Rieck-Haus / Vierländer Freilichtmuseum

Description

In the Hamburg district of Curslack the Rieck-Haus illustrates rural life in the Vierlanden before industrialization. The open-air museum uses a historic farmstead with a hall house on the Curslacker Elbdeich, which was used for agriculture until about 1940 and has been part of the Bergedorfer Museumslandschaft since the 1950s.

The written records for the farm extend back to 1633; in that year ownership inscriptions were made in the lintel of the side door and in a courtyard beam with the entry "Carsten und Catrina Timm, geb. Eggers." Dendrochronological evidence indicates a core framework dating to around 1532; repair and conversion phases are documented for 1545 and 1565. The farm was erected at a time when drainage and diking of the Elbe lowlands were largely complete, that is, before the area's first mention as "Vierlande" in 1556. For centuries the farm remained cultivated and was extended several times; the prosperity of its occupants is evident in the richly decorated brick infill of the main house. Through marriages and inheritances the resident families changed; the family Rieck, who were the last to farm here, gave the property its present name.

Around 1900 the farm fell into poor structural condition and was threatened with decay. In 1940 the city's monument protection authority took over the buildings and provisionally secured them. From 1949 systematic renovations of the main house and the draw-well were carried out by a craftsman who lived on site; in 1954 it began operating as a branch of the Altonaer Museum. Additionally, characteristic buildings and implements from the surrounding area were incorporated: a wooden Kokerwindmühle from Ochsenwerder, a bakehouse from Neuengamme, a Heubarg from Allermöhe and a Gemüse-Ewer from Ochsenwerder-Neudorf. Since 1962 a traditional farmhouse garden laid out on an historic model has completed the presentation of pre-industrial life.

Today the site displays not only buildings and furnishings, but through activities and guided tours conveys to school groups and visitors the everyday life, working practices and culture of the people who lived here over the centuries. The families named in the historical inscriptions can still be documented in the Vierlanden today; the Timm family repeatedly held local offices, and the Rieck family is attested in the region over many generations.