The country in the immediate vicinity of the cities was kept entirely bare, so that the approach of an enemy might be easily observed. The sense of security which the citizen of those days derived from his deep ditches, high walls, iron gratings, and strong doors was his compensation for the loss of the beauties of Nature which we enhance and admire around our cities. But then, as in earlier times, peace, liberty, and joy were found only within the enclosure; outside prevailed feuds, bondage, and oppression. That any person should walk forth from the city-gates from mere love of Nature was unheard of before the close of the sixteenth century, although appreciation of natural beauty was deeply rooted in the German heart.
But even in the cities pewee did not always reign. The inequality of rights, the tyranny of the upper classes, and other causes often dis turbed the peaceful relations of the citizens. The fourteenth century was a period of general commotion. In Nuremberg, for example, the oligarchy of nobles had been expelled by the guilds, and their restora tion was effected only by the interference of the emperor. To provide for such contingencies and to have a place of security, almost every prominent family built outside the city a private fort or castle, called the Woherhaus (house of refuge), one of the largest of which is represented on Plate 39 (fig. 7).
The streets of the mediaeval cities were narrow and crooked, as is shown by the older part of the city of Nuremberg (fig. 5), on the right bank of the river. It is to be remembered that the broad road leading to the castle was constructed at a later date, partly through cemeteries and convent-grounds. Nuremberg was the first city to have paved streets, but that was after the beginning of its modern history. The cemeteries were removed outside the city in the beginning of the six teenth century.
The custom usually followed in the establishment of the older cities permitted each citizen not only to select the site of his dwelling, but also to erect it according to individual taste and means, enjoining merely the most general conformation to the prevailing style of architecture. The result is a picturesque, or rather historical, appearance in which each frag ment tells its own story. Quite different is the case with the settlements of the preceding century, like Mannheim (fig. 8), Carlsruhe, Erlangen, etc. Built by royal commands, the streets are as straight as line and level can make them, the houses as uniform as a pattern.
the space of almost five centuries in the Middle Ages domiciliary architecture made no progress. Only very gradually did the public buildings begin, after the churches, to acquire a stately appearance. In dwelling-houses the rafters gradually gave place to cross-beams in the construction of roofs. In the thirteenth and four teenth centuries most of the houses in the larger cities were still built of wood. After Dresden had been almost entirely destroyed by fire in the year 1491, a law was made requiring the corner houses to be entirely of stone, intervening buildings to have at least one story of that material, and the roofs of all to be covered with tiles instead of the customary shingles or straw. The earliest mention of a hut built of bricks is of one at Gorlitz in 1358.
As late as the thirteenth century even city houses were arranged for agricultural purposes. There are but few remains of the buildings of that date, but the construction of the peasants' houses in Lower Saxony gives an idea of them. These, contrary to generally accepted opinions regarding them, have not attained their form by a peculiar development but have rather halted at a primitive stage which has fully sufficed for their purpose. Such houses consist of a single large apartment, which, though without a partition, is divided into two unequal parts serving very dissimilar purposes. The smaller, supplied with an entrance on each side and a hearth in the centre, serves for the reunion of the family after the day's work is done. The other portion, with its large entrance iu front of the house, is used exclusively as a barn. The wagon laden with grain is driven through its wide entrance, and the grain is threshed on the floor and stowed away in the ample attic. At each end are stalls for cattle, over which are the feed-rooms extending to the roof. Back of the hearth we now usually find several additional apartments which formerly may have existed only in the more luxurious dwellings: a room for the resort of the master of the house on Sundays, and bed-chambers for the mem bers of the family, while the servants occupied rooms beside and above the stalls. The lofty garret constitutes an important part of the house; it was intended for the reception of the year's harvest and for the stores of the family during the long winter.