The Parish Barn @museum.de

F: Welcome to the Parish Barn. And while you're here: how about doing some laundry?

M: Short programme, delicates, spin cycle – none of that existed around 100 years ago. Back then, laundry was still exhausting manual labour. Not something you could sort out in passing. Instead, you needed a detailed plan – and above all, plenty of time. Because the laundry usually took several days.

F: So it's hardly surprising that people did the laundry as infrequently as possible. After all, the women also had to do the cooking, care for the animals and work in the fields. So the laundry was usually done only once every four weeks – or even less often. In rural areas, there were traditional dates on which a "big wash" would be done – usually around Easter and Whitsun, between haymaking and grain harvests, and before Thanksgiving and the parish fair.

M: It all started on the preceding evening, when the big copper was fired up to heat the water. We have a copper on display by the wall on the right. Do you see the small flap at the base? That's where you lit the fire and later cleared out the ashes. Next to the copper, you can see washboards, wash tubs for soaking the laundry and, of course, the famous washing dolly, which was used to agitate the laundry in the copper.

F: Technical innovations improved the process. For example, the "Electric Washing Machine Number 45" made by Miele in 1930.

M: The washing machine didn't yet have its own heater element, and the hot suds had to be poured in manually, but the agitator was operated by a starting motor. Since Germany didn't have standardised electricity grids at the time, the model was separately available for three-phase current, alternating current and direct current. If you'd like to see the Miele washing machine in operation, simply click on "video" at the top of your display.