Who we are

Achim Ecker, born 1959, active since his youth for the environment and disarmament. Draft resister. Founding member of the ZEGG community and GEN-Europe. Since 1995 teaches integral forum and consciousness training. Organized international youth camps in Eastern Europe. President of GEN-Europe for three years. Responsible for community building and ecological transformation of ZEGG. He has been building fertile soil and an edible landscape through permaculture for three decades. In Portugal, he is leading a reforestation project in the Alentejo since 1996. Terra Preta project since 2013. With his partner Ina Meyer-Stoll, he has been coaching communities for 30 years and works as a coach and couples counselor. He loves art and is an inspired painter.

Ina Meyer-Stoll, born 1961, teaching degree, peace and environmental activist. She is a founding member of the ZEGG community in Belzig, served for six years as executive director of GEN Europe (Global Ecovillage Network), which promotes the building of sustainable communities, and has been involved with Gaia Education since 2004. For 30 years she has worked in adult education as a communication teacher and supervisor, specializing in community building and building transparency and trust in group processes. Methods: non-violent communication (NVC), deep ecology, family constellations, forum, etc. She loves music and deep encouter.

Christa Dregger-Barthels, born 1959 in Cologne. Studied agricultural science, became a journalist for peace news, ecology, man/woman issues. She was a founding member of ZEGG, headed the Berliner Frauenrat e.V., organized women’s congresses and edited a magazine. She lived for 18 years in the peace research community Tamera in Portugal. She works for the magazine Zeitpunkt.ch in Switzerland, coaching groups in conflict resolution and community building. She loves theater and bread baking.

Georg Barthels, born in Brandenburg in 1985 as the son of an organic farmer, became a master carpenter. Experienced in ecological, sustainable construction especially straw bale houses. He is fascinated by complex, sustainable and beautiful structures in construction as well as in social interaction. He enjoys sharing his knowledge with children, youth and adults. During his five years of wandering, he has visited communities from Australia to South America and lived in a German community for the last five years. He loves sports and music.

Detlef Arndt, born 1960 near Potsdam, has 2 children, studied equipment design, worked as a software developer, management consultant, studied business administration. After a depression he started to change his life fundamentally. He lived in the ZEGG for 7 years and was responsible for the business management accounts. He loves numbers and calculation, is interested in alternative technologies and has been practicing “A Course in Miracles” for over 2 years.