Munich: Organic Living Rooms

In theory we all love them: The small owner-driven shops that surprise us with their unusual selection or combination of goods and food made with love and care, vibrant places with a special and welcoming atmosphere or homely places of peace where we can sit and wonder and get inspired. Shops who's owners create a place from their ideas of a human world, who are ready for a chat if desired but not pushy in their sales attitude. Places that are somehow home away from home, places for a rest or for inspiration. Places where we hopefully buy stuff since we're not forcibly persuaded by aggressive marketing.

And yes. There are these places, and it doesn't come as a surprise that many of these shops offer organic items.

Books and more

Imagine the dry fruit and sweets display of an oriental bazaar stall, and put it in the middle of a crammed book shop filled with mediavistic, orientalistic and cooking literature. When it's possible again sit down in front of the shop or at the single bar table inside and order oriental-style coffee, tea, and mezze. Have a chat with the owner and scroll the book shelves while you wait – you will find interesting media on medieval arts and crafts, food, biographies of historic persons, films, facts and fiction in German, English, and even French. Your meal – the air-fried falafel, perhaps a soup – will be fully organic as are the drinks and the home-made dried fruit.

Before the covid-19 pandemics Saladins Souk in Haidhausen was also a reliable source of sweets imported from Damaskus, and along-side earthen oil lamps and artisanally produced soaps from both, the Provence as well as the now sadly destroyed soap shops in Aleppo, you will find (usually conventional) delicatessen from French supermarkets. The shop (also dubbed Haidhauser Oase as the blackboards in front of it have it) can be found in the beautiful and relaxed so-called "French quarter" (due to the street names) a few minutes North-West from Ostbahnhof station. Be prepared to find an always changing display of (not always organic) delicatessen often brought by the owner from his travels or made by his friends.

A relaxed lunch and coffee spot before the covid-19 pandemics the shop never came to have reliable opening hours again, in fact I've rarely seen it open when passing along. But with spring 2025 arriving I spotted a new blackboard with opening hours in the shop window, so there's hope again!

Love to sit down with a good book and a glass of good wine? No question, the two are a perfect match, and even if you're more into an organic softdrink (Bionade), the Buchhandlung Lentner bookstore near Rosenheimer Platz with its cosy cafe is a place where you can stay for hours sitting, watching, chatting with the staff and reading. If you're not able to read German shop of their carefully selected wines, some of them organic. They will also order English books for you (send e-mail, phone in or use their webshop in advance), but this may sometimes take longer than the usual overnight order service for German books. Unfortunately, neither the coffee nor the milk are organic, but if you ask they'll perhaps offer it next time.

• Saladins Souk/Haidhauser Oase, Breisacher Str. 7, Wed–Fri(Sat) 11(10)–19(16), order phone: +49 89 62 28 64 62
• Buch&Cafe Lentner, Balanstr. 14, Mon–Fri(Sat) 10–19(15)

Closed

• Phasenreich, Reichenbachstr. 23 (fashion and design)

Kassel: Sustainable, organic and eco fashion

When I visited Kassel I didn't intend to shop clothes, so I did not do any upfront research in this direction. But then I passed two well-assorted organic fashion boutiques and decided to assemble a small post well aware of that there are most certainly more sustainable fashion shops in town which I do great injustice to by not mentioning them here.

The first one is Timeless, originally a skater's shop turned into an organic and fair streetware boutique offering a great selection of jeans and casual clothing for all sexes as well as a small assortment of hip, bike and travel bags and shoes. The predecessor of "Timeless" on this location was the sister branch of the "Fresh Lollipop" store in Göttingen.

Fresh Lollipop's current location is just a few corners away and offers more versatile styles. In addition to clothing you also find sustainably and fairly produced fashion accessories from scarfs to bags.

• Fresh Lollipop, Neue Fahrt 2, Mon–Sat 10–18
• Timeless, Wolfsschlucht 13, Mon–Sat 10–19

Göttingen: Sustainable, organic and eco fashion

I may be biased but I find it easier to spot sustainable fashion boutiques in smaller cities with a university than elsewhere, and Göttingen is no exception.

It's the only West-German city with a branch of the colourful Mrs. Hippie chain (the other branches are in Dresden, Erfurt, Leipzig and Magdeburg). As the name suggests, colourful loose-fitting comfort fashion made from fibres of natural origin dominates the shop. The prices here are moderate, but to be affordable for smaller purses the shop makes compromises: While fabrics made from organic cotton or linen are available, there's also a lot of viscose (usually not made with the eco-friendly lyocell process). Recyclability (which would require mono-materials) is not in the focus (many pieces contain rayon/elastane), but sustainable production, preferably in Europe, definitely is.

If sustainable brands are important to you, you'll find a lot of both, established and less known brands at Fresh Lollipop. All pieces here are fairly produced, both, with respect to the working conditions of the growers of natural fibres, the producers of the fabrics and the textile workers. The fabrics are either mono-materials, recycled and/or certified organic, to work into the direction of cradle-to-cradle processes. In the few cases where polymere mono-materials are used in washable textiles, only new PE and nylon is used to minimise microplastics abrasion in the washing machine. Apart from clothes and shoes for all sexes, bags, rucksacks and other accessories are being sold on two floors. There's a second shop in Kassel.

For organic clothes for babies, toddlers and younger children simply cross the street where you find Sperling Mode & Natur. The crammed, yet cosy shop has a long history: It was established in 1983. It also sells a small selection for women and uni-sex accessories. If you come with smaller kids, there's a small table where they can draw and colour.

Whether you are generally prefering long-lasting artisanal (and as a consequence more expensive) clothing made from natural materials of highest quality or simply like to spend time in a carefully curated boutique for the distinguished bourgeois, take a break at Woggon. Clothes, shoes, bags and other accessories are beautifully presented in a wood-and-brick showroom with a beautiful staircase, everything nicely arranged with carefully choosen details: a book here, a typewriter there. The service is impeccable, and as another customer exclaimed: "It's difficult not to buy a nice thing here." The shop also serves as a beautiful venue for concerts and readings.

Long-lasting clothes from natural fibres, often organic and often made from mono-materials can be found at the outlet of the Freiburg-based sustainable web and post order shop Waschbär – at least until October, 31st 2024 when the shop is going to be closed.

Fairly traded accessories and jewellery of beautiful and long lasting quality can also be obtained from the Contigo fair trade boutique.

• Mrs. Hippie, Zindelstr. 8, Mon–Fri(Sat) 10–19(18)
• Fresh_Lollipop, Rote Str. 12, Mon–Sat 10–18
• Sperling Mode & Natur, Rote Str. 30, Mon–Sat 10:30–18
• Woggon, Barfüßerstr. 1, Mon–Fri(Sat) 9:30–19(18)

Dresden: Sustainable shopping

Dresden's Wilhelminian neighbourhood of Neustadt is dominated by independent shops and venues, many of them run by female entrepreneurs as documented by an art project of local photographer Christine Starke. So it comes as little surprise that it is here where you have the best chance to discover a lot of gems, driven in accordance with the personal principles of the shop keeper which often include social and environmental aspects. Keep your eyes open, and you will discover a lot more than I have to suggest here.

• Herbalists and beauty
• Bicycles
• Jewellery
• Fair trade
• Fashion
• Babies and toddlers
• Closed shops

Herbalists and beauty

The old town does not have much to offer in terms of independent and surprising shops, and the Altmarkt-Galerie mall is as boring as these shopping centres usually are. A notable exception is the Sonnentor shop directly located at the mall's entrance at Postplatz, next to the tram-stop at Wallstraße. Franchises of this Austrian producer of organic and fairly traded herbs, teas, condiments, bodycare products and spices are usually located in malls or main shopping areas, neatly designed heavens offering products that are good for both, you, and the farmers and producers involved when you're in the mood for shopping.

If you're on the outlook for herbs, remedies, bodycare and food items based on ingredients described by medieval healer nun Hildegard of Bingen pay a visit to the Marone herbalist shop on Bautzner Landstraße directly located at the east-bound tram stop Pulsnitzer Straße. Not all of the products on sale (which among others include chestnut products and a small selection of biodynamic wine) in this small specialist shop are certified organic though.

Leaving the tram tracks and entering the more pedestrian-friendly quartier natural and organic bodycare products can be found at the Touch of Nature beauty parlour cum shop in Böhmische Straße east of Rothenburger Straße. Note that this shop is closed on weekends.

Bicycles

A few steps from Touch of Nature there's a second hand bicycle shop cum workshop, Zwout! (formerly Elbcycles), where you can buy a used or recycled bike if you're staying longer, or get your own one fixed.

Jewellery

If you follow Böhmische Straße until it ends at Alaunstraße. A luminous blue wall indicates the location of the Geldschneider & Co. steam-punk workshop. Among others you will find beautiful jewellery made from recycled parts of abandoned analog wrist watches. The place has somewhat erratic opening hours, so step by when nearby (if you need to plan ahead: Saturdays seem a safe bet). If closed during regular German shop opening hours you may call the phone number given on the entrance door – except during the Tollwood festival in Munich where the Geldschneider usually runs a booth.

Fair trade

As in many other German cities the first address for colourful gifts as well as organic sweets, spices and condiments are fair-trade shops founded as grassroots activities by Christian parish members in accordance with the conciliar process of mutual commitment (covenant) to justice, peace and the integrity of creation (JPIC). As the host for pioneering regional ecumenical plenums in 1989 and 1990 the city of Dresden has been playing an important role in this process. The spirit of this movement lives on in local fair trade initiatives like Quilombo which for almost 25 years had run a fair-trade shop in the entrance area of Dreikönigskirche in Hauptstraße which played host to the first democratically elected local parliament in Saxony after East Germany's peaceful implosion in 1989. Today the initiative still has a shop in the neighbourhood of Löbtau while their former place in the "Haus der Kirche" ("house of the church") has been converted into fair-trade Cafe Dreikönig.

Sharing their roots with the Quilombo NGO the team of Cafe Aha opposite Kreuzkirche runs a fair-trade shop in the heart of the city. It is located in the basement of the cafe and offers an impressive selection of fairly-traded gifts, body care and dry goods. This initiative also runs a fair-trade ...

Fashion

... boutique, Aha Naturtextilien, on Hauptstraße, offering a great selection of fairly traded fashion made from natural materials. Here you will also find a good selection of stationary, jewellery, eatable fair-trade goods and more. By the way: the name "Aha" is an abbreviation for "trade/act differently" ("anders handeln" in German), and implies a huge effort in not only selling fairly traded goods but offering fair conditions to their own employees.

Another centrally located fair-trade shop specializing in fashion and household accessories as well as coffee and chocolates is Contigo near the central train station.

For more ethically produced and sustainable cocooning items visit Tranquillo, a likewise colourful fashion-and-things boutique cum fashion label in the Neustadt neighbourhood, at the crossroad Louisenstraße/Rothenburger Straße. They produce their own women fashion entirely made from organic textiles focussing on basic colours – if you like Aha Naturtextilien don't miss this one. There's also a sustainable furniture outlet cum cafe on the other side of the train tracks to Neustadt trainstation.

If you like loose-fitting clothes, either unicolour or with colourful patterns head to the Dresden branch of Mrs. Hippie. Their own brand is made in Poland, and all clothes are predominantly made from natural fibers, often organically certified, or rayon/viscose. However, they are not necessarily free of elastane.

Dresden's first fashion boutique exclusively selling fairly produced clothing from fairly traded, organically grown materials is dubbed Populi and can be found at the Western end of Louisenstraße, just before you reach the tram tracks of Königsbrücker Landstraße. Both, streetware, denim and designer labels can be found here, for men and women. The interior of the shop is to a great deal made from upcycled furniture.

Students and nerds find fairly traded organic cotton t-shirts and sweaters with unique scientific prints at Unipolar, and everyone else organic streetware for both, men and women. This small, Dresden-based fashion label is the brain-child of a former physics student. The original store between the Bahnhof Mitte train station and the "Carl Maria von Weber" College of Music does no longer exist. (But if you already are here: the VG warehouse next to this old location has a well-assorted organic fashion section upstairs.)

As of 2024 Unipolar consists of two shops on both sides of Rothenburger Straße in the Neustadt neighbourhood, one selling clothing, and the other shoes and sustainable household gear. Finding the shops is easy: Simply spot the bath tub opposite the tram stop.

More colourful organic streetware, less nerdy prints, and open late on Fridays and Saturdays – that's El Dorado Street Fair in Alaunstraße.

Before the arrival of noisy and cheap looking street food shops this street, the entrance to the Neustadt neighbourhood, was populated by numerous owner-run, carefully curated fashion boutiques and second-hand shops catering for a diverse crowd. Some of them have been surviving, and I'm more than happy that this shop venue, after the closing of El Dorado's predecessor, Invito, remained an organic fashion boutique.

Babies and toddlers

If you are on the look-out for beautiful, not overly sweet organic fashion for toddlers and smaller children or simply for beautiful organic garments step by Elvida in Louisenstraße approximately opposite Planwirtschaft pub and cafe. There you'll find the small flagship store of a Dresden-based sustainable kids fashion label – and a source for organic sewing things.

• Die Marone, Bautzner Str. 46, Mon,Tue,Thu,Fri(Sat) 10–18(13)
• Touch of Nature, Böhmische Str. 9, Mon(Fri) 10(12)–17(19), Sat 11–16
• Sonnentor, Altmarkt-Galerie ground floor, Webergasse 1 (entrance from Postplatz), Mon–Sat 10–20
• Zwout!, formerly Elbcycles , Böhmische Str. 3, Mon–Fri 14–18
• Geldschneider & Co., Alaunstr. 29, usually Mon–Sat later during the day

• Quilombo, Schillingstr. 7, Mon–Sat 9–19
• Laden Aha, Kreuzstr. 7, Mon–Sat 10–18 8
• Aha Naturtextilien, Obergraben 2 (corner Hauptstr.), Mon–Sat 10–18
• Tranquillo, Rothenburger Str. 43, Mon–Fri(Sat) 10–19(18)
• Tranquillo Furniture Warehouse, Marta-Fraenkel-Str. 1, Mon–Sat 10–18
• Mrs. Hippie, Görlitzer Str. 25, Mon–Fri(Sat) 10:30(11)–19:30(18)
• Populi, Louisenstr. 3, Mon–Fri(Sat) 11(10)–19(16)
• Unipolar Clothing, Rothenburger Str. 33, Mon–Fri(Sat) 11–19(18)
• Unipolar Shoes & Lifestyle, Rothenburger Str. 38, Mon–Fri(Sat) 11–19(18)
• El Dorado Street Fair, Alaunstr. 20, Mon–Thu(Fri–Sat) 12–20(22)
• Elvida, Louisenstr. 29, Mon(Fri) 10–18(15),Tue–Wed(Thu) 16(12)–18, Sat 11–14

Ceased to exist

The following places shut down, so don't be mislead when you find references to them on the web:

• Quilombo, Haus der Kirche, Hauptstr. 23 (fair-trade)
• Baum&Wolle, Alaunstr. 13c (fashion)
• Ex Animo, Martin-Luther-Str. 17 (fashion and things)
• Hüpenthal Boutique, Bautzner Str. 63 (bespoke tailor, I miss your beautiful collars, r.i.p., Herr Hüpenthal!)
• Invito, Alaunstr. 20 (fashion, suceeded by El Dorado Street Fair)
• Lipfeins Lieblinge, Rothenburger Str. 1 (organic lipcare, factory outlet – their products can of course be obtained online or (e.g.) from one of the VG supermarkets)
• LouisdoOr, Louisenstr. 4 (sustainable toys and baby clothing)
• Tranquillo Outlet, Louisenstr. 45 (organic fashion, visit them here)
• Unipolar Mitte, Jahnstr. 1 (streetware, visit them here)
• Un-Kraut, Martin-Luther-Pl. 12 (herbs and spices)
• Vivobarefoot, Hauptstr. 14 (sustainable barefoot shoes)

Heidelberg: Sustainable shopping

As a tourist you will most certainly head for the old town, walking down the Hauptstraße ("main street") pedestrian street. While the western part of this street is inhabited by the ever-boring major chains, the eastern part with its small-scale owner-run shops is definitely worth a shopping spree, preferably to enterprises striving to sell sustainable, often fairly traded goods.

Looking for dedicated environment-friendly kitchen and bathroom utensils, toys, fashion accessories, stationary, gifts or design items you must not miss out the green design department store GOODsHOUSE a little west of Schiffsgasse. The shop itself isn't visible from the main street -- walk down a little aisle into the backyard to find a lovingly arranged two-storey shopping paradise. The staff is friendly and helpful, yet not intrusive and will happily offer to order items not in stock.

A few steps further west, at the corner with Heumarkt an equally carefully designed cosmetics boutique dubbed Wolkenseifen ("cloud soaps") is the flagship store of a local near-natural cosmetics manufacturer. In addition you'll find (certified) organic and natural cosmetics brands usually not to be found in your nearest organic supermarket -- among them Chia, Madara, or Khadi --, and a great selection of zero waste body care like hair and body soaps, solid shampoos or solid toothpaste.

Fair and slow fashion seems to be quite strong in Heidelberg where even otherwise conventional clothes boutiques like Bofinger in the main street trade in fair and organic labels like Armedangels. My stay was too short to pay a visit to all the places on my short list, but I managed to have a glimpse inside Tutta Natura selling sustainably produced French shoes and women's clothes for lovers of classic eco-design in the Plöck running parallel with the main street.

November 2018 saw the re-opening of former fair fashion store cum cafe Friedrich as a Glore concept store offering organic fashion for all, women, men and kids as well as a small selection of organic body care.

Heidelberg is home to a number of community-driven one-world shops selling fairly traded fashion accessories, household items, dry food, sweets, coffee and tea, the latter often certified organic. One of them is Una Tierra at the market place Neuenheim, another one the Weltladen in the old town with a small cafe, offering fairly traded coffee drinks, cocoa or tea while you crawl the shop or let you inspire by the bookshelf.

• GOODsHOUSE, Hauptstr. 113a (backyard), Mon–Fri(Sat) 11–19(18)
• Wolkenseifen, Hauptstr. 135, Mon–Sat 10–19
• Tutta Natura, Plöck 27, Tue–Fri(Sat) 12(11)–18(15)
• Glore, Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage 1, Mon–Fri(Sat) 10:30–19(18)
• Weltladen Heidelberg-Altstadt, Heugasse 2, Mon–Sat 11–18
• Una Tierra, Lutherstr. 13a, Tue–Fri(Sat) 10(9)–18:30(14)

Here's a list of shops which I had on my list for research but didn't manage to visit myself. Let me know about your experience!