21st century gleaning

From apple trees lining a row of Friedrichshain high-rises and elderflower shrubs along the River Spree to hazelnut bushes a stone's throw from Alexanderplatz and mirabelle plums flourishing close to the Ostbahnhof station, there are rich pickings to be had in the heart of the capital, so long as you know where to look.

The online platform "Mundraub" makes sure you do. A non-profit organization founded in 2009, it compiles user-generated information and maps on the fruit, berries, herbs and nuts that grow in public places across Germany, inciting foragers to fill their baskets.

The old-fashioned word for the practice is "gleaning," which was even promoted as an early form of welfare system. Farmers would leave corners of their fields unharvested for the needy. Modern-day gleaners also like to quote the Bible's Book of Deuteronomy, which says: "Should you come into your fellow man's vineyard, you may eat grapes as much as you crave - to your fill - but you shall not put them in your pouch."

Mundraub has no such qualms, actively encouraging people to put all the cherries, walnuts and sweet woodruff they can find in their pouch. Boasting some 30,000 users and over 1,500 sites in Berlin alone, it now has has official funding and approval, as was demonstrated this week when founder Kai Gildhorn joined Johanna Wanka, the minister of education and research, at the launch of the government's "Stadternte" (City Harvest) initiative in south Berlin.

"Urban fruit trees and meadow orchards are a sustainable source of tasty produce that we should use, and they also raise awareness of what grows in the region," she said.

Guerilla fruit pickers

The Mundraub project takes its name from a law on petty larceny regarding edibles that was only rescinded in Germany in 1975. But that's not to say the practice was legalized. These days, gathering fruit from private property is no longer a criminal offence in its own right but still amounts to theft.

Holger Brantsch from the Brandenburg Farmers' Association wholeheartedly approves of tackling waste, but points out that every pear tree or redcurrant bush has an owner, one way or another.

"Either they belong to a farmer or to the district – and it can be very hard to trace who owns what - so technically, helping yourself is illegal," he says. "Of course taking an apple or two is neither here nor there. But at the point where people come along with crates and take as much as they want, it becomes problematic."

He worries that a project such as Mundraub is the thin end of the wedge and could theoretically get out of hand. As farmers know all too well, stolen harvests are nothing out of the ordinary. "Sunflower fields in particular are sometimes looted," he says. "People pick the flowers and sell them at markets. They'll steal corn and even potatoes!"

Living off the fat of the land

But Kai Gildhorn, Mundraub's founder, is confident that the platform's users can be trusted, and doubts it would be hijacked for commercial purposes.

"The whole point is to do something that's completely outside market forces," he says. "People interested in the project are more likely to be eco-warrior types, and anyone who posts a location has to agree to our terms. These include researching ownership and establishing that no one minds their property appearing on the platform. A lot of local authorities are actually more than happy to have fallen fruit collected - it keeps away foxes or marauding wild boar and makes it less likely that someone will complain about squidgy pears falling on the hood of their Mercedes. But of course we'll remove any location featured on our map if an owner complains."

While it clearly serves an environmental purpose and dovetails with the growing popularity of dumpster diving and freeganism, the Mundraub project was actually conceived primarily as a way of preserving Germany's traditional landscapes.

"The project began in eastern Germany, where many roads are still lined with fruit trees," says Gildhorn, explaining that Prussian ruler Frederick the Great had over 160,000 trees planted in Brandenburg in the mid-18th century to help feed the population and traveling soldiers. Supposedly, state law even decreed that every man had to plant 20 trees before he could marry.

"We're not political activists and we wouldn't even argue that there's anything wrong with fallen fruit rotting away," he says. "Wildlife will eat it, so it's not the same as when a crate of apples goes to waste that's been shipped from New Zealand. We just want people to go outside, explore their surroundings, take a bike trip with some friends and enjoy themselves. Hunting and gathering is a primal instinct. And scrumping appeals to the kid in everyone - it's fun, it just makes you happy."