Erntefest Museumsdorf Volksdorf

Hamburg's Farm in the North

The Museumsdorf Volksdorf is located on the northern outskirts of Hamburg, in the Wandsbek district, at the terminus of the U1 subway line. On about ten hectares, thatched-roof farmhouses, a water mill, a forge, workshops, and a historic kitchen garden preserve old rural Hamburg. During the Harvest Festival, it becomes a working farm again for one day.

Program in the Garden and Outbuildings

Old varieties are harvested in the kitchen garden and displayed on long tables — kohlrabi varieties, old carrot types, runner beans, pumpkins, medicinal plants. Visitors can taste and buy. In the historic bakehouse, fresh bread is baked in the wood-fired oven and sold on-site. There is also beer from a regional brewery, cake from the communal oven, and small market stalls with regional products.

Animals, Workshops, Demonstrations

The farm animals — sheep, goats, chickens, pigs — are presented, and children can help the animal keepers or feed the animals. Craftsmen work live in the workshops: blacksmith, shoemaker, wheelwright, and the miller in the water mill. It is less a reenactment than a demonstration of how a North German farm worked a hundred years ago.

Wandsbek District, Volksdorf Quarter

Volksdorf is part of the Walddörfer — a series of historically rural districts in the northeast of Hamburg that were incorporated into the city in the 1930s. The open-air museum has been supported since 1965 by the association "De Spieker," which is dedicated to preserving Vier- und Marschlande architecture and North German agricultural history.