Since 2007, Friederike Seedorf has been thatching roofs in Upper Franconia using the traditional thatching technique (“Schabtechnik”). This makes her the only craftswoman in her region to have the necessary material and process expertise for a type of roof that has become rare today, but was once characteristic of the region. Thatching was particularly widespread among Franconian weavers due to the low-cost raw material.
Friederike has lived in a farmhouse since 2007, first in a shared flat and later with her husband, where the roofs are traditionally thatched using the bale technique (Schabtechnik). At some point, these began to leak and Friederike started to teach herself the technique of trough roofing. She is probably the only person in the region who has mastered this type of roofing and the necessary processing of the raw material, winter rye.
Born and raised in Karl-Marx-Stadt/GDR in the 1970s, she moved to rural Upper Franconia to work in the aforementioned farmhouse. After working on and learning from several thatched roof projects, she decided to offer thatched roofing professionally in 2017 and set up her own business. Her clients come from all over Germany, mostly owners of existing thatched roofs or open-air museums who utilise her services.
For Friederike Seedorf, the smell and colour of a thatched roof are a very special quality.
The complete production of a thatched roof consists of various stages that follow one another with longer breaks which are mainly determined by natural processes. Firstly, the raw material, the rye, must be sown and harvested by the farmer. It is then tied into sheaves in the field and, after initial drying, taken to the barn for threshing. The entire harvest is threshed over the winter, which takes around four months.
The following year, the straw is tied into bales ( “Schaben” - special straw bundles). The finished straw bundles are then used for roofing using the so-called scraping technique (Schabtechnik). No further aids such as fastening wire or similar are needed for the scraping technique, the individual scrapes are pushed into each other so that they hold themselves on the roof. The roofing work itself is then no longer very time-consuming.
A thatched roof lasts around 25 years. The raw material, winter rye straw, is actually “waste” from cereal cultivation. By using it as a roof covering, the entire plant is utilised and, thanks to the scraping technique, there is no waste. Even on the roof, the straw “Schaben” hold each other in place and do not require any nails, wires or the like for fastening.