The House Signs @museum.de

F: They look rather like runes. But they aren't letters of an alphabet; they're symbols of ownership and identifying marks – what's known as house signs.

M: In the old days here in the Ammerland, each farmstead had its own house sign. They identified the farm... and of course also the residents. Carved into the timber-frame of the house, into cupboards, chests and even into the pews at church, they indicated who lived here, who owned something or what an individual's proper place was. They're even found on the tombstones of old family graves.

F: In the days when very few people were able to read and write, the house signs were essential. They served as a kind of seal or stamp for the family in question. House signs were even used to sign wills, contracts or promissory notes. They only disappeared from written correspondence when the level of literacy increased.

M: In the first half of the 20th century, Heinrich Sandstede, one of the Open Air Museum's founders, collected and researched house signs from all the Ammerland parishes. Feel free to take a moment to examine them. Perhaps you find one of the signs especially appealing?

F: How about Dierk Diercks from Burgfelde, for example? Or Johann Schmidt from Westerloy? Or Arendt Stindt from the parish of Zwischenahn?

M: Take a look at the panels and be inspired. If you had a house sign – what would it look like?