While waiting at the Columbus, Ohio airport recently, I found an art exhibit that really moved me. It was pictures of gardens in Dresden, Germany (a sister city of Columbus’). Specifically, these were Schrebergärten, or Allotment Gardens. [the picture above, from Wikipedia, is neither from the exhibit nor from Dresden, but it's the same idea.]

Named after Schreber, a 19th century doctor who came to see industrial urbanism as dangerous to the health, in particular of children, these are small plots of land on unused urban space, with which families can grow produce, or come in contact with real, live dirt.

Some of the allotment gardens in the Dresden exhibit are over a century old, and have been passed down the line in families. In some cases, the families have lived their entire lives in dreary (erstwhile) Communist high rises in this heavy-industrial city, and their garden is their joy and delight.

It occurs to me that anyone who wishes to find the heart of the German-speaking world could do worse than starting here, in these intimate spaces, where people host friends and family, serving their home-made fruits, vegetables (and, it seems, their fermented ciders etc.).

I remember a Schrebergarten in Zurich, where I grew up—I rode my bike past it all the time on the way to a friend’s house. On summer evenings it was not uncommon to hear song and laughter wafting out and over from someone’s gathering of close friends, in that particularly Swiss way, which manages to include hot political debates and singalongs in an effortless transition. If you want to find a center in this decentered world, start here.