Oil by mill
| Oil by mill
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 Current situation at the former mill location with residential building from the 1920s, on the west side of which an old city coat of arms with the inscription "1522" is embedded. In the foreground the old course of the Oker in front of the new Ölper weir in the 1970s. |
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| Location and history | |
| Coordinates | 52 ° 17 ′ 21 ″ N , 10 ° 29 ′ 56 ″ E |
| Location | Lower Saxony , Braunschweig , district of Ölper |
| Waters | Oker |
| Built | First mentioned in 1388 |
| Shut down | 1859 |
| Status | Canceled |
| technology | |
| use | Grain and commercial mills |
| drive | Watermill |
| water wheel | Inferior |
The Ölper Mühle was a water mill in the Braunschweig district of Ölper , which comprised two powerful, multi-course grain mills and three mills for other trades for 450 years until the middle of the 19th century. After that, an excursion restaurant and after 1945 a nightclub were located on the site. Today, in addition to the street names Ölpermühle and Am Mühlengraben , old weir systems and a striking residential building near the Ölper Weir point to the mill location.
Location of the mill site
Ölper is located north of the Braunschweig core city on the west bank of the Oker , which has formed floodplains in the sandy terrain. The Oil Persee has been stretching east of the town since the 1970s . The mill is located on the northeastern edge of the village center at the Ölper Wehr, when the new course of the Oker was relocated around 20 meters further east. The old course of the Ölper weir, including the stone bank fortifications, is still present and is spanned by the historic wooden weir system.
On the west and east banks of the former main stream there was a building for the grain mills and on the side stream branching off upstream to the west up to three further mills, which over the centuries were used as powder, punch, grinding, trowel and finally fulling mills were used. The branch to the west was completely filled in in 1891. At the original location of the fulling mill, a multi-storey building was built in the 1920s, on which the Brunswick city coat of arms of the mill with the year 1552 is embedded.
At the old weir, the upstream water for the mills was dammed, while the water volume was regulated by the free flood weir " Pfläcknis " located further upstream . Parts of this free flood weir are still preserved today, which, like the main weir, have been listed as a monument since 2003. The historic weir was extensively renovated in 2008. The Oker area between the free flood weir and the historic Ölper weir, known as the Mühlengraben, is also a listed building.
The operation of barges has been handed down on the Oker below Braunschweig, which is why either a lock or a reloading station should have been available at one of the two weirs. However, this is not expressly passed down. The trade connection between Braunschweig and Bremen, now known as Celler Heerstraße, ran through the town, which also made the farming village very well connected to the Braunschweig city by land.
Municipal mill administration
The Ölper Mühle came into the possession of the city of Braunschweig in 1388 and was mentioned in a document as a mole in elbere . Since the 14th century, Ölper had been the north-western border of the Braunschweig Landwehr and, like the mill site in Eisenbüttel, was under the administration of the Braunschweig city council. The section of the Landwehr between the Raffurm and Ölper belonged to the jurisdiction of the Neustadt .
The city councils appointed a mill owner for the mill administration, who supervised the commissioned millers and the operation of the mills. All Braunschweig mills were located on the Oker, so that the damming heights at the weirs had to be coordinated in such a way that as many mills as possible could be operated smoothly. At the weir in Eisenbüttel, a marker on a Heidt stake in the water indicated the water level up to which it was allowed to grind . Such a stake has also come down to us for the Ölper Mühle. Flood risks downstream were reported, said Müller were obliged to open the outdoor flood or military shooter pull.
Flour mills
power
In the medieval core town of Braunschweig, eight multi-course mills were operated on the branching Oker. In the 18th century there were still six: the Südmühle with six, Agidienmühle with four, Damm-Mühle with five, Burgmühle with four, Wendenmühle with five and the Neustadtmühle with six gears. Within the Landwehr there was still the mill in Eisenbüttel with five grinding courses.
The Ölper Mühle served as a grinding and grist mill for bakers and brewers. The front mill on the west bank had six, the rear mill on the east bank had five grinding courses. With a total of eleven aisles, both represented the most efficient location among the municipal mills and in 1579 were called the most prestigious mill. Between 1754 and 1756, the grinding capacity of urban baker's grain alone was an average of 156 bison wheat and 295 bison rye.
Income of the miller
- Mahlzise
In the past, the miller received a share of the ground grain as a meal wages , also called Mahlzise . The meal wages were called Mette and initially actually delivered to the miller in the form of flour. Later, the payment was made by the city's customs clerk on the wool market in a bureaucratic way: a citizen of the city had to buy a Metteteken with the city's coat of arms on which the amount of grain to be ground was noted. He also needed a pass from the Packhof , which also stated the amount of grain. With this pass he was allowed to take his grain out of the Neustadttor. He gave the Metteteken to the miller, who put it in his Zisekiste and confirmed the amount of the ground grain on the pass. This in turn authorized the meal guest to import his grain into the city walls, where he handed the pass to the gatekeeper, who forwarded it to the customs office. The miller in turn redeemed his Metteteks once a week at the customs clerk for good money. This procedure was intended to ensure accurate payment and avoid business of the miller bypassing the council.
- Peasant grain
The farmers around the mill did not need Metteteks if they wanted to have their grain ground . But the miller also had to report these services to the city and was only allowed to use two grinding courses for the farmer's grain. Later, the miller was given the right to grind the farmer's grain without additional taxes.
- Bar
Another additional income was the serving of beer. Between May 1735 and September 1736, for example, 83 half barrels were handed out at Ölper Müller. In 1784 the miller should limit the serving of schnapps to one glass per meal guest.
- Agriculture
For the miller in Ölper it is noted in 1713 that he employed two male servants, two apprentices, a farm hand, a middle male, three maids and a small maid. In addition, grazing rights for eight cows have been handed down. In the site plan from 1844 there is a stable and a barn.
Fall of the mills
Since the middle of the 18th century, the millers complained not only about the poor state of construction of the mills, but also about the declining grinding capacity. In 1826 the fifth grinding course of the eastern flour mill is already unusable and the performance of the sixth grinding course on the left bank was negligible compared to the others. The decrease in grinding capacity was probably due to the silting up above the weir and the silting up in the lower reaches. The sedimentation above the weirs is still a problem today. The underflow from Ölper was subject to major changes at that time, so that increased sand deposits are conceivable. In fact, from 1815, considerations have been handed down to straighten the lower course and ensure a faster drainage. This failed not only because of the costs, but also because of the objections of the Veltenhöfer farmers, whose rich hay harvest was dependent on flooded meadows and who feared that they would dry out due to faster runoff. In the late 19th century there were also technical changes in the Braunschweig area, as more and more windmills were used and steam mills were operated at the Neustadtmühle in Braunschweig and in Rüningen . The operation of watermills, on the other hand, became increasingly uneconomical.
The mill site was sold by the city of Braunschweig to the sovereign in 1859 and the mill was stopped.
Commercial mills
In addition to the two grain mills, other mill uses at the location of the later fulling mill have been handed down:
- In 1534 a powder mill was operated by Hans Trümper.
- Another powder mill is set up in 1562.
- A sawmill is mentioned in 1592 , which was destroyed in the war in 1598 and rebuilt in the 17th century,
- later a copper and grinding mill is set up.
- In 1612, a paper mill was operated for the first time , producing paper from rags, which the city council of Braunschweig was supplied with.
- In 1616 the first mill for tanners , a so-called bark or tan mill, is mentioned. This extracts the tan necessary for leather tanning from the oak tree bark.
- The first fulling mill for felting wool was built in the 17th century.
- In 1745, three mills were in operation on the Nebengraben: one for the sheet makers, one for the tanners and a boke mill for the ropers to crush the hemp fibers. The tanner mill for the tanners can only be operated when the water level is full.
- In 1808 the three mills were taken over by merchants from the cloth making industry who set up a factory there.
- In 1815 the third mill, the Bokemühle, was given up by the rope makers.
- In 1829 the cloth manufacturer Haßlicht leased the industrial mills for 30 years and guaranteed the city the establishment of numerous jobs. In 1830 he demolished two of the three mills and built a large two-story cloth factory.
- The lease agreement ends in 1859. The mill conditions have deteriorated due to the decreasing water flow. The town completely abandoned the mill location and sold it to the sovereign. The industrial history of this location ends here.
Excursion restaurant
In 1868 the now dilapidated mills are auctioned off by the country. At Easter 1870 a restaurant was opened under the name "Friedrich Wilhelms Garten", which was equipped with a ballroom and a bowling alley. In 1873 Ferdinand Gerike from Lehndorf took over the restaurant and announced that the establishment, now called “Gerike's Garden”, would offer hot water according to the old tradition . At first only the former fulling mill was used for gastronomic purposes, later a restaurant "Zum Okertal" was set up on the site of the grain mills, for which changing owners have been handed down. In the meantime Christian Bosse from Melverode had taken over the grounds of the fulling mill and in 1902 that of the former grain mills. In 1891 he had the Mühlgraben on the left of the Oker filled with excavated material from the new building for the clinic on Celler Strasse. It is said that fish from ocher stocks and eel were offered in the restaurant. In addition to the boats that ran from the city center to Ölper Mühle, "the electric" took line 5 to Ölper at the beginning of the 20th century .
On Boxing Day 1916, a fire destroyed the restaurant, and one person was also killed.
Later use
The property changed hands to Friedrich Eppers, who had the building that still exists today erected on the grounds of the fulling mill. On April 1, 1936, the "Ölper Mühle" bar was inaugurated, which was used as a nightclub under the name "Hamburg Ahoi" after the Second World War. It has been a purely residential building since the 1970s.
Literature and Sources
- Hans Lindemann: ÖLPER - The story of a Braunschweig stake village . Orphanage printing and publishing house, Braunschweig 1977, ISBN 3-87884-008-X .
- Bürgergemeinschaft Ölper eV (Ed.): 750 years of Ölper history and stories from our village. Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2001, ISBN 3-930292-52-1 .
Web links
- The Ölper Mill. on denkmalpflege.bsl-ag.de
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Hans Lindemann: ÖLPER - The story of a Braunschweiger Pfahldorfes . Orphanage printing and publishing house, Braunschweig 1977, ISBN 3-87884-008-X , p. 105 ff .
- ^ Monument protection of the city of Braunschweig: Ölper Mühlenwehr, renovation report. Braunschweig 2008, ( okerlachs.de PDF) retrieved from braunschweig.de on September 5, 2013.
- ↑ Ölper - History in Brief. on bs-oelper.de
- ↑ The Ölper Mill. (PDF) on braunschweig.de.