Rieckhuus, Open-air museum in Hamburg, Germany.
Rieckhuus is an open-air museum on the Curslacker Elbdeich in Hamburg-Curslack, centred on a thatched hall house farm whose timber frame was dendro-dated to around 1532. The main house shows decorative brick infill patterns set into the facade. On the grounds stand a wooden Koker windmill moved from Ochsenwerder, a baking house from Neuengamme, a Heubarg hay barn from Allermöhe and a vegetable ewer barge from Ochsenwerder-Neudorf.
Dendrochronological study dates the core timber frame of the hall house to around 1532, with repairs or rebuilds recorded in 1545 and 1565. Written documentation begins in 1633, when Carsten and Catrina Timm had ownership inscriptions carved into the side-door lintel and a courtyard beam. The farm was worked until about 1940, taken over by Hamburg's heritage authority that year, and opened as a museum in 1954.
The farm's name comes from the Rieck family, the last to work it until about 1940; the family has been documented in the Vierlanden for at least twelve generations and took part in the museum into the 2000s. Carved ownership inscriptions from 1633 name Carsten and Catrina Timm, née Eggers, and the Timm family still lives in the region, having provided six Curslack land bailiffs.
The open-air museum lies on the Curslacker Elbdeich in Hamburg-Curslack, within the Bergedorf museum landscape. The grounds hold several relocated buildings, including a wooden Koker windmill from Ochsenwerder, a baking house from Neuengamme, a hay barn from Allermöhe and a vegetable barge from Ochsenwerder-Neudorf. A farm garden laid out in 1962 in traditional Vierlanden style completes the site.
Visitors can try their hand at historical household and farm tasks themselves, offering direct insight into daily work in the Vierlanden. These hands-on experiences help reveal how physically demanding and time-consuming such work actually was.
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