Farm worker house in Hinte-Suurhusen

Since the mid 19th century, the great farmhouses of the marshes no longer correspond to the wide-spread romantic image of a farm; at that time, they already had the character of real agricultural enterprises. The entire change – farmers turning into entrepreneurs – took place between 1825 and 1840, but the development began in the 16th century.

Since that period, marsh farmers ran their farms aided by farm workers contracted as laborers. These workers did not live on the farms of the farmers, unlike the un-married farm servants did. They were married and lived with their families in small houses. Plenty of evidence of this time has been preserved: In the “Wurtendörfer” (villages built on dwelling mounts), you can also find farm worker houses, often very close together. But in the last decades, they were adapted by their owners to the changing needs, renovations and modernizations followed.

At Suurhusen, you can visit a farm worker house, where the usual typical character until the 20th century was reconstructed. On the one end, there is the living part provided with a steep gable, then, under a hipped roof, a small stable for a cow or a sheep. In former times, the living-room only consisted of a single room, the living-room-cum-kitchen. In it there were two murphy beds, the so-called „Butzen“: one for the parents and one for the often numerous children. Beneath, there was a cellar to store potato reserves, protected against frost.

This arrangement characterized the outside appearance of these houses, so that many of them (despite the latest changes) can be recognized today as former worker houses: Because  the Butzen wall is arranged along a gutter wall, the two gable windows are displaced in asymmetric form. Between the windows, there is the chimney for the open fire place. On the side, only in the area of the Butzen wall, there are often small cellar windows. In the interior of the house, the living situation of a farm worker’s family has been reconstructed.

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Address
Landarbeiterhaus
Smal Joed 5
26759 Hinte-Suurhusen
Tel 0 49 25 / 10 80
Fax 0 49 25 / 99 00 27