Waldhufendorf

[1] It is typical of the forests of central Germany and is a type of Reihendorf, in which each farmstead usually has two wide strips of land adjacent to the farmhouse.

On the generally higher, fertile, rounded summits (Kuppen) of upper Bunter sandstone, the farmsteads (known as Gehöfte, Hufe or Hube) were laid out along a road through the clearing.

The strips of land behind the buildings ran roughly at right angles to the axis of the village up to the forest remaining on the crest of the ridge.

In the 12th and 13th centuries the Waldhufendorf also became the type of village preferred by German settlers in the Thuringian, Saxon and Silesian regions.

At the far end of the Hufe was the forest or its remnants which, in the course of time, could be cleared and turned into additional fields for cultivation or farming.