Old oil mill in Wittenberge
The Wittenberge oil mill is a monument in the city of Wittenberge on the Elbe . The building complex, consisting of the administration building, the mill base, workshops and storage facilities, was built in the mid-19th century for the production of crude oil . The oil production was given up as a result of the German reunification in 1991. Then a company took over the use of the houses and set up the Hotel Zur Alten Ölmühle in them . A restaurant and a brewery are connected.
history
19th century
The merchant Salomon Herz from Berlin had acquired a property in Wittenberge on the banks of the Elbe in 1823 . Then he had an oil mill built, which was to become the basis for the oil trading company he founded at the same time. The mill workers, who could also be recruited from the area, were soon producing crude oil from the agricultural products beet , flax and rape from the surrounding area . This served primarily as a lubricant for the increasing number of vehicles and factory machines, for lighting households and workshops and - to a lesser extent - for food purposes . The mill wheels were initially driven by horse power , but by building a canal , which was later called the Herzscher Canal , water power could be used. Three water wheels were in operation from 1839.
The transport of the raw materials and the crude oil took place mainly on the Elbe waterway. In addition, Herz successfully campaigned for the expansion of the railway connections between Hamburg , Magdeburg and Wittenberge. Herz was soon able to expand the flourishing business of his oil trading company to Romania , Russia and India .
The risk involved in processing oil as a flammable liquid was initially underestimated, so that a major fire in 1856 largely destroyed the buildings of the oil mill. But the immediate reconstruction and the subsequent constant expansion of the factory premises and the modernization of the mill systems ensured the continued existence of the company. Two foundations established after the death of the company boss in 1873 ensured the construction of 16 rent-free apartments for old and disabled workers of the oil mill, as well as the construction of a municipal orphanage .
The street leading to the factory site was given the name Herzstrasse in 1898 and retained it until the 1990s, the traffic route is now called Bad Wilsnacker Strasse.
20th century
After electrical energy had established itself in the industry in the first years of the 20th century, the heirs of the Herz oil mill had the hydroelectric drives converted accordingly, and the canal was filled in again in 1938/1939.
The global economic crisis in 1929 led to the transformation of the previously privately run company into a stock corporation (AG), which in 1929 was named S. Herz Ölfabriken AG Wittenberge . During the Second World War , the raw materials for oil production in the civilian sector became scarce, but between 1942 and the end of the war in 1945 the mill, as Märkische Ölwerke AG, still supplied small amounts of crude oil.
It was not until the GDR was founded in 1949 that the production of crude oil began again in the old factory halls; they were largely spared from the war. The mill systems were now given the name VEB Märkische Ölwerke Wittenberge and gradually hired more employees. In 1968 around 700 workers were employed in the production of oils for technical purposes, edible oils and synthetic resin varnishes . After the fall of the Wall , the plants were privatized again and a little more than 300 employees produced oil products until 1991. The outdated production facilities and factory buildings were then demolished. The remaining buildings - storage building, mill and administration building - placed the state of Brandenburg under monument protection in 1992 .
21st century
The building, which has now been renovated, went to a new owner in 2007, the family company Genesis GmbH , which was the first to install a hotel with an attached restaurant in the former manufacturer's villa , then set up a brewery and gradually implemented other leisure activities. The beer produced here was named HerzBräu in honor of Salomon Herz in 2009 .
In the former oilseed storage facility, built after the fire in 1856, one floor was expanded into a ballroom and offers space for up to 230 guests, thus also expanding the space in the brewery. In the years 2015/16 further construction work took place in the warehouse, the entrepreneur and co-partner of Genesis GmbH, Lutz Lange, has 30 more hotel rooms furnished and the roof converted into a sauna landscape for an investment of four million euros .
The operating company of the hotel offers indoor climbing opportunities in two connected octagonal, renovated towers on the site of the oil mill.
architecture
The buildings are typical industrial architecture made of exposed bricks , four to five floors . As simple architectural decoration, the architect used round arches of different sizes and widths as windows or doors as well as transverse straps made of green glazed bricks for Salomon Herz's house, which were also used on the windows and doors. The corners of the elongated buildings are emphasized by means of towers or protruding components. The tallest of the surviving corner towers was converted into a diving tower in the 2010s , the only one of its kind in northern Germany .
The four-storey tower dominating the bank was the suction tower for the oil for loading and unloading ships when the mill was in operation. It was renovated in the 21st century and expanded as a café and beach bar. It has a rectangular floor plan measuring 15 × 19 meters and shows the typical brick facades. The floors are of different heights and all have differently shaped and irregular windows in the facade. The interior wall surfaces have been retained in their original appearance during the renovation.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Homepage of the Alte Ölmühle Wittenberge , accessed on September 26, 2016.
- ^ Homepage of the old oil mill: history
- ↑ Brief information on the memory of the former oil mill .
- ↑ Ölmühle expands hotel capacity . In: Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung (MAZ) , January 27, 2016; accessed on September 27, 2016.
- ↑ Brief information on the climbing tower with a historical drawing of the building ensemble
- ↑ Brief description of the diving tower of the former oil mill
- ↑ Brief description of the bank tower of the former oil mill
Coordinates: 52 ° 59 ′ 22.9 " N , 11 ° 45 ′ 31.8" E