SPIEGEL Blog
January 31, 2007
SourceThe roofs on the pretty thatched cottages that dot the landscape in Northern Germany normally last decades, if not centuries. But recently they have been rotting faster than usual. The owners are scratching their heads looking for the possible cause: climate change, dodgy reeds, or a roof-munching fungus?
Owners of thatched cottages that dot the landscape of northern Germany are worried about their unique homes. Normally thatched roofs last for decades, sometimes even centuries, but recently the picturesque roofs have started to rot much earlier than usual.
The reeds that are used to thatch the roofs are usually imported from Eastern Europe and Turkey. The first indication that the thatch is rotting comes when these reeds start to give off a nasty mouldy smell. When this happens the final result is the entire roof degenerating into a mass of smelly white, black or green sludge. "It's like BSE for thatched roofs," says one owner.
So far there has been no independent scientific examination of the phenomenon affecting these unusual roofs, which can also be found in Denmark and the Netherlands. One potential cause is that the roofs could have been affected by changed environmental conditions, another suggestion is that some of the reeds that have been delivered were defective.
The physicist Ulrich Schaefer from the town of Quern in Schleswig-Holstein is one of the unfortunate owners of a rotting thatched roof. He thinks there could be another reason for the mouldy reeds. His theory? That the damage is caused by a cellulose-chomping fungus from Eastern Europe, which was originally developed for the paper industry, and which may have somehow leaked out.
smd