Low German house
The Low German house 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. It is built as a large hall with bays on the sides for livestock and storage and with the living accommodation at one end.
The Low German house appeared during the 13th to 15th centuries and was referred to as the Low Saxon house in early research works. 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. Even today, the Fachhallenhaus still characterises the appearance of many north German villages.
Name
The German name, Fachhallenhaus, is a regional variation of the term Hallenhaus. 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 supporting the ceiling of the hall and the roof which are spaced about apart. This was also used as a measure of house size: the smallest only had 2 bays, the largest, with 10 bays, were about long. The term Halle refers to the large open threshing area or Diele formed by two rows of posts. The prefix Niederdeutsch refers to the region in which they were mainly found. Because almost all timber-framed and hall-type farmhouses were divided into so-called Fache, the prefix Fach appears superfluous.The academic name for this type of house comes from the German words "Fach", describing the space between trusses made of two rafters fixed to a tie beam and connected to two posts with braces and "Halle", meaning something like hall as in a hall house. The walls were usually timber-framed, made of posts and rails; the panels in between are filled with wattle and daub or bricks. One bay may be two or rarely three Gefache wide.
Alternative names
In the past other names were commonly used for this type of farmhouse, derived either from their design or the region in which they were built:- Flett-Deelen-Haus with a very common floorplan including an open kitchen or Flett to the side of the Deele
- Kübbungshaus
- Niedersachsenhaus
- Sächsisches Haus
- Altsächsisches Bauernhaus
- Westfälisches Bauernhaus
- Westfalenhaus
Other terms
Because this type of farm combines living quarters, stalls and hay storage under one roof it is also described as an Einhaus and the attached farmyard as an Eindachhof. A special feature of the Low German house is its longitudinal division, also referred to as dreischiffige or "triple-aisled". This is considerably different from all-in-one farmhouses elsewhere in Germany and Europe which are built with traditional transverse divisions, as in the Ernhaus, not to mention other common farm layouts where the farm comprises several buildings with different functions, usually around a farmyard.Early history
The Low German house first emerged towards the end of the Middle Ages. Only a few years ago a Hallehuis was discovered in the Dutch province of Drenthe, the frame of which can be dated to 1386. In 2012 a "hallehuis" was discovered in Best, in the Dutch provincie of North Brabant, which dates back to 1262 and is still in use as a stable. The living part of the farm itself is built in recent times, in 1640 at the earliest, but probably around 1680. The farm is an official monument. The oldest surviving houses of this type in Germany date to the late 15th century. Regional differences arose due to the need to adapt to local farming and climatic conditions. The design also changed over time and was appropriate to its owner's social class. From the outset, and for a long time thereafter, people and animals were accommodated in different areas within a large room. Gradually the living quarters were separated from the working area and animals. The first improvements were separate sleeping quarters for the farmer and his family at the rear of the farmhouse. Sleeping accommodation for farmhands and maids was created above or next to the livestock stalls at the sides. Finished linen, destined for sale, was also stored in a special room. As the demand for comfort and status increased, one or more rooms would be heated. Finally the stove was moved into an enclosed kitchen rather than being in a Flett or open hearth at the end of the hall.Predecessors
The Low German house is similar in construction to the Neolithic longhouse, although there is no evidence of a direct connection. 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. The longhouse differed from later types of house in that it had a central row of posts under the roof ridge. It was therefore not three- but four-aisled. To start with, cattle were kept outside overnight in Hürden or pens. With the transition of agriculture to permanent fields the cattle were brought into the house, which then became a so-called Wohnstallhaus or byre-dwelling.Later the centre posts were omitted to form a triple-aisled longhouse that could be found in almost all of northwest Europe in the Early Middle Ages. Its roof structure rested as before on posts set into the ground and was therefore not very durable or weight-bearing. As a result, these houses already had rafters, but no loft to store the harvest. The outer walls were only made of wattle and daub.
By the Carolingian era, houses built for the nobility had their wooden, load-bearing posts set on foundations of wood or stone. Such uprights, called Ständer, were very strong and lasted several hundred years. These posts were first used for farmhouses in northern Germany from the 13th century, and enable them to be furnished with a load-bearing loft. In the 15th and 16th centuries the design of the timber-framing was further perfected.
Distribution
The Low German house had a wide distribution across an area almost 1,000 km long which roughly corresponds to the Low German language area. 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.From the Lower Rhine region to western Mecklenburg the Low German house was the dominant type of farmhouse. Further east it was found as far as the Danzig Bay, but manor houses and farm workers houses were more common. In Schleswig-Holstein it was found mostly south of the Eider river, the old border with Denmark. In northern Sauerland and the Weser Uplands there was less of a sharp boundary and more of a gradual reduction in floor area as the terrain became hillier. In southern Lower Saxony the Hessian square farmstead is found well inside the Low German language area. In east Lower Saxony the Niedersachsenhaus and the square farmstead are interspersed like a mosaic. In Saxony-Anhalt there are none in the Magdeburg Börde and only a few in the Altmark.
This style of house typically appears in the following regions:
The Low German house occurs more or less in the areas settled by the Germanic tribes of the Saxons, thus leading its popular name, Low Saxon House, or Niedersachsenhaus, which is based on the Old Saxon cultural region of Low Germany.
Regional features
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. On these, the gable facing the road were steeply pitched, made of coloured brickwork and is often projecting. In addition the facades were decorated with neoclassical and renaissance designs of the Gründerzeit which lasted to about 1871. Gable design and decorations go back to the area of Hamburg. Another particularly impressive regional variation is the Low German house is found in the Artland near Osnabrück.Neighbouring farmhouse types
On the southern boundary of the Low German house region, as well as the multi-sided farmsteads, there is the historical Ernhaus type of farm, also referred to as the Middle German house or Frankish farmstead. A northern neighbour of the Fachhallenhaus in the immediate vicinity of the North Sea coast was the Gulf house or Frisian farmstead which is found in the marsh regions and, later, also on the geest areas of West Flanders, Frisia as far as Schleswig-Holstein. It had replaced the Old Frisian farmhouse in the 16th century. Another northern neighbour in the Southern Schleswig area is the Geesthardenhaus, which also occurs in the whole of Jutland and hence is also called the Cimbrian farmhouse.Construction
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 frame was originally made of oak, which was very durable, but from the 18th century it was also made from cheaper pinewood. To protect it from damp, the wooden posts rest on a stone foundation about 50 cm high, often made of fieldstone. The non weight-bearing external walls were built as timber frames, the panels of which were originally filled in with willow wickerwork and clay and, later, with brick.
In damp moorland and marshy areas the weather-side of the many such buildings was faced with brick. In Westphalia, in addition to the usual timber-framed buildings, there are also hall farmhouses whose external walls are made of brick.
The two main forms of construction are the Zweiständerhaus and the Vierständerhaus. The Dreiständerhaus is a transitional design.