy, as well as happy, humility of being.

Our place

Our location is a beautiful large forest area near the Malchetal. It is situated on a mountain, under tall pines and sparse birches, on the Klingenden Fließ between Falkenberg (Mark) and Bad Freienwalde (Oder), on the edge of Märkische Schweiz and Niederoderbruch.

In 1910 the forested area was bought by the teacher, pastor and founder of Malche, Ernst Lohmann. Initially three houses were built; the entire property was structurally completed and occupied in 1911 and given the name “Uchtenhagen”, according to a legend that the neighbouring castle ruins once belonged to the von Uchtenhagen family. The brotherhood of the Malche was born.

Today this place belongs to the Elisabethstift and they have warmly invited us to breathe new life into it together with them.

In 1910 the forested area was bought by the teacher, pastor and founder of Malche, Ernst Lohmann.

Our schoolyard

We cook fresh food together every day in our own kitchen.

A variety of different animals live on our premises, such as chickens, goats and a donkey, as well as bees.

In the garden we grow various herbs, vegetables, fruits and sweetgrasses. The surrounding forest offers us an abundance of wild herbs and other nutritious treasures. We cook fresh food together every day in our own kitchen.

Directly in front of the school building we have a site, in German “Festplatz”, where we can play, dance, make music, move around and celebrate annual festivals together.

At our fireplace in the forest, we sing, share experiences, tell stories and cook food. It is a magical, blissful and peaceful place.

At our fireplace in the forest, we sing, share experiences and tell stories.

The Participants

”Education means seeing the child as a self-aware, thinking, feeling being with the destiny to express, that is, to live, in a self-determined and self-conscious way, the divine law that lies within him and is at work in everything.” Friedrich Froebel (1782 — 1852)

Those involved in the Freienwald School are authentic, loving, warm, flexible and holistically aware. They follow their heart and perceive the child and the human being as a self-developing, divine being, who innately possesses within them the potential to develop their own self-awareness.

With their being, doing and acting the participants are healthy role models for the children and convey to them, in a loving and clear way, holistically healthy structures, orders, knowledge and values. In addition to the requirements of the state, our teachers have additional training in the following areas:

Waldorf‑, Montessori‑, Wilderness‑, Experience‑, Theatre‑, and Curative Education.

This field is supplemented by extracurricular experts and specialists, such as beekeepers (Zeidler), songwriters and actors, as well as various craftsmen and artists.