The Dweersack/Semi-Detached House @museum.de

F: Turn two into one!

M: That's what the Ammerland farmers must have thought when they came up with the "Dweersack". In Low German, "dweer" means "twin" and the dweersack is a kind of semi-detached house: two back-to-back hirelings' houses.

F: Take a moment to walk around this handsome property. You'll notice that it presents two identical faces to the world. Both narrow sides feature the classic double door, the grootdör, which leads straight into the hall, then to the hearth fire and the low-pitched rooms beneath the eaves, and finally into a modest living area.

M: Now take a closer look at the great door and its typical features:

The vertical post in the middle between the two door panels is called a "Düssel". The massive beam that runs horizontally at floor level is called the "Süll" – the sill. So if you enter through the great door and want to avoid tripping, you need to step up. But both the upright door post and the horizontal sill could be removed, so a fully loaded cart or spring wagon could easily pass through.

F: And to ensure that the wagon didn't hit the sides and perhaps damage the door frame, two handsomely carved buffers, called Aflöper, are built into the frame at the level of the axles.

M: As in the case of the farmhouse, the area immediately in front of the great door is paved with natural stone, and the entire building rests on large field stones.

F: If you look at your screen now, you'll see a historical floor plan of the building. Imagine a line down the centre, and you'll see that the two sides are mirror images of one another.

M: The great doors are on the right and left; they give access to the building. At the far end of the hall is the hearth, and the room on the left is in one home...

F: ... while its mirror image is in the other one. So two hireling families lived in separate spaces, but still under one roof.