Ladder shed from Mudersbach

Built: 1822
Dismantled: 1985
Reassembled: 1987

As early as 1703, an improved fire regulation in the county of Solms-Braunfels required ladder sheds to be built immediately in every village. Thanks to such governmental fire regulations, the narrow, elongated structures were standard communal buildings in villages around 1850. They were part of the rural firefighting strategy in the former territories of Nassau, Solms, Hesse-Kassel, the Electorate of Mainz and in parts of Hesse-Darmstadt, serving as stores for smaller pieces of equipment. When a great number of volunteer fire departments was founded and equipped with modern firefighting technology in the years leading up to the late 1920s, the ladder sheds ceased to be of any use. Most of them were torn down.

This low timber-framed building originally had a small tool shed separated off on the left gable side. The inscription on the right eaves side translates as: This ladder shed was built by its commissioner mayor Brück and village foremen Johann Georg Kücker and Johann Georg Schaub in Mudersbach. The truss was set up on 14 June 1822 by master workman Lùdwig Schäffer from here x Alone to God be the glory x and to those who are worthy.

In 1951, the ladder shed in Mudersbach had to make way to a new construction, and it was relocated to Kröffelbach. There, it served as a chicken coop. In the Open Air Museum, it was reconstructed without the tool shed and at a speculative height without clear historic evidence. Inside, firefighting equipment of the kind that was used in many villages of the Westerwald region in the 19th century is stored.