Basel 2023, Switzerland

The Schneiderhof is a farm museum in Kirchhausen. It was built in Kirchhausen in 1696 and is a Black Forest house, a high column house in the foothills.

Miss Berta Schneider ran the farm alone until 1985. Due to their frugal and simple lifestyle, the property has remained in its original condition for almost a century. Throughout her life, Berta was content with the circumstances of her childhood. "Mir längt's! 'S goht au soo!“ (For me it’s enough, it works like it is!). She was satisfied with herself and her "ever smaller world".

However, the property was now in a desolate condition and so the Endenburg local council decided as early as 1985 that the building must be preserved for posterity in view of its uniqueness and cultural and historical value. A corresponding association was founded. The state monument office classified the farm as a cultural monument of particular importance, and there is increased public interest in its preservation.

Berta Schneider died in 1986 at the age of 91.

In 1987 the non-profit "Association for the Preservation of the Schneiderhof in Kirchhausen e.V." (over 250 members from all over the region), who acquired the property from the community of heirs in the same year with the help of an interest-free loan from the municipality of Steinen. In the following 9 years, a hard core of the association put the dilapidated farmstead back into its original condition. Most of the work was done in-house (over 20,000 unpaid manual hours), some required the help of specialist companies.

Today, the Schneiderhof gives its visitors a clear picture of how our ancestors lived and worked. When the guest crosses the threshold of the house, he feels transported back to earlier times. One has the impression that the farm is alive and the farmers are just out in the fields. The Schneiderhof is furnished down to the smallest detail as it was when Berta was alive - nothing reminds you of a museum in the usual sense!Read more