Detmold - Open Air Museum

The open-air museum in Detmold covers about 240 acres. The museum has moved about 90 historic farm buildings from around Germany to the site, making it one of the largest collections of agricultural buildings in the world.

These buildings are NOT reproductions. They are the real buildings, disassembled brick by brick, transported to Detmold, and rebuilt.

Maybe it's because I grew up on a farm. Maybe it's because I'm interested in wells and mills and stuff like that. Or maybe I'm just nuts. But I could have spent a week at this place and not gotten tired of it.

The water mill above (from 1731) still works--not only does the wheel turn, but the whole thing still can grind wheat into flour! Apparently, normally there are demonstrations of this on Saturdays, but not this particular weekend, for reasons I didn't entirely understand.

Lippische Meierhof

Barn

Granary

This farm is from the 1570s, from near the village of Detmold. You'll notice that the buildings are actually in use--sheep and chickens and geese live in the 400 year old barn!

Dining Area

Kitchen

Detail of the thatched roof of the barn.

Separate bakehouse--notice the trough where they would knead the bread.

Sauerlaender Dorf

I've never been quite sure where "Sauerland" is, but it is near Cologne. That's where the museum got this whole village of buildings, mostly from the 1770s.

See the little "brook" in this picture? It is completely lined with bricks. Apparently, this is authentic--it helped keep small streams like this from meandering.

The big building here is a house of a very religious family. There were statues of saints in many rooms, and frame certificates from the children's First Communions.

This picture was taken from the park bench where I ate my lunch. I'll understand if you are jealous!

Inside the little chapel shown on the left.

Here, a crew is working on rebuilding a structure--I don't know what it is going to be, but it is fascinating to see that the raw building materials look like. Some of the buildings sit "in storage" for 20 years or more, because the museum acquires them when they are "in danger" and assembles them when it has time and money.

A Large Farm from 1577

The farmyard.

Hanging meat.

I took a lot of pictures at this farmhouse. Like most of these farms, the people and the animals (except the pigs) lived together in the house. The funishings in this house are fairly modern, because this house was occupied until the early 1900s.

If you think that's manure in front of the house, you're right.

I'm astonished by the level of detail the museum goes to. For example, all of the farms have real gardens, and the gardens are all different, showing the kinds of crops farmers in that area with that level of income would have raised.

This farmer is relatively rich, so his garden has some flowers.

The back door to the farmhouse. This is one of my favorite pictures from the day.

Padeborner Dorf

This house most recently held a family of eight. It is only 320 square feet!

This is a chapel!

Here's what's inside the chapel!

The single largest collection of buildings is the "Padeborner Dorf", in which an entire village from the region of Padeborn is reassembled.

Two nearby farms

Gatehouse to a farm.

This picture isn't as clear as I had hoped. This is a haystack with a roof. The roof itself is mounted on a pole that runs through the haystack. The roof can move up or down. As the hay gets used up, the farmer would lower the roof.

Barns.

The school--it held up to 50 students!

The Bishop's Man's Farm

Part of the gate house.

Bishops were powerful throughout Germany. Many of them were Electors, which is something like a prince, but you'll never be king. Anyway, apparently it's a good think to be "the bishop's man", because this was clearly the wealthiest farm on display. It's from the 1780s.

This farm had a moat, so apparently it is also somewhat dangerous to be "the bishop's man".

The gate and drawbridge for the moat.

He's got a nice garden, including a sundial. Servants also would raise flax here, for extra money.

You're living like a king when you've got a brick outhouse!

The (huge) doors that separate where the cows live from where the family lives. But they are still all under one roof.

He may be powerful, but he still shares the house with the cows!

My favorite farm

This was definitely my favorite farm. It is a pig farm from an isolated part of Germany, far from any villages.

Tourists teasing the pigs.

The neighbors also had a great house with a big thatched roof.

Okay, the picture on the right didn't turn out so good, so let me explain what you are seeing.

Remember that the animals (except the pigs) lived under the same roof as the family. Normally, there would be a wall between the "barn" half and the "living" half of the building. But this building is old enough--and the residents were poor enough--that there is no wall here. The hearth and the kitchen spill right out onto the thrashing floor, surrounded by the cattle stalls.

Three generations of family would like in this house. There was a bedroom for the parents, a tiny bedroom for the grandparents, and then--believe it or not--a CUPBOARD for the kids to sleep in! The cupboard was the size of a small bed, with lots of blankets and pillows, and cupboard doors that opened to either a storage room or the dining area.

I'll tell you why this farm was my favorite. There's just something about this place that reminds me that we ALL have ancestors (maybe not all that far back!) who lived like this--all together, with all the valuable stuff (including the animals) safely under one roof. The kids all piled together in that one little bed. I don't know... it was pretty amazing!

Actually...

There's one more amazing thing about the open-air museum, but I'm saving that for another day.




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