Raphael Fellmer (born 1983) lived from 2010 until 2015 in a money strike, which started with a moneyless journey from The Netherlands to Mexico. He is an activist, who lived without money to raise awareness and makes use of surplus of the

consumer society Consumerism is a socio-cultural and economic phenomenon that is typical of industrialized societies. It is characterized by the continuous acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing quantities. In contemporary consumer society, the ...

. To fight

food waste The causes of food going uneaten are numerous and occur throughout the food system, during food production, production, food processing, processing, Food distribution, distribution, Grocery store, retail and food service sales, and Social clas ...

, he created a foodsaving movement, a network which collected and shared more than 3 million kilogram of food. He is co-founder of '' foodsharing.de'', where people can share their leftover food instead of throwing them away. In 2015 together with friends he founded yunity, a multi-sharing and saving platform. He was born in 1983 in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and went to school there. In 2011 he returned with his wife and lived there with their two children until 2015 when he moved close to

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

Biography

Fellmer studied at

The Hague University of Applied Sciences The Hague University of Applied Sciences (abbreviated as: ''THUAS''; ) is a university of applied sciences with its campuses located in The Hague, Delft and Zoetermeer. The main campus in The Hague is located behind The Hague Hollands Spoor ra ...

. In 2010, a journey from the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

became a turning point in his life. A backpack for the journey was the last thing he has bought. He and his friends crossed the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

for free, as they paid for it by taking care of the boat on which they travelled. They hitchhiked in Mexico, worked for food and accommodation. When he came back to Berlin, he was first looking for food in the garbage. Later he started to get food that was approaching or past best-before date and that the shops were not able to sell. He then founded the website '' Foodsharing'' to support the exchange of things people have no use for. Fellmer himself lives with no money, his wife uses the equivalent of around $280 per month (2013) from savings and a government child subsidy when she needs to pay for health care or food for their children. ''"Originally I wanted to become a millionaire to be able to help people,"'' says Fellmer. In 2017, the translation of his book into Portuguese was published on his homepage.

Bibliography

* Fellmer, Raphael: ''Glücklich ohne Geld!'' (Happy without money)

External links

Raphael Fellmer's website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fellmer, Raphael German activists Living people 1983 births The Hague University of Applied Sciences alumni