page_title: Low German house
section_title: Distribution
hierarchical_section_title: Low German house / Distribution
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Verbreitungsgebiet des Fachhallenhauses unter Nutzung der Kartenskizze de:Bild:Niederdeutsche Mundarten.PNG von Benutzer:Postmann_Michael und Zeichnung zum Verbreitungsgebiet nach Johannsen 1974 in: Seedorf, Meyer, Landeskunde Plattdüütsch: Rebeet in dat de Neddersassenhüüs vörkaamt
context_page_description: The Low German house or Fachhallenhaus is a type of timber-framed farmhouse found in Northern Germany and the Netherlands, which combines living quarters, byre and barn under one roof. It is built as a large hall with bays on the sides for livestock and storage and with the living accommodation at one end.
  The Low German house appeared during the 13th to 15th centuries and was referred to as the Low Saxon house in early research works. Until its decline in the 19th century, this rural, agricultural farmhouse style was widely distributed through the North German Plain, all the way from the Lower Rhine to Mecklenburg. Even today, the Fachhallenhaus still characterises the appearance of many north German villages.
context_section_description: The Low German house had a wide distribution across an area almost 1,000 km long which roughly corresponds to the Low German language area. In the west it stretched into parts of the Netherlands where the height of gable and loft are usually lower, mirroring its development over time from self-sufficiency to market-oriented farming. 
  From the Lower Rhine region to western Mecklenburg the Low German house was the dominant type of farmhouse. Further east it was found as far as the Danzig Bay, but manor houses (Gutshaus) and farm workers houses were more common. In Schleswig-Holstein it was found mostly south of the Eider river, the old border with Denmark. In northern Sauerland and the Weser Uplands there was less of a sharp boundary and more of a gradual reduction in floor area as the terrain became  hillier. In southern Lower Saxony the Hessian square farmstead (Vierkanthof) is found well inside the Low German language area. In east Lower Saxony the Niedersachsenhaus and the square farmstead are interspersed like a mosaic. In Saxony-Anhalt there are none in the Magdeburg Börde and only a few in the Altmark.
  This style of house typically appears in the following regions:
  Rhineland
  Westphalia
  North Hesse
  Lower Saxony
  Holstein
  Prignitz
  Altmark
  Mecklenburg
  Pommern
  The Low German house occurs more or less in the areas settled by the Germanic tribes of the Saxons, thus leading  its popular name, Low Saxon House, or Niedersachsenhaus, which is based on the Old Saxon cultural region of Low Germany.
caption: Distribution of the Low German house (Boundaries of Germany from 1938)
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