Barn from Bracht

Built: circa 1768
Dismantled: 1977/78
Reassembled: 1979/80

The farmstead is currently undergoing extensive renovations and is therefore not accessible. The cover for the dung heap is being renovated to meet current environmental standards. Where the timber framing is too dilapidated to preserve the buildings’ existing structure, it is being repaired, supplemented or replaced. The same is true for damaged roofs, infills, windows, doors and flooring. The buildings should look like they are from around 1910 and will be restored accordingly. The pigsty and chicken coop, however, will be optimised to ensure modern animal welfare standards. Once the renovations are complete the manure, pigs and chickens will all return.

The Barn and Stable from Bracht were part of a three-sided farmstead known as Kipps Hof in their original location. The modern stable part was added at a right angle to the old barn building in 1925. When they were reassembled in the Open Air Museum, the barn and stable were set up on opposite sides. The barn is a two-storey timber-framed structure resting on a plinth of trimmed sandstone. When it was reassembled in the museum, it was restored to its original appearance. A photograph taken in its old location shows that a stable had been set up in the right part of the barn. This was removed during reassembly in the museum. Instead, the barn was provided with an older barn gate with external construction.

This was reconstructed based on a 1716 model from Amönau near Wetter. In the museum, the Barn from Bracht hosts a display on mechanized threshing of grain and how threshing machines and choppers were driven using whims.