Hi- very interesting conversation. Thanks for sharing your work on this DL.

One of my earliest exposures to timber framing was being allowed to work a summer for my uncle in Rothenburg o.d.t. (southern Baden Wurttemburg) conserving old frames there, ca 1982. I was a complete novice but managed to learn a few things through osmosis.
In Jan. 2004 I spent a month in Rottweil, via the TFG, studying at the carpenter's school there. It was like coming home.

One of the things I recall learning about the evolution of German close studded frame style was that the German carpenters I worked with and learned from were sure the style developed partly to facilitate easier handling and raising in crowded village conditions. Maneuvering large timbers through town and up multiple stories was not fun, so they figured out ways to make their lives easier. As my uncle said, "we need to save time at the end of the day for beer" (though one of my primary jobs was fetching beet for morning break and lunch for the crew..)

In Rottweil, one of the carpenters there relayed an old rule of thumb turned into a saying. I'll paraphrase: "travelling long distances is to be avoided, whether it's with mothers-in-law or loads". This by way of explanation for German leaning studs, which very effectively pass wind loads to sills. North American frames, by virtue of knee braces, require the wind load to pass all the way across the frame before a brace goes in to compression, where it puts a moment on the post. It works, but is less structurally efficient.

It was also in Rottweil that I was exposed to a book called "Das Bauernhaus in Deutschland". I managed to get my hands on a reference copy from the Wisconsin library system and copied a bunch of it. It appears to be one of a series of 3: the other 2 are from Osterreich and Schweiz. Originally published in 1903 it documented thoroughly many, many ancient frames from across Germany. Many of these are gone now. If you can find this book I think you'd enjoy it.