The history of the Schießl-Hof
The Schießl, Winkler, and Ruhland families
The Schießl-Hof was owned by the Schießl family at least since the year 1712. Johann Georg (until 1712), Jacob (until 1747), and Daniel Schießl (until 1792) were farmers and also held the office of mayor in Neukirchen-Balbini. In 1792, their nephew Paul Winkler from Etzmannsried took over the farm. He was succeeded by Frank Winkler (married to Anna Maria Mayer from Fuhrn), between 1821 and 1954, and by Johann Winkler (married to Catharina Brandl from Haslarn), between 1854 and 1882. In 1882, Johann’s daughter Anna Maria Winkler received the farm before marrying Stephan Ruhland from Rackelsdorf in 1885. After her husband’s death in 1912, she managed the farm by herself until 1930, when she gave it to her son Johann Ruhland (1900–1995). In 1930, Johann married Barbara Winkler (1902–1942) from Großenzenried. The couple had two daughters: Maria (1932–2010) and Anna Katharina (1940–2016). In 1946, Johann Ruhland married Maria Plößl in his second marriage, who bore him three sons: Johann Baptist (1946–1947), Peter (1948–2015), and Karl (1951–1957). Karl drowned in the farm’s cesspool in 1957. In 1970/71, Johann Ruhland relocated his farm to the outskirts of the village, and in the following year, he handed it over to his son Peter. Johann and Maria Ruhland continued to live in the Schießl-Hof. After his mother’s death in 1999, the unmarried Peter Ruhland inherited the Schießl-Hof, which remained vacant afterwards. In October 2014, he sold the dilapidated farm to the market community Neukirchen-Balbini.
Building history
The dwelling house is a rectangular single-storey building with living quarters and stables, with half-hip roof in traditional massive construction. In the attic, there is one room, a timber board lounge built in clay or clay bricks partially partitioned by timber framing. The house has a saddle roof with purlin attic as well as two old chimneys. A basement extends under part of the building, housing a well, and from this medieval vaulted cellar, an Erdstall branches off. Up until 2019, the building had no bathroom or toilet. Other parts of the farm are an annexe built in 1872 (formerly a stable for sheep and horses), since 1952 with a room above it, a vaulted stable from the year 1872 as well as a barn from the year 1841 with an old beer cellar. The outhouse was in the yard, next to the cesspool. There were two stoves, in the kitchen and in the living room, as well as two cold water connections in the house.
At least three times the Schießl-Hof burned down: 1779, 1797, and 1841. After the last conflagration, the new building was built a little distance away from the original one. On a beam in the barn, the inscription ‘F1841W’ (shorthand symbol for Franz Winkler) can still be seen today. In 1872, the stable was rebuilt, and in its lintel, there is the inscription ‘18JW72’ (for Johann Winkler). Three further structural reconstructions are documented in building plans in the Staatsarchiv Amberg: In 1880, a living room was added, in 1939, a knee wall was erected over the stable, and in 1952, the horse stable was enlarged and a room installed above it. After World War II, only small improvements were carried out. Wooden coupled windows with sills were put in, while at the beginning of the 1960s, some of the interior doors were replaced, and the internal floor was covered with terrazzo tiles.
Maria Stubenrauch, née Ruhland (1932–2010). (Photo: privately owned)
Wedding photo of Johann and Barbara Ruhland, 1930. (Photo: privately owned)
The Schießl-Hof in the mid-1950s. (Photo: privately owned)
Two sisters of Johann Ruhland, about 1910. (Photo: privately owned)
Johann Ruhland in the cellar, 1978.
(Photo: Theo Männer)Brewing rights
The Schießl-Hof was subject to communal brewing rights. Those licensed to do so were allowed to have their beer brewed in the communal brewing house. The 1842 register of the citizens of Neukirchen-Balbini exercising their brewing rights, says:
‘Ökonomiebürger Franz Winkler: one living room with four windows, 20 ½ [feet] long, 20ʼ wide, 8ʼ high, also a small dining room 11 ½ʼ long, 11 ½ʼ wide, 7ʼ high; owns 1656 litres of barrels, which perished in last year’s fire. In the house, a utility cellar 15 long, 10 ½ wide, 7 high; next to it, a storage cellar, in which potatoes are stored 19 ½ long, 15 wide, 7 ½ high. Beneath the barn; a front and fermenting cellar 10ʼ long, 14ʼ wide, 8 ½ high; next to it, a beer cellar 25ʼ long, 14ʼ wide, 8ʼ high.’
Disrepair and preservation of the estate
In 2003, Peter Ruhland filed an application to tear down the dilapidated dwelling house. The municipal council approved unanimously in a meeting on 12 January 2004, provided that any new building fitted in with the general appearance of the village. The district administration agreed in October 2004, but ruled that in addition both the vaulted cellar with the Erdstall and the stable with its Bohemian vault must be preserved. The project then came to nothing.
In 2010, local cultural guardian Karl-Heinz Probst suggested in the working group Ortsbild und Landschaft, ländliche Entwicklung (‘Townscape and Landscape, Rural Development’) that the village ought to try to buy the Schießl estate which had been vacant since 1999 and to use it for cultural purposes (museum, community archive etc.). The municipal council applauded this notion. In October 2014, the market community bought the listed house, its three adjoining buildings, as well as the ground they stand on for €50,000. Extensive and difficult discussions and negotiations commenced regarding plans to revitalise the estate, an utilisation concept, and funding.
Financing
The restoration and conversion of the estate into the Erdstall Research Centre was co-financed by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Free State of Bavaria. The project had a cost volume of about three million Euros and was to serve the sustainable development of functional space. Other funding bodies are the Entschädigungsfonds zur Förderung denkmalpflegerischer Maßnahmen (‘Compensation Fund in Support of Projects in Monument Preservation’), the Bayerische Landesstiftung, the district Upper Palatinate (Bavaria), and the rural district Schwandorf. Construction began in June 2017. In autumn of 2019, the Schießl-Hof – Erdstallforschungszentrum mit archäologischer Dokumentation (‘Erdstall Research Centre with Archaeological Documentation’) was opened.
The Schießl-Hof in the 1980s. (Photo: unknown)
Building plans for the installation of a living room, 1880. (Source: Staatsarchiv Amberg)
Anna Spießl (née Ruhland), Johann and Maria Ruhland as well as Peter Ruhland, 1984. (Photo: privately owned)
Johann Ruhland with honourary citizens of the market community Neukirchen-Balbini, 1988. (Photo: unknown)
The dilapidated condition of the Schießl-Hof in 2014. (Photos: Karl-Heinz Probst