Low German House Architecture

The Low German house, also called the Fachhallenhaus, is a type of timber-framed farmhouse found across northern Germany and the easternmost Netherlands, combining living quarters, livestock stalls and storage under a single roof. It appeared across roughly a thousand kilometers of territory settled by Saxon tribes, from the Lower Rhine to Mecklenburg, and the form emerged during the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, remaining common until it declined through the nineteenth century. The house is organized around a large central hall, the Diele, originally used for threshing, flanked by side bays for livestock and storage with living accommodation at one end, the whole interior divided lengthwise by rows of wooden posts that carry the timber frame. Though heavily altered over the centuries, many of these farmhouses still shape the appearance of north German villages today and are increasingly preserved in open-air museums and restoration projects.