The former House Lahde No. 70 had been renumbered after WWII and the streets got names. The street at the Aue-Creek - the "Beeke" as it is called by the people - was called "Unter der Beeke" by the administration. This means "Under the Creek" and is pure rubbish - nobody in Lahde lives underneath any river or creek . The old name of that street was "Ünnerbeeke"; the correct translation to geel ("high german") thus would have been "Unterbeeke" (Lower Beeke). But - tempi passati - try to change an error of an administration...
The house was then called "Unter der Beeke 3". My
grandparents lived there until they died. The house was renovated
already in 1868 but it was modernized in
the 1950ies. The front had been changed then and the typical gate and
entrance dissapeared. It was replaced by a standard "modern"
entrance. Fortunately my grandparents kept the old oak-crossbeam
which was the lintel of the entrance.
The following picture from
1979 shows the state of the house after the renovation in the 50ies
and shortly before the restauration in 1979. Please note that the
gabled roof does not finish straight down but is bent forward and
round - a "Rundgiebel" (round gable). This is
typically for houses of this region - and only of this region.
(Falling verticals are due to the camera's lens)
My parents renovated the house and decided to restore the old front of the house and to reintegrate the old oak lintel. The works began in 1980. (This was a little bit complicated because my parents lived in abroad at that time and the works could only be conducted during holidays.) The works were finished in 1981 and on this picture you see the state of 2003. In front of the house are my parents:
Note the old oak-crossbeam over the entrance. The inscription reads: " No. 70. Ernst Friedrich Vahlsing und Wilhelmine Loinse Saxowsky. Erbauet den ... ten Juli 1868.":
This is an older picture of 1979 again. The view is along the street "Unter der Beke" in direction west towards the combined water- and windmill, which you can see in the background. This type of mill is really a rarity in Germany. On the left side (south) - behind the trees - is the Beeke (Aue):
A slight turn further to the left (south) shows the Beeke (Aue). In this case it is the flood from the New Year evening 2002/2003. This was great fun to the children - and not only children - because the water froze and afterwards there was a perfect plain for ice-skating:
The flat land behind the Beeke - in southerly direction - was land that was flooded by the Weser river before they built dikes in the 1930ies. Now it is used by agriculture or by gravel pits. In the background of this picture you can see the mill from south west:
If you are interested in more pictures of Lahde and that region I suggest that you take a look at the homepage of H.-H. Hoelscher, the pastor of the Lahde church.