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Pictures from the village of Unterlübbe, Germany
Source: Beiträge zur Ortsgeschichte: Archäologie, Siedlungsgeschichte, Schulwesen: Heimatverein Zwischen Berg und Bruch: Oberlübbe und Unterlübbe, Hille, 1989
When we (Roy and Doris Johnson) visited Unterlübbe and Bergkirchen in 1959, many of the old buildings still stood. Some had straw thatch roofs. Many were in the "half timbered" style. In that style, heavy beams are exposed to the outside. Between the beams a substance something like stucco forms the walls of the house. A wide central corrodor, usually with a dirt or stone floor, allowed for entry to bring in the animals and hay. Separate rooms opened off this corridor---horse stall, cow stall, pigsty, kitchen, parlor, bedrooms. Thick walls prevented most of the odors from the animal sections from entering the living rooms. Some roofs were straw thatch; others were of tile.
The houses appear large, but people and animals were under one roof and the upper section was for hay. Also consider that more than one family might live in the same house. Since then, many of these old houses have been demolished and more modern ones built in their place.
The oldest Schnake location and apparently the original home of the "gnats" was at No. 19 Unterlübbe. In the study of the area that we have were pictures of some of their immediate neighbors' homes and of the school that they would have attended. Here they are:
The Unterlübbe schoolhouse. This elementary school was built in 1847/48. The addition at the back with the cross-section was built in 1892. The building was torn down in 1963. All children in the village attended this school. The teacher Steinmeyer began duties in 1848 and stayed until his death in 1883.
Below is the south (front) view of the house at No. 15 Unterlübbe. It was listed in the book as "Farmhouse Wessel" -- apparently the name of the inhabitants.The houses were in the "half-timbered" style--that is, the designs that you see on the front are the actual timbers of the house. Between the timbers was filled with something like stucco.
Below is the back (north) side of the house at no. 15 Unterlübbe. The roof on this side was straw thatch. The large door probably opened into a large central corridor with a stone floor, with rooms opening off it to the horse stall, cow stall, pig sty, living room, dining room, etc. The interior and exterior walls could be several feet thick. In the house we visited, no odor from the animal areas penetrated to the living areas.
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The house below, at no. 13 Unterlübbe, shows the large central door more clearly. This was almost always on the back side of the house, with the front side giving a more house-like appearance while the back side appeared more barn-like. It is identified as "farmhouse Meyering" and was torn down in 1949. This same type of door was on the Schnake house when we visited in 1958.
Feb. 2002--I received the following e-mail from Germany, with a much better picture of this house:
Dear Roy Johnson,
The world is so small: While searching for anchestors of my mothert, I found on your page the picture which shows the mother of my father! I have it attached.
The young girl on the left is my grandmother. Beside her is one of her aunts and her grand-parents. Their name was Klausmeier; earlier named Meyer. Even if this were only neighbours of your anchestors this is really interesting for me.
Stefan Sudmeier
Thanks to Stefan for the picture below, which is much better than the one I had.
Farmhouse Kleine at No. 21 Unterlübbe.
Below: Illustration of a landlord's agent collecting rent in cheese, eggs, chickens, sheep, and the like from peasants. A 1633 record shows the Schnakes at No. 19 paid rent in barley and rye to the St. Martini Monastery, their landlord. After Frederick, the Elector of Brandenburg (soon to be called the King of Prussia) took over the land in 1648, he continued to use the St. Martini Monastery to collect his rent. Later the rent would be changed from barley and rye to money.
In the map below, I have shown in red the area that I believe to be the Schnake hof. (Remember that the Hof was the farmyard and house; the land itself was separate and the villagers went out each day to their assigned fields, which could be in more than one piece.
Important links:
I wrote a beautiful song for the 50th wedding anniversary of my in-laws 20 years
ago. It is now available on CD and I havae set up several Internet sites to sell
it. Go to any of the following:
Golden Love site at
http://goldenlove.att.net
Golden Love site on SchnakeNet
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~schnake/goldenlove.htm
Golden Love site on Pace Network
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pace/goldenlove.htm
Golden Love on FortuneCity
http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/cern/1343/ or
http://www.nav.to/compu-tutor1
Rick Schnake has an interesting hobby/part time business. He collects
and sells authentic historic signatures on original documents. He has US
Presidents and many other historical figures represented. Why not check
it out?
Rick's main site at "http://www.historyinink.com"
Mirror site on Schnakenet
at
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~schnake/HistoryInInk.htm
Mirror site on Pace Network
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pace/HistoryInInk.htm
Golden Love main site http://goldenwedding.net