Bio, bitte! How green resorts are building Germany’s sustainability reputation

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By Christopher Elliott

The Biostadt Schmilka, a sustainable resort on the bank of the Elbe river near the Czech border, looks like every other German village. There’s a Gasthaus and homes with immaculate gardens and fruit trees, and the river with colorful kayaks floating downstream.

But Schmilka was never like the other German villages. As far back as the late 19th century, artists and affluent visitors came there to enjoy hiking among the sandstone monoliths that looked almost alpine and earned this place the nickname Sächsische Schweiz, or Saxon Switzerland. In the 1930s, they invented free climbing here, and during the Cold War, it was a border outpost closed to the rest of the world. 

That’s when Sven-Erik Hitzer discovered it, as a young man growing up in what was then East Berlin.

“This was our Alaska, our wilderness,” says Hitzer, who created the Biostadt Schmilka after much of it was abandoned in the early 2000s. He reconstructed a mill, added a bakery and a brewery, and renovated the empty homes. 

And then he discovered sustainability — the idea that a resort could conserve its natural resources, recycle, use renewable energy and serve organic food. Hitzer went all in, opening Germany’s first certified “bio” resort. 

It’s just one of the ways a unique German idea of sustainability has taken hold in the eastern part of the country, from Harz National Park to big cities like Leipzig. Tourism officials would like you to think that green vacations in eastern Germany are a new thing, but a closer look at what’s happening suggests they are woven into almost every aspect of the visitor experience — and have been for a while.

Julianne Becker, co-owner of the Coconat work retreat near Bad Belzig, Germany, stands next to the facility’s compost heating system. 

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Getting a little work done in Bad Belzig

In Bad Belzig, a one-hour train ride from Berlin, the idea of sustainability is being explored at a pioneering work retreat called Coconat. Julianne Becker, the retreat’s co-owner, says she wanted to take the idea of a co-working space further, giving people a place to stay and get work done. The facility is in a converted 19th-century farmhouse, with wide-plank hardwood flooring and soaring ceilings. And the guests who aren’t reviewing spreadsheets on their laptop computers are in animated conversations about new business ideas.

“It is definitely not a hotel, at least in the traditional sense,” says Becker.

That nontraditional attitude extends to sustainability. Here, you will find guests sorting their own trash for recycling;  there’s also a compost heating system that provides warmth to a workshop space, where you can find artists and a half-completed robot that will be used by a startup to create carbon-filtering components. In other words, although it’s rarely articulated, sustainability is part of everything people do at the resort. (Related: Germany’s green vacations: How Berlin is making tourism more sustainable.)

Becker says that’s intentional. When she came up with the idea of a work retreat — an idea that has since been copied around the world — she didn’t want sustainability to be just another amenity. She says she wanted Coconat to make a difference in the community by nurturing young businesses and improving the environment by consuming fewer resources. 

There’s a German word that keeps coming up when discussing sustainability: selbstverständlich — of course. Why wouldn’t we do it that way?

Park ranger Lisa Höhne surveys the Mondlandschaft — the “lunar landscape” — of spruce trees killed by the bark beetle.

Landing on the moon in Saxony-Anhalt

A short train ride away, in Wernigerode, there’s another side of sustainability that’s being explored. Visitors to this popular resort destination in Saxony-Anhalt are drawn here by the famous narrow gauge railway, which takes them up to Harz National Park. If you’re staying in the center of town in one of Wernigerode’s popular hotels, such as the Travel Charme Gothisches Haus, it’s just a five-minute walk to the train station.

The park itself is not what you would expect. Park ranger Lisa Höhne calls it a lunar landscape, and for a good reason. The park is a graveyard of spruce trees that were consumed by bark beetles a few years ago. Park authorities realized that the insects were part of the natural life cycle, because they invaded only the weaker trees. The dead trees provided food and shelter to plants and animals in the forest, ensuring its sustainability. (Related: Here’s what Finland wants you to know about being green.)

“We are currently witnessing how the young and much healthier mixed forest of tomorrow is establishing itself,” she says. “So really, when you talk about sustainability, this is an important part of it.”

Part of the national park’s mission is to educate visitors about the importance of this natural life cycle and sustainability, and that it has always been a part of this place. 

The Bad Dürrenberg Shaman at the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle, Germany.

In Bad Dürrenberg, a shaman and a garden show 

The permanent exhibits at the State Museum of Prehistory are a reminder how far back Germany’s sustainability tradition goes. The early hunter-gatherers had to be mindful of their resources because their survival depended on it. 

One of the star exhibits of the museum is the Bad Dürrenberg Shaman, a 9,000-year-old skeleton unearthed on the current site of the Saxony-Anhalt State Garden Show. Archaeologist Tomoko Emmerling says the shaman was a celebrity in her day and that her Mesolithic-era grave is evidence of that. It features a diversity of animals and other artifacts that suggests she was a revered member of society. 

“Her grave contained, among a large array of other grave goods, a mask made of deer horns, tortoise shells, and a number of tiny stone blades, so-called microliths,” she says. “She was special.” (Related: Hamburg pursues sustainability with a bunker hotel, food halls — and free kayaks.)

Curiously, the centerpiece of the state garden show is where archaeologists unearthed the shaman in the 1930s. Michael Steinland, the CEO of the state garden show, says scientists have been discovering more about the shaman recently.

“There’s evidence that people brought gifts to the grave hundreds of years after her burial,” he says.

Today, the area around the shaman’s burial site is a park with greenhouses, floral exhibits, and a completely intact graduation tower, used to remove water from a saline solution to produce salt. At 2,086 feet, it is the longest graduation facility in Germany. It’s still in use today, and visitors can walk past it on a hot day to cool off and inhale the salty air.

An art gallery in the Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei, one of the oldest cotton mills in continental Europe.

In Leipzig, a cotton mill becomes a sustainable tourist attraction

In eastern Germany, sustainability sometimes happens by chance. Consider the Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei, a sprawling early 20th-century cotton mill. After German reunification in 1990, people had no clear idea of what to do with the facility. Developers wanted to turn the buildings into loft apartments, but couldn’t come up with the funding. A lively art scene had already established itself on the site and occupied rooms as studios, including Leipzig’s most famous artist today, Neo Rauch. (Related: Yes, your vacation is destroying the planet. Here’s how to stop.)

And that’s when its owners decided to invite artists to set up their studios in the old warehouses. Today, more than 100 painters, sculptors and visual artists have taken up residence in this industrial area. There are galleries, a café, a cinema and a theater. (Here’s our guide with the best travel advice.)

Resident artist and docent Evelina Boger says the art has been transformational to the area. Art investors have flocked to the cotton mill to scout out talented new artists, which are part of the New Leipzig School of artists. That’s turned the Baumwollspinnerei into a tourist attraction in its own right — a place where visitors can stop by to look at the art, meet artists, and buy a sculpture or painting. 

“It’s also an inspiring place,” says Boger, a photographer and painter. “There’s something about being in an industrial building that makes you creative.”

Sven-Erik Hitzer, creator of the Biostadt Schmilka, next to his organic mill

What’s the future of sustainable tourism in Eastern Germany?

Hitzer, the creator of Biostadt Schmilka, says the future of “bio” tourism is bright — not just in Eastern Germany, but in the region. He even created a listing of other certified sustainable hotels that go beyond recycling and a few solar panels. “They’re the real deal,” he says. And the list is growing. 

The reason: People like the idea of a responsible vacation, says Hitzer. Organic food tastes better. You sleep better in a bed that hasn’t been laminated with harmful chemicals. All across Europe, people are starting to realize that a sustainable vacation is a better vacation, and they’re upgrading their trips to “bio.”

But sustainability can also be expensive. Hitzer says he has a solution for that, too: He plans to restore an old farmhouse in Schmilka and turn it into a hostel with inexpensive rooms. That way, young people can come to discover Saxon Switzerland just as he did in his youth.

As eastern Germany embraces sustainable tourism, from eco-resorts to repurposed industrial spaces, it’s clear that going green isn’t just a trend — it’s becoming selbstverständlich.

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Christopher Elliott

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that empowers consumers to solve their problems and helps those who can't. He's the author of numerous books on consumer advocacy and writes three nationally syndicated columns. He also publishes the Elliott Report, a news site for consumers, and Elliott Confidential, a critically acclaimed newsletter about customer service. If you have a consumer problem you can't solve, contact him directly through his advocacy website. You can also follow him on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or sign up for his daily newsletter.

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