Torfschiffswerft Schlussdorf

The Turf Shipyard () in , Lower Saxony, Germany, is a former boat builder's yard now used as an open-air museum. The yard, operating from 1850 to 1954, was specialised on barges to transport turf, that is dried peat used as fuel. In 1975 the In lack of the character ß one can also type two s, thus Schlussdorf instead of Schlußdorf. (i.e. Schlussdorf Traditions Club) started to rescue the dilapidated shipyard buildings and reopened the site as a museum in 1977. The Turf Shipyard is about north of Worpswede's outskirts.Barbara Pannewick, „Worpswede, Heimat der Kunst“, in: Bremen: Entdeckerhandbuch für Stadt und Umland, Sabine Gorsemann (ed.), (=Peter Meyer Reiseführer), Frankfurt am Main: Peter Meyer, 22005, pp. 171–177, here p. 176. .

The Turf Shipyard is the only of its kind preserved in Northern Germany. As a museum it is undoubtedly in the front row of Worpswede's tourist sights.Michael Schön, „Café im Torfschiffswerft-Museum: Kaffee und Kuchen sollen Besucher locken“, in: Wümme-Zeitung, 11 March 2015, retrieved on 18 November 2019. Among the attractions of the art colony of Worpswede, the Turf Shipyard museum turned out to be a gem. The visit is especially recommended to people with children, as everything is presented very vividly.

Bogs settled, peat cut and shipped Following Jürgen Christian Findorff's plans for the inner colonisationIn 1780 Findorff presented his General Mire Cultivation Plan () according to which the villages , (1782 both), (1783), Winkelmoor (1789), (1790), (1794), and Schlussdorf (1800 both) were created. Cf. Karsten Müller-Scheeßel, „Die Geschichte der Moornutzung und die Entstehung der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch, Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 41–66, here p. 56. ; also cf. Barbara Pannewick, „Worpswede, Heimat der Kunst“, in: Bremen: Entdeckerhandbuch für Stadt und Umland, Sabine Gorsemann (ed.), (=Peter Meyer Reiseführer), Frankfurt am Main: Peter Meyer, 22005, pp. 171–177, here p. 176. . in the drained mires of the Teufelsmoor the village of Schlussdorf was founded in 1800 with originally 24 colonist families.Hermann Giere, Torfschiffswerft Schlußdorf (Museum) in der Gemeinde Worpswede, gegr. 1850, restauriert 1977 durch den Heimatverein Schlußdorf e.V., Osterholz-Scharmbeck: Saade, c. 1987, p. 3. (1720–1792), whom on 20 September 1771 George III of Britain and Hanover had appointed as Mire Commissioner () for the drainage and colonisation of the Teufelsmoor, included fuel turf sales as the necessary and available financial source for the colonists in their hard initial years.Karsten Müller-Scheeßel, „Die wirtschaftlichen Grundlagen der Findorff-Siedlungen im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert: Landwirtschaft und Torfhandel“, in: Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch, Wolfgang Konukiewitz und Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 147–169, here p. 164. .

The colonists sold fuel turf () prevailingly in Bremen and cities on the lower Weser,Hermann Giere, Torfschiffswerft Schlußdorf (Museum) in der Gemeinde Worpswede, gegr. 1850, restauriert 1977 durch den Heimatverein Schlußdorf e.V., Osterholz-Scharmbeck: Saade, c. 1987, p. 5. in order to raise money to make a living and build up their farms. By contract with the mire commission each colonist had to commit himself to replace the initial sod roofed A-frame shack by a solid farm building within the span of one year, however, so many failed that the commission already counted the presence of timber as fulfilment of that obligation, and thus some simple mire cottages () were still to be found in the 1930s.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Gebäude der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch, Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 125–146, here p. 128. .

As the soil was poor, the farming revenues remained meagre, and their recipients lived in poverty and often suffered from malnutrition and disease such as rickets and tuberculosis.Guido Boulboullé and Michael Zeiss, Worpswede: Kulturgeschichte eines Künstlerdorfes, Cologne: DuMont, 1989, pp. 40seq. . In springtime farmers started to cut peat from a lower peat layer, considered the best for fuel turf. If necessary the farmers compressed the peaty soil before cutting by hours-long barefoot tamping, a procedure called petten in Northern Low Saxon.Guido Boulboullé and Michael Zeiss, Worpswede: Kulturgeschichte eines Künstlerdorfes, Cologne: DuMont, 1989, p. 42. . Then the brick-formed peat pieces were piled up to stacks for drying in the summer sun to become fuel turf, before the deliveries started from autumn till mid-December.

After 1800 turf prices in Bremen soared.Guido Boulboullé and Michael Zeiss, Worpswede: Kulturgeschichte eines Künstlerdorfes, Cologne: DuMont, 1989, p. 38. . In 1830 fuel turf cost Thaler (Thl.) 4 to 8 (about mark [ℳ] 12 to 24) per 1 , which is .200 Jahre Schlußdorf 1800–2000: Festschrift zur 200-Jahr-Feier der Ortschaft Schlußdorf, Heimatverein Schlußdorf (ed.), Worpswede: Worpswede municipality, 2000, p. 30. No ISBN. In his teenage days the Schlussdorf-born (1847–1912) navigated turf barges to Vegesack and Bremen selling 1 Hunt of fuel turf for Thl.  to 3 (about ℳ 16 to 18),Hermann Giere, 25 Jahre Heimatverein Schlußdorf e.V. 1968–1993, Heimatverein Schlußdorf (ed.), Ritterhude: Diem + Neumann, 1993, p. 48, after Erwin Duwe (erd), „Gedenkstein für Heimatdichter: Vor 139 Jahren wurde Heinrich Schriefer in Schlußdorf geboren“, in: Wümme-Zeitung, 24 January 1986, page unknown. as this author of rustic novels described.Gudrun Scabell, „Der Bauernroman im Teufelsmoor“, in: Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch, Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 249–269, here p. 249. . Between 1866 and 1884 turf prices per Hunt freely delivered rose from ℳ 60 (in 1866 still Thl. 20 circa) to ℳ 72.200 Jahre Schlußdorf 1800–2000: Festschrift zur 200-Jahr-Feier der Ortschaft Schlußdorf, Heimatverein Schlußdorf (ed.), Worpswede: Worpswede municipality, 2000, p. 32. No ISBN. Selling fuel turf remained a main source of revenues for mire farmers till the begin of the 20th century, when modern fertilising sharply increased the harvests. Fuel turf experienced a last boom in demand by the end of the Second World War and in the immediate postwar years.Karsten Müller-Scheeßel, „Die wirtschaftlichen Grundlagen der Findorff-Siedlungen im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert: Landwirtschaft und Torfhandel“, in: Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch, Wolfgang Konukiewitz und Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 147–169, here p. 169. . For their own requirements some mire farmers continued heating with fuel turf until the late 1960s.

All the 20 villages newly founded between 1751 and 1808 stretch as linear settlements along a ramrod straight causeway thrown up from material dug out from the drainage ditches running parallelly.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch, Wolfgang Konukiewitz und Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 119. . The intermediate (fiscal authority supervising and controlling the royal-electoral demesnes) and the provincial Bremen-Verden government in Stade paid for their part the main causeways in each village.

The colonists, again, had to maintain them and to build and to maintain connecting causeways (, i.e. communication dams) between the villages on their own, as well as all the hydraulic installations (drainage ditches, navigable canals, dikes, weirs, and bridgesJohannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch, Wolfgang Konukiewitz und Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 98. .), to which each colonist had to commit in a contract with the mire commission.200 Jahre Schlußdorf 1800–2000: Festschrift zur 200-Jahr-Feier der Ortschaft Schlußdorf, Heimatverein Schlußdorf (ed.), Worpswede: Worpswede municipality, 2000, pp. 25seq. No ISBN. All royal-electoral causeways were open to everyone for the public good. Such causeways lacked soil compaction and pavement and were thus impassable for wayns and often even for horses, so inhabitants mostly walked them by foot using – if necessary – wheelbarrows for transport.

In rainy seasons or at seasonal floods the ways turned completely impassable, sometimes for days. In the beginning 30 villages in the Teufelsmoor were only connected by watercourses with 20 villages in the eastern mire part linked through the Wörpe and its tributaries, entering the Wümme.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch, Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 101. . Until the regulation of the river Wörpe in 1860 the rather narrower navigable watercourses in its drainage basin only allowed -Hunt barges, thereafter then -Hunt barges.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch, Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here pp. 115seq. . Hardly a farmer in the drained mire had a horse,The drained mire with its villages was partitioned among four adjacent administrative districts (then in ), in 1824 no mire farmer in the owned a horse, in the every sixth mire farmer had a horse, while in the every third mire inhabitant kept a horse, whereas in the two thirds of the colonists owned at least one horse. Cf. Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Gebäude der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch, Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 125–146, here p. 127. . in Schlussdorf e.g. no family had a horse in 1828,200 Jahre Schlußdorf 1800–2000: Festschrift zur 200-Jahr-Feier der Ortschaft Schlußdorf, Heimatverein Schlußdorf (ed.), Worpswede: Worpswede municipality, 2000, p. 28. No ISBN. they were useless lacking made roads. However, Schlussdorfers had some horned cattle reaching a livestock hardly securing their living only in the second generation. A situation accounted for by the traditional local rhyming saying: Den Eersten sien Dood, den Tweeten sien Nood, den Drütten sien Brood (Northern Low Saxon for: Unto the first his death, unto the second his need, unto the third his bread).