Stadtbienenhonig

Welcome to my urban beekeeping project: My passion for bees and their delicious honey developed on my apiaries located on unused roofs of selected buildings in Berlin. Since then, and probably even before, I have been interested in the relationship between humans and nature. Beekeeping has provided me with many answers and even more questions. The dialogue with the bee colonies enriches my life and acts as an inexhaustible source. Encountering the superorganism is about being very close, feeling right in the middle of it, and at the same time galaxies away. I am fascinated by the relationship between beekeeper and hive, because both beings are incomprehensible to each other, but closely related. There are many unexplored and unexpected moments that are mysterious. They nourish my soul with simple joy as I discover and explore them.

I started Stadtbienenhonig (city bee honey) in 2007 on the roofs of Berlin. Since 2021 Stadtbienenhonig continues in Rome, on a smaller scale.

Giving the bee colonies under my care the space they need to develop themselves, to develop into their wildness, is the priority principles of my beekeeping technique. The care shall be primarily supportive. I want them to develop out of themselves, to build up a folk/hive knowledge, to stay with me over many years and, in the best case, to keep rejuvenating themselves - all with the least direct encounter. They live in a place that provides them the abundance of flower nectar, pollen and water they need, while guaranteeing their protection from enemies. The honey I harvest is only a surplus. I always take only a small part of it, only honey that ripens in the specially created cells. This is a game with singularities.

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The interweaving of the bees' flight lines, which takes place in the high air, reflects in a certain way an interweaving of social contacts that arise in urban space. There are overlaps and interfaces. The advantage in urban space is that of a diversity of people. The intersection of people with good taste is high, as is the growing interest in locally produced food, which brings more and more people together and fosters new communities. A direct connection between producer and consumer allows not only the sharing of a high quality product, but also the sharing of the stories that go into its production. The stories will connect us to the natural.

Beekeeping today is facing great challenges. It is about developing a contemporary approach to beekeeping that focuses on the health of the bee colonies, activates their self-healing power and recognises the local honey yield as a luxurious natural product. Honey not only reflects the diversity of the landscape but it is also a carrier of moods. This is why every honey harvest has its own taste and no two years are the same.

We are the bees of the invisible. We passionately bring in the honey of the visible in order to accumulate it in the great golden hive of the invisibile. Rainer Maria Rilke