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Special project collection: Paths to Refuge
The Useful Village
Sumte, Lower Saxony, Germany
In the fall of 2015, Germany designated Sumte, population 102, as a sanctuary for nearly 800 refugees. What followed was a living experiment in the country’s principles.
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Issue: Spring 2017 / Volume 93/2
Published: April 3, 2017
Ben Mauk is a writer based in Berlin. He last wrote for the magazine about an indigenous rights movement in the Russian Caucasus. His VQR debut, “The Useful Village,” was a finalist for the 2018 National Magazine Award in Feature Writing.
Valerie Schmidt is a photographer whose work has been shown in many exhibitions in Europe and in the United States. She is based in Berlin and is a visiting professor for photography at the Hochschule Rhein-Waal in Kamp-Lintfort, Germany.
George Butler is an award-winning illustrator who reports on the ground from conflict zones, climate hot spots, and humanitarian crises. He is the author of Drawn Across Borders (Candlewick Studio, 2021). Butler’s Fall 2022 story for VQR, “Drawn to War,” was the recipient of the 2023 National Magazine Award for...