The Farmhouses of the Rhine Province

Introduction and Regional Distinctions

Regarding the farmhouses of the Rhine Province—specifically those within the administrative districts of Cologne, Koblenz, and Trier, which have been assigned to the Architecture and Engineering Association of Cologne as part of the corresponding collaborative work on the German farmhouse—Messrs. Eberlein and Heuer spoke at the meeting on January 24, 1898. The former mentioned that a very diverse type of development was striking in the aforementioned areas. On the right bank of the Rhine, the region between Elberfeld and Gummersbach shows a completely open development with many individual houses scattered across the landscape. Between the Agger and Sieg, as well as in the northern Westerwald, there is a transition to a closed style of construction. Here, individual houses appear less frequently; instead, the houses cluster together, particularly in the northern Westerwald, into farmsteads of 8 to 10 houses (apart from the larger church villages). A parish comprises a very large number of such small settlements. For instance, 68 settlements are mentioned for the parish district of Stieldorf (as early as 1131). The parish district of Oberpleis includes 63 settlements with 3,770 inhabitants. In these districts, as in the entire northern Westerwald, the communities are still frequently called "Hundschaften" [Translator's Note: An ancient Germanic administrative division].

In contrast, the left bank of the Rhine shows firmly closed settlements in almost—one might say—urban development. Along the Moselle, the density of construction often reaches that of major cities. On the Hunsrück, as well as in the southern Westerwald, the village layouts are similar to those in Southern Germany—namely, large church villages and fewer small hamlets. In these last-mentioned areas, the houses are built wall-to-wall along the Rhine and the Moselle, yet the houses are not scattered over the entire land as in Westphalia, but rather form a group for themselves along with the South German villages.

The open construction style (as it prevails particularly in many Westphalian regions) is to be regarded as an old Germanic one; it is characteristic of the Lower German tribes. Even Tacitus makes explicit mention of this in Chapter 16 of his Germania: "They settle separately and scattered, wherever a spring, a meadow, or a grove invites them. Their villages do not consist of connected, continuous rows of houses like ours; each person surrounds his house with an open space, etc."

The closed construction style on the left bank of the Rhine is likely attributable to the settlement of the regions on the left bank by the Celtic original inhabitants, as well as to Roman influences. As is well known, many place names in the Eifel are of Celtic origin. The characteristic difference in the style of development is immediately apparent when one compares the plane-table maps of a district on the right bank and a district on the left bank of the Rhine with each other.

Specific Architectural Examples

Turning to the farmhouses he recorded, the speaker then discussed two types of floor plans—namely, two-part and three-part residential layouts. He first explained a house in Oberspai dating from the end of the 12th century. This house, formerly a "Tithe House" [Translator's Note: Zehnthaus, used to store tithes collected for the church] and inhabited until 50 years ago, now serves as a barn. It is of massive construction and still clearly shows Romanesque forms in the windows and the surrounding blind arches. Originally, the entire ground floor was a single room, the floor of which was paved with large stone slabs and was heatable by a massive, still-preserved fireplace. The upper floor was divided into two rooms and was better furnished. The fireplace preserved there also shows finer workmanship. A massive barrel vault covers the cellar room, which is now used as a wine cellar. The door is located on the gable side; originally, there was also one on the long side. The original arrangement of the stairs, which probably went up from the outside, could no longer be determined.

Secondly, the speaker discussed a house from Pees in the Westerwald, built at the latest in 1620–30. It shows the same two-part basic type as the one previously discussed; however, here the stable forms a building with the farmhouse under a single ridge. The layout is arranged like a farmstead. It is a timber-framed construction, the panels of which are closed with wickerwork and clay and then plastered. This construction prevails in the entire local region, while rubble stone masonry was unknown to the speaker there. The roof is covered with straw. The most significantly designed part of the entire house is the hearth-room, over which a giant smoke hood spreads. Individual beams on the exterior of the house are decorated; the profiling on them is still Gothicizing.

In Ariendorf near Hönningen on the Rhine, a house was recorded whose age cannot be exactly determined, but which is certainly no younger than the middle of the previous century. Originally, it was a double dwelling with two separate stairs and fireplaces. Now, after the wall between the two two-part layouts was removed, a three-part residential house has been created. The stables here—as is mostly the case in the Rhine and Moselle valleys, as well as in the Cologne area—are separated from the dwelling house. The barn, which faces the street with its long side, forms a rectangle with the dwelling house and a closed courtyard layout. The most important role, as everywhere in the Rhine regions, is played by the hearth-room, which is very comfortably designed here as a bay-window room. In contrast to Southern Germany, where value is placed on handsome and comfortable furniture and equipment in the living room, no fixed principle of furnishing is noticeable here; the equipment of the living room here, as generally in the Rhineland, is very meager. In the Middle Rhine and on the Moselle, the farmer even now partly lives more in the summer kitchen (hearth-room) than in the actual living room. The hearth-room is simultaneously a living room, kitchen, social room, etc., in the summer. Here, the household members and neighbors gather in the evening after the day's work and sit chatting around the hearth fire. In the flue, the "Langhohl" [Translator's Note: A long hook or chain for hanging pots] used to hang, on which the cooking pot was suspended. The tiled stove, common in Southern Germany, is found nowhere in the farmhouses of the Rhineland. The living rooms everywhere, including in Ariendorf, are heated by modern iron column stoves. The house is also constructed of oak timber framing with clay and wickerwork.

In Enkirch on the Moselle, a house built around 1600, preserved in its original state, was recorded. It also shows the two-part type. The house is built on a street with a steep slope. This creates a lower floor, which is used here as a wine cellar. In many similar houses on the Moselle, this room serves as a stable. The hearth-room is comfortably furnished with cabinets, plate and bowl shelves, etc., while the living room, on the other hand, is soberly and sparsely furnished. The arrangement of the bench and table already reminds one of the South German arrangement. In the rear corner is the bed. From the original stove of the 16th century, some plates are still present; it was square and made of iron. The current stove is modern. In the ceiling of the living room is a small hole; the upper room receives its heating through it. The timber framing of the facade is made of oak with rich, beautiful carvings. This house is a characteristic example of a Moselle house. Inside the house, the timber framing protrudes several millimeters beyond the panels everywhere. The wooden posts, sills, braces, etc., were formerly painted.

The floor plan of a house from Treis on the Moselle was also recorded, as it shows some peculiarities. The building, which is built on level ground, has a basement built of massive rubble stone in which the stables are located. Several steps lead up to the main floor. The main floor, which is only slightly longer than it is deep, belongs to the two-part type. In the middle of the house is a strong post, which takes up the entire load of the inner house. This floor plan likely points particularly to the originality of a single room with the central "power pillar" (Kraftsäule), although this house was built as a two-part house from the beginning.

Estates and Courtyard Layouts

The Buchheimerhof near Mülheim on the Rhine was built in 1786 after the old farm fell victim to the great ice gorge of the Rhine in 1784. It shows the three-part house layout of the Cologne region with complete regularity. To the right and left of the living house located in the middle, the stables are arranged in symmetrical order, while the barns opposite the living house form the rear closure. This completely enclosed courtyard layout extends from the Cologne region across all of Belgium and a large part of Northern France. In Northern France, however, the residential house often detaches itself from the rest of the group and steps forward. The main room of the residential house here is also the kitchen. From it, all rooms, which have no connection among themselves, are accessible. Above the kitchen extends a large open space in which family festivals, weddings, christenings, etc., are celebrated.

The Friedrichshof near Rondorf, built in 1766, shows the same type. The kitchen here has very stately dimensions of 9.75 by 7 meters, while the rooms are consistently 4 by 4 meters. Between the living room and the farmhands' room, 1-meter-deep partitions and flaps were originally installed, which served as beds. This arrangement of sleeping quarters seems to have been the generally common one in the past, for many traces of it can still be found, although they have mostly disappeared now. The locally well-known idiom "to lay oneself in the flap or trap" (sich in die Klappe oder Falle legen) is likely attributable to this earlier arrangement of sleeping quarters. In all the aforementioned farms, usually only the kitchen and the room at the fireplace are heatable. The people mostly live toward the courtyard. In front of the house, there is often a garden on the long side of the residential building. The maid's chamber, accessible from the kitchen by means of a small staircase, is at half-height, and the room below it is utilized as a vegetable cellar.

Similar to those discussed above are the Brempter Hof near Weilerswist, built in 1611, and the Kohmarer Hof near Cologne. These farms usually belong to 250 to 300 "Morgen" [Translator's Note: A unit of land area, roughly 0.6 to 0.9 acres] of land. A village in the Cologne vicinity contains 2 to 3 such farms, and the remaining farm properties are mostly smaller and rarely have more than 30 Morgen of land.

The Bergisches Land and Technical Details

Mr. Georg Heuer explained his recordings made in the region between the Sieg and Wupper, the "Bergisches Land." Here, the scattered mountain house of the poor farmer prevails. Larger closed courtyard layouts, like those reported from the Cologne region, do not exist here. The accessories of a farmhouse, such as privies, pigsties, bakehouses, apiaries, and barns for wood and straw, are partly attached to the house, but more often stand 20 to 40 paces away and are seldom grouped with the residential house into a symmetrical overall layout. Fodder and bedding supplies are stored in the attic and in chambers of the upper story. Some of these houses have two-story hallways (Dielen), which are paved with small stones. This type of Frisian-Saxon house, which begins at the Westphalian border and goes south into the region of Olpe, was encountered by the speaker an hour from Gummersbach in the Müllenbach valley.

The Bergische houses are mostly built of strong posts (15–25 cm), which are set sparingly and at great distances from each other and are currently mostly tarred. The wide panels are filled with staves and coated with clay. The oak beams of the ceilings lie 1 meter or less apart, depending on wealth, and have semi-circular "wind-floors" (Windelboden) or are floored with oak planks. Ceilings and walls are plastered with hair-lime or only whitewashed with lime. Mortar plaster is rare, as good sand is lacking, which is why the stones, layered and weather-resistant Bergische graywacke, are often laid dry. In better houses, the ground floor is often executed entirely in rubble stone, and more rarely the upper floor as well.

The roofs are consistently covered with straw, which, besides its other known advantages, also has the advantage that such roofs are more dust-tight than tiled roofs, and therefore the fodder supplies stored under them remain cleaner. The roof ridge is usually covered with sod, and on the large roof surfaces, a green moss layer soon settles, shimmering with the added patchwork in all colors. The farmhouses often have no chimneys. The smoke enters freely into the hallways, from whose ceiling the meat is smoked, and then takes varying paths through small side windows or the stairwell and other ceiling openings into the roof and from there into the open. In the village of Benroth in the Bröl valley, the speaker's stay in the kitchen hallway was made very difficult because the smoke rising from a bakehouse located in the cellar—to make it still useful for heating—exited freely into the room through a hole in the wall. Often, however, the smoke is also conducted through flues into special chambers and chimneys in order to be able to smoke the meat more strongly and quickly.

Decorative forms are found in the Bergisch region in all styles, from Gothic to Rococo, but they are found only sporadically. The houses appear in the dark foliage of the tall trees primarily only through their clean white lime coating and the dark posts. Vivid colors are not popular, even in the folk costume. Even the church walls are only lime-washed white and the wooden benches painted light gray. Usually, they are biblical verses that one reads over the house door in this predominantly Protestant region; aphorisms of other content occur almost not at all.

Specific Examples from Gummersbach and Surroundings

The speaker then discusses a farmhouse from Gross-Hunstig, situated on a mountain in the Agger Valley near Dieringhausen. The frugal small-scale farmer lined up three houses here with their gables adjacent to each other, just as happens in the cities. The first house was built in 1675, and the third was enlarged in 1799. The first house formerly had a two-story hallway. Recently, the straw of the long roof has been partially replaced by tiles and previously missing chimneys have been installed.

A house recorded in Volmerhausen, built in 1695 and still preserved in its original state, also has a paved two-story hallway.

In Liefenroth, located in a narrow side valley of the Agger, a double house was recorded, which is divided lengthwise for two farmers, creating a good separation from the neighbor. The house is distinguished by an unusually decorative design of the post-work in this region. On the western gable, which is protected by a magnificent tall linden tree, there is still a shingle cladding on the timber-framed wall. The house is covered with straw and had a wooden chimney, which was later replaced by a stone one. The flues in the kitchens have now disappeared, while the smoke chambers above them are still present. According to the inscriptions over the doors, which contain unusually long biblical verses relating to agriculture, the house was built in 1777.

In Gross-Berrenberg, half an hour from Gummersbach, the fire wall between the hallway and the living room of a house built in 1785 was recorded. The inhabitant still possessed the irons going through the wall to the Rococo cabinet, on which the kettle hooks hung over the hearth fire. Richly carved and profiled wall cabinets in the Rococo style from the time of Frederick the Great are still found several times in farmhouses of the Gummersbach district.

In Berkenroth, a place not far from Waldbröl, located on a slope of the Bröl Valley, many farmyards are entirely enclosed with stone slabs or low walls, within which the pigs run around freely. These yards are jokingly called "pig fortresses" (Schweinefestungen). Previously, it happened that entire villages of this large pig-breeding region were enclosed in the described manner and the pigs ran around freely in the village. Anyone who wanted to enter such a place first had to open a gate. One of these common village gates was recorded by the speaker. Furthermore, a house was recorded in which the bakehouse is located under the hallway in the cellar, where there is even a well with good drinking water. The wall between the living room and the hallway is still heated by the flue gases of the bakehouse. In this wall, there are also rows of cabinets and the entrance to the cellar, over which a warm "chicken coop" (Hühnerhurt) has found a place. For the large smoke development, a long smoke chamber opens in the ceiling, called "Dese" here. The hallway is called "Eren," the opening or the cabinet behind the stove plate "Zacken," the kettle hook "Hehloch." The irons on which the burning logs are laid are called "Brandreihe."

The Westerwald and Lahn Valley

In Immecke near Meinerzhagen, a house built around 1670 was recorded, which shows the Westphalian type of the Frisian-Saxon house. The gable walls are provided with a cone-shaped hip, here called "Zuschlag" or "Zuhang." In many houses of this region, two-story hallways are present, which with their mezzanine floor over the hearth in the background and the multiple rising stairs and ladders provide a picturesque image. The panels of the walls are divided quadratically by four diagonal lines drawn into the clay, and ceiling braces enhance the effect of the large room.

In Lohmar in the Agger Valley, not far from Siegburg, a house from the year 1597 was recorded, which, despite the active building activity of that region, has preserved its original location down to the straw roof and the bakehouse.

Mr. Wille briefly discusses some houses recorded by him in association with Messrs. Viehweger and Rittmeyer from the Westerwald and the Lahn Valley. They are mostly very poor houses. A house in Limbach in the Westerwald, which according to the inscription on the consoles of the house door was built in 1668, shows oak timber framing of extraordinary strength. The ground sill is, for example, 42–50 cm high. The white, rich plaster of the panel fields is bordered with black lines. The plaster surfaces of the chimney are decorated with incised lines. The post and brace work is distributed in a very graceful drawing, particularly on the gable sides. The roof consists of interwoven rods on rafters with straw and moss covering.

The Werner farmstead in Hochweisel near Friedberg in Hesse reminds one in its layout of the farms of the Cologne region; only the residential house is not in the middle of the front side, but is moved to the corner of the building layout. The roofs are covered with "beaver tail" tiles and the gables are clad with shingles. The cellar of the residential house is covered with a massive barrel vault.

The Herbel house in Laurenburg on the Lahn was built in 1525. The stairs go up in the hallway, and the beds stand in elevated and box-like enclosed niches in the background of the living rooms. The cattle stall is attached to the house under one roof.

Likewise, in a house in Eschbach (Westerwald near Montabaur) from the year 1658, as well as a small house in Elz (Limburg an der Lahn district) from the year 1680, stables and barn are combined with the residential house under one roof. In Elz, a courtyard layout from the year 1699 was also recorded, in which the residential house again lies on the corner. All previously discussed houses show a hallway with a staircase inside.