So I just asked my dad about how they heated on their little rural farm in Germany when he was a kid (30s-40s).
They couldn't afford coal - that was for rich city slickers. Their little town actually hired guys or used jailbirds the few times they had them, to go into the forest and chop wood, then it would be piled up in town and sold to residents. You paid for actual logs, but could take all the small branches and "waste wood" you wanted for free to use as kindling, etc.
He said there was nothing to keep people from going into the woods and chopping their own wood other than everyone was already busy working 16 hours a day to keep themselves in food, and the wood the town sold was cheap enough your time was better spent doing other work.
My inquiry also caused him to remember that they supplemented the wood with peat. They would go into the forest and dig that up themselves, then shape it into blocks and dry it in the sun.
They had the one wood cooking stove placed at the edge of the kitchen by the living room. It heated what it heated. They slept upstairs, and he said even just leaving a bedroom window open a crack (for the carbon monoxide - Hi Mike!
) would often leave ice crystals around your nose and mouth when you woke up in the morning. Then you'd hurry downstairs to warm up. :)
