Paper short abstract:

Based upon historic and present examples the paper asks how cohabitation of man and livestock was and is organised in stables of Northwestern Lower Saxony.It is about which needs of animals and human beings stables had and have to satisfy and which ideas formed and form agricultural cohabitation in buildings.

Paper long abstract:

The German centre of meat production is located in the Northwest of Lower Saxony. This kind of "industry", including firms and farms that breed and fatten poultry and pigs, concentrates in the counties of Cloppenburg und Vechta. Cattle is kept particularly along the coast for dairy farming. According to this there are many stables, new ones as well as older ones. Livestock has been kept here for centuries as part of subsistence farming. Only the import of feedingstuff from abroad and the connection with the customers via railway since the late 19th century made this kind of livestock-based "finishing economy" possible.

This development materializes in building of stables: In the traditional farmhouses human beings and livestock lived beneath one roof, a very few do so still today. Certain animal species were separated in special buildings already in early days, other species stayed housemates of the farmer's family for a long time. New built stables places the livestock strictly separated from human beings.

Based upon historic and present examples the paper backtraces this development asking how cohabitation of man and livestock was and is organised referring to groundplan disposition as well as to technical means. Furthermore it is about which needs of animals and human beings stables had and have to satisfy and which ideas formed and form agricultural cohabitation in buildings.