Coworking And Coliving In Germany: A Review Of Coconat – Bad Belzig

Yes, this month a train took me to a remote camp in the heart of Germany. It is a special place, designed to help you concentrate better on your work and life. So, technically it’s a concentration camp ?

Practically, the experience was memorable. From mysterious doors to sexpionage, castles hidden in plain sight and..a lot of carrots, here is the story of my 3 days spent outside the ordinary life.

How It All Started: The Unexpected Message From My Finger

I am a freelancer, I can work from anywhere, I am a digital nomad.

It sounds cool. But in reality, I could very efficiently summarize my life with one line: I click the shit out of my mouse, the whole day. And sometimes I could badly use some time off.

On a hot day in July I realized that I strongly needed a holiday. I mean not me personally, but more exactly my index finger. Because I have been clicking so much with my mouse until my finger itself started to make a clicking and squeaking sound, like the finger of a terminated Terminator.

“Oh, man, no! Soon, I am going to have to replace my finger with a metallic one..”

This really took me by surprise. I hadn’t prepared a budget for this type of decay.

I had saved money for Botox injections, for snail extract creams or vampire facelifts (secret tip from Dracula, my conational), but for an upgrade to a bionic woman..No!

So, time for a vacation. But I didn’t want just a classic touristic holiday. I wanted some relaxing time while also staying connected to a community.

Therefore, I’ve decided to search online for a retreat for freelancers and remote workers. I hoped to be surrounded by people who understand the pain of overclicking, click-clacking, flic-flacking.

And this is how I stumbled upon the Coconat project and their Summer Camp, organized between 12 and 14 August.

“Join our summer camp in the German countryside. You can relax, you can work or you can do both. Just do whatever the hell you want. We will even feed you.”

Ok, I was sold. And I am happy I joined the camp. It was a very positive experience and completely shifted my perspective upon freelancers’ lifestyle and working options.

I realized that freelancing doesn’t have to be a lonely experience. On the contrary: once per year, you can have 3 days of sex, drugs and rockn’roll on a summer camp. 😛

Mmm, not really ?

Here Are 6 Highlights Of My Coconat Summer Camp

1. Coconat Retreat: The Old Mansion, The Floating Pavilion, The Hammocks, The Glamping Tents

On my first day on the camp, I felt the floor shaking under my feet.

I had just stepped onto the floating pavilion on the quaint little pond in the backyard. For somebody like me who spends hours on end sitting at the desk, this felt like surfing a point break. The short adrenaline rush cheered me up instantly.

The Coconat property is like an oasis of calm and beautiful nature in a tiny village in Germany, called Klein Glien. If you take the train from Berlin you can be there in one hour.

They have a big garden and grow vegetables (you can taste them at breakfast), space for camping and glamping, an outdoor pizza oven, genuine apples from genuine apple trees.. and hammocks.

The building is a charming old mansion, quite large. It used to be a hotel and has all the facilities: proper bathrooms and a restaurant with a proper kitchen.

Having good living standards and the peacefulness of the countryside is something I appreciated a lot.

2. My “Concentration Camp” Colleagues

The participants were a nice group of people. Most of them were ex-convicts turned to freelancing as bomb dismantlers all over Germany 😛

Mmm, not really 🙂 They were smart, educated people, some of them managing their own businesses.

We were eating together and chit-chatting and very often there was a nice vibe atmosphere. The summer camp schedule itself was well balanced: the right mix of community interaction and time on your own.

3. The Walk And Talk Event: To Be Or Not To Be Honest..

This took place on Sunday afternoon, the very day of the arrival.

As far as I am concerned, I expected the following scenario: all the participants will be given some walkie talkies, then thrown in a van and dropped somewhere in the middle of the forest, for an intense survival game called Wolves have a special sense of humor, just like Germans.

In reality, it was way scarier.

Each of us had to choose one conversation partner and exchange info about personal life passions and goals ? I mean who speaks happily and joyfully about themselves except for Trump?

My next thought was: can I really really be honest? I sized up my assigned dialogue partner: she was a serious and respectable German lady in her 50ties.

Shall I go on and tell her what I truly like in life without being labeled as a weirdo? Yeah, I will.

“Garden gnomes.”

“What?”

“Yes. I like garden gnomes. And those toy puppies that shake their head when you place them in the back of a car, by the window — bobble head dogs”

I like kitsch objects that make me smile. Funny things. It’s just, I haven’t figured out entirely how to make money out of this”

“I see..”

4. The Solitary Door.. Slamming

All the above talking was done while walking in the open field, towards a little forest.

It didn’t take long until we arrived in front of a door. Just one little detail: there was no house attached to it. It was a solitary door, in the open air, in the middle of the meadows.

Why?

Well, this is the only chance for Germans to slam a door. It is stated in their law very clearly: In the unlikely event of you feeling some kind of strong emotions and, as a consequence, the sudden urge to slam a door, you need to apply for an authorization to use the open air door in Klein Glien village, specially designed for this purpose. Should you fail to comply with this law and dare to slam the doors in your own house, a fine of 1000 euro will be applied.

Or so I thought..

In reality, the open air door is an art work and is just one small piece in a bigger picture. The piece is called “World Door” and is part of an international “art trail” made up of other 28 art works, spread out in the entire region (High Fläming Nature Park).

Personally, I find this idea of bringing art in the country side quite an outstanding initiative. And I totally like it.

5. The Story Of The Sexspionage Training Camp

On Monday, we had a great, juicy dish for lunch: a sort of vegetarian moussaka, made up of pumpkin, zucchini, carrots, cheese and other yummy stuff.

The cook was a lovely lady and she joined us at the table. Five minutes later, we were staring at her in shock and disbelief, our jaws dropped.

“In 2001 I have moved to a Gemeinschaft in a the village nearby, Bad Belzig.

(In Germany, a Gemeinschaft is a co-housing project where there is a strong sense of community. People living there must share the same values and go to regular and obligatory meetings.)

Later I have found out in that very building there used to be a STASI training camp for spies during the communism.

And more precisely, for seductive spies — people who were trained to become excellent seducers and lovers for so called honey trap operations. Namely, approaching a certain target and seduce them, bang them and even marry them in order to elicit information. And then give the information to STASI.”

“WOW!”

“Wait, there’s more. After the fall of the communism, the building was acquired by the Gemeinschaft with the clear goal to wash off its dark past and turn it from a place of lies into a place where everybody commits to always saying the truth, especially in love matters.

100% transparency in relationships — that was the new rule of the house. Are you in a monogamous loving relationship with your partner and, all of a sudden you have a crush for somebody else? Ok, then you tell your partner about the crush. You don’t cheat on him, you don’t lie. You discuss and try to find a solution together.

“Really?! And how did all that go in the end?”

“Well, it was a difficult process, to say the least.”

6. The Castle in Wiesenburg Makes Versailles Look Like Schmer(z)witz

During my stay at Coconat, I took a bike trip to a nearby village — Wiesenburg.

Initially I wanted to go to a different village, only 2 km away, called Schmerwitz. But I misread its name, I thought it’s called Schmerz witz (litterally translated as “painful joke”). Needless to say, I had to think twice. Do I really want to go to Schmerzwitz? Mmm, maybe not.”

So I ended up in Wiesenburg. At the entrance in the village, there was a sign pointing to a Castle. And I instantly thought to myself: yeah, right, probably there’s just a lame pile of stones which they call “Castle”. But I will bike there anyway.

To my great surprise, in Wiesenburg, there is a real Palace with a beautiful tower and a huge landscape park and an orangerie. It was a lovely sunny day and there were just a few other people visiting.

It is ironic that people always go on holiday in overcrowded hypertouristic spots like the Eiffel Tower or Versailles, where you step on each other’s feet and end up hating everybody around you, while there are hidden gems like this, full of beauty and tranquility that nobody goes to.

Final Thoughts On The Coconat Summer Camp

So these were for me the highlights of the Coconat summer camp. I really enjoyed my stay there, for it’s been a great escape from the overstimulating noise of the city and healthy time off for my damaged finger.

I chose to spend the 3 days on the “concentration camp” as an active relaxation, exploring the lovely area and paying more attention to the outside world, to interesting people and their stories.

But the Coconat retreat is mainly a space for people who want to get work done in a great, natural environment which can help increase one’s productivity.

Most of my colleagues worked and accomplished their daily goals. There are plenty of co-working rooms in Coconat and some of them are stylish and atmospheric, like this one:

After this experience, I can imagine that the future of work will be.. at the country side. ?

With more and more people working remotely, why not come together in coworking and coliving retreats in the middle of the nature, like the one at Coconat, where concentration meets relaxation?