Images from the Past.

Having had a look at how the property and surrounding buildings developed from 1922 to the present, as seen from above, here's a quick look at what the buildings looked like in the past, thanks to some photos from the family that built and lived in the house till recently.

The Bauernhaus, date unknown.

The first photo is from an unknown date. We were told it could be the 50's, based on who the man is thought to be, but the style of dress make us think perhaps the 1930s. If anyone looking at this is an expert on historic German farmer clothing styles, let me know!

The thing I like about this image, apart from the pose and the young boy with a cheeky grin sitting behind the man, is it really shows that this was a working farmhouse. Manure and straw has been cleaned out of the stalls on either side of the house. There was a pump right outside the front door, and indeed, from other photos of the village, pumps dotted the area. We know that the water table is high in these surrounds (the cellar is proof of that), and I wonder if a hand pump could be reinstated.

The window boxes are a nice feature, and we still have one, or at least one in the same style, hanging on one of the outbuildings that we'll look at in a later post. To the right of the window just above the main door is a tube for inserting flags. We know because it's still there.

The Bauernhaus, October 2010

What is sad, is the original door frame of red sandstone, interestingly painted white back then, is most likely gone, and not hidden behind the rather ugly tiles that surround the main door now. The current door is wider than its sister opening to the right, while in the old photo, they look about the same, so the chances of removing those tiles to expose a sandstone frame look slim.

I just realised, that the half-doors on the stalls in the top photo are very likely the same ones there today!

Yellow buildings visible in photo.

The other photo (and unfortunately it's a photo I took today of a photo, but I will try to get it again for a scan), doesn't show the house, but dominating the left of the frame is the gable end of a neighbouring house that no longer exists, but which is most probably the building that was still extant on the mid-left of the maps from 1960. That house was certainly knocked down soon after 1960 to build a town hall, which was also knocked down in 2009 or 2010 to make way for a much larger, and very modern-looking town hall, thankfully a little further away from our house.

What is certain is the identity of the buildings in the background, and the small building to the right, presenting the gable end. This is the small building that was knocked down in 1960, and behind it is the neighbours barn, which adjoined our barn until the same year, when it was bought and demolished to build lean-to stalls (see the yellow-shaded buildings in the map to the right). The left hand gable of that former barn is now part of the gable end of our barn, which has since increased slightly in height during the various extension phases.

Neighbouring buildings, date unknown.

The view now, February 2011.

Like most of the photos we've seen of the village, this illustrates the community spirit of villages at the time, as the men of the neighbourhood went off to cut trees (or so we were told). It also shows the former access to the house, which is now the car park (still under construction) for the new town hall.

Any experts care to suggest a year for that tractor?