Path along thatched half-timbered houses

Lower Rhine

Lower Rhine
In the country of the Lower Rhine lay solitary farmsteads, called isolated farm settlements, which determined the image of the villages. The centre of the farmsteads in northern Lower Rhine is the „hall-house“, which accommodates various uses under one roof: through the entrance gate on the gable side one enters a hallway, which forms the central aisle. Along the long sides are stables for horses and cows, quite large in comparison with the farmsteads in other Groups of Buildings in the museum: keeping cattle played an important part in wide areas of the Lower Rhine.
The downstream Lower Rhine is a low lying land. Up to the beginning of industrialization roughly one fifth of the land area could only be used as pasture: an endless meadow, which could not be farmed because of flooding and a high ground-water level. However, the remaining soils of the Lower Rhine were always very fertile.
That can also be seen in the farmsteads. The houses are relatively large, with the intention of accommodating a plentiful harvest and a lot of cattle. These were often even supplemented by a separate storehouse. These farmsteads did not form villages, but were evenly spread across the country as individual farms.
In the Lower Rhine a different economy and way of life prevailed from that in the low mountain ranges. Therefore the buildings were also used differently from those, for example in the Eifel. Since the expansive damp meadows favoured the keeping of cattle, a dairy and cheese economy developed, similar to the Dutch tradition. In the 16th century another trade was added, which would later change day-to-day working life: textile manufacture. In the Lower Rhine there was the right workforce for that trade: here the inheritance law stipulated that the entire farm was always passed down to the eldest son. The younger siblings either had to work as farmhands or house-maids for their brother, or they migrated away to work in a trade or craft.

site plan

The Westerwald is a typical German low mountain range. It is an area where people lived in villages. No scattered individual farms, not even small hamlets, but more or less large villages had arisen here.
Westerwald Cobblestone path, half-timbered houses on the right
Village settlements determine the image of the Eifel. There are large, closed street and cluster villages mainly in the foothills and the early settled peripheral zones of the Eifel.
Eifel red poppy field, in the background chapel and half-timbered house
Individual farms and hamlets shaped the image of the Bergisches Land. Residential stable houses with separate barns and storerooms formed the courtyards.
Bergisches Land Horses in a meadow, half-timbered houses in the background
The Rhineland marketplace is dedicated to the second half of the 20th century. It shows the urbanization of rural areas combined with the dissolution of traditional rural townscapes.
Marketplace Rhineland View of brick inn

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