Peasants Threshing Wheat (1904)

This 1904 photograph documents a key activity in rural German life, even in the early twentieth century: threshing wheat. Before the age of mechanization, threshing wheat was a collective effort in which workers of all ages participated. In the image below, several children look on as two men (standing in the archway of the barn) beat the wheat husks to separate the grain from the straw. Photo: F. Schäffer.

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© Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz