Klockenhagen -- Sieverhagen Baking House

The Sieverhagen Baking House was built in 1764 (rural district of Bad Doberan). It was employed as a baking house for the Sievershagen farmstead VIII, until the middle of the 20th century.

Construction - Half-timbered building with plastered clay noggings, tamped clay flooring, thatched roof (out of rush).

Functional layout - The building is divided into two sections: the baking room, and the hearth which is located under the rood sledge. Neither the baking room, nor the hearth contain a chimney. Next to the hearth opening there is a smoke hole serving to regulate the temperature. After the hearth has been heated, the ashes were removed, the oven was cleaned, and the bread was then placed into the oven.

A family normally baked bread every 3-4 weeks in the summer; every 5-6 weeks in the winter. A typical baking would be 50 loaves at a time. Multiple women were involved in the process. The ingredients were kneaded in a large trough, and the mixture was made into loaves. The oven was heated with wood until the red bricks in the oven hearth turned white.  The loaves were shoved into the oven on paddles, and then removed with a puller paddle. The type of bread made was usually rye bread.

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Outside of the bakery building (Photo courtesy of the Swansons)	Description of the Baking House	Outside view of the oven -- is covered with a slanted roof
Oven paddles hanging on wall (Photo courtesy of the Swansons)	The oven -- note paddled handles used to insert and remove bread from oven	Paddles used in the oven (Photo courtesy of the Swansons)
Mixing trough where bread was kneaded	Baked bread was placed on board - broken bottle tops used on ropes to discourage mice from climbing ropes to bread	Trough used to mix bread ingredients
Description of baking utensils and process	Reed straw used for roofing -- roof could last 70 years; peak replaced every two years