Low German house

The Low German house[1] or Fachhallenhaus is a type of timber-framed farmhouse found in northern Germany and the easternmost Netherlands, which combines living quarters, byre and barn under one roof.

[2][need quotation to verify] It is built as a large hall with bays on the sides for livestock and storage and with the living accommodation at one end.

Until its decline in the 19th century, this rural, agricultural farmhouse style was widely distributed through the North German Plain, all the way from the Lower Rhine to Mecklenburg.

In the academic definition of this type of house the word Fach does not refer to the Fachwerk or "timber-framing" of the walls, but to the large Gefach or "bay" between two pairs of the wooden posts (Ständer) supporting the ceiling of the hall and the roof which are spaced about 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) apart.

[3] The oldest surviving houses of this type in Germany date to the late 15th century (e.g. in Schwinde, Winsen Elbe Marsh 1494/95).

Sleeping accommodation for farmhands and maids was created above (in Westphalia) or next to (in Lower Saxony and Holstein) the livestock stalls at the sides.

The longhouse first appeared during the period of the Linear Pottery culture about 7,000 years ago and has been discovered during the course of archaeological excavations in widely differing regions across Europe, including the Ville ridge west of Cologne.

By the Carolingian era, houses built for the nobility had their wooden, load-bearing posts set on foundations of wood or stone.

In the west it stretched into parts of the Netherlands where the height of gable and loft are usually lower, mirroring its development over time from self-sufficiency to market-oriented farming.

In southern Lower Saxony the Hessian square farmstead (Vierkanthof) is found well inside the Low German language area.

Within northern Germany the Low German house has numerous regional variations, such as those in the Vierlande and marshes near Hamburg and in the Altes Land near Stade.

[1] (fränkisches Haus) A northern neighbour of the Fachhallenhaus in the immediate vicinity of the North Sea coast was the Gulf house (Gulfhaus) or Frisian farmstead[1] (Ostfriesenhaus) which is found in the marsh regions and, later, also on the geest areas of West Flanders, Frisia as far as Schleswig-Holstein (known there as a Haubarg).

Externally a Low German house is recognisable from the great gateway at the gable end, its timber framework and the vast roof that sweeps down to just above head height.

Originally it would have been thatched with reed; the last remaining examples with that type of roof are usually protected as listed buildings today.

The most important feature of the farmhouse, albeit one which is not externally visible, is its internal, wooden, post-and-beam construction which supports the entire building.

The non weight-bearing external walls were built as timber frames, the panels of which were originally filled in with willow wickerwork and clay (wattle and daub) and, later, with brick.

In Westphalia, in addition to the usual timber-framed buildings, there are also hall farmhouses (mostly of the four-post type, see below) whose external walls are made of brick.

The two rows of posts ran the length of the building and created the great central threshing floor or Diele characteristic of this type of farmhouse.

[1] On the outside of the rows of uprights, underneath the eaves, low side rooms or bays known as Kübbungen were often built with non load-bearing external walls.

The original location of the living accommodation in part of the Deele explains the very unusual layout of the Low German house.

In the 18th century the Low German house was built ever larger, with a length of up to 50 m and width of 15 m. The farmhouse combined all the functions of life on the farm.

It also provided protection from the weather for activities, such as the drying of farm implements, the breaking of flax, the spinning of textiles or the threshing of grain.

Originally, at the end of the Diele near the back of the farmhouse, was the Flett, an open kitchen and dining area that took up the entire width of the house.

Pots had to be high enough, in effect cauldrons, and were hung over the fire with pothooks attached to a wooden frame (Rahmen) hanging over the fireplace, often decorated with horses heads.

When the division of rooms was fundamentally changed in the 19th century, a separate kitchen was established in the living accommodation at the back of the farmhouse.

Not until after the Thirty Years War when the demand for living comfort grew, were separate rooms built at the back of the farmhouse, each the length of a bay (ca.

The separate living quarters were raised above the level of the main hall as if on a plinth and in the larger four-post farmhouses (Vierständerhäuser) sometimes formed a sort of gallery.

The most eye-catching decoration of the otherwise drab Fachhallenhaus is found on the point of the gables and consists of carved wooden boards in the shape of (stylised) horses' heads.

They are designed into the brickwork of the panels and portray, for example, windmills, trees or geometric figures By the end of the 19th century this type of farmhouse was outmoded.

In the original region where once the Low German house was common, it was increasingly replaced by the Ernhaus whose main characteristic was a separation of living quarters from the livestock sheds.