Inner mill Schwerin

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The Binnenmühle was a watermill in Schwerin that played an important role in the city for around 700 years. It was located on the site of today's residential building at Schloßstraße (Schwerin) 30. It was named Grafenmühle after one of its first owners, the former Count of Schwerin , and was first mentioned in a document "near Schwerin" in 1217. The fact that the then Count of Schwerin gave part of his income from this mill, at least indicates that the Count of Schwerin owned part of the mill. To the west, outside the Schwerin city wall, which was built around 1400, was the Grafenmühle (now the corner house at Schloß- / Mecklenburgstraße ) on the river ditch that connects the Pfaffenteich with the Burgsee .

Location and surroundings

Because there are 30 streets around the current building on Schloßstraße, the mill site is difficult to understand for the observer. The past developments shown on city maps in the 12th and 13th centuries show, however, that the city of Schwerin only extended over a very small area on an elevation in the area of ​​today's old town market square . At that time, the water-powered count's inner mill stood eighty meters in front of rammed wooden planks, framed in the medium-high wall defense corridor with parapet and the medieval mill gate of Schwerin. The existential question to be dealt with in the Middle Ages, on the one hand to secure the food of the city dwellers and their protection from raids, was one of the strategically important positions that the founders of a city had to deal with. The count's inland mill got its mill water from today's Pfaffenteich - the former mill pond, related to the technical equipment - through the flow ditch, course of today's Mecklenburgstraße - the city ditch Bischofstraße, Buschstraße where the former Mühlenstraße (Schloßstraße) crossed. The mill water flowed parallel to Klosterstrasse into the nearby Burgsee. Further tributaries of the water course crossed the Enge Straße, the Schusterstraße as well as the Schloßstraße (Schwerin) up to the Marienplatz. All of this resulted in a dam in the immediate vicinity of the Grafenmühle, where the water was dammed. At Marienplatz there was also another entrance to medieval Schwerin.

Construction and data

In 1298 it was possible for the first time to find out something about the size of the count's watermill, the count's mill was at times very large with four grinding cycles , which were also driven by four large watermill wheels. The construction of further mills within half a mile had also been banned, probably to secure the income of the inland mill. Also in 1298 the Grafenmühle of Schwerin was Cistercian - Kloster Reinfeld near Lübeck sold. The documents from 1298 contain a not unimportant reference to the legal relationship between the city and the Binnenmühle, as it has never become the property of the city (this could also be expressed in the often used name Grafenmühle). It is documented that the new mill owner, i.e. the Cistercian monastery Reinfeld, has no obligations with regard to municipal justice , but that the city of Schwerin has to guarantee the flow of water to the mill and is also not obliged to hinder it "To defend both what is outside and what is inside, like defending the city's defenses", d. H. the city of Schwerin was held responsible for the security of the mill even in times of war.

In the 14th century Schwerin had expanded to the inner mill. Around 1340, the town's former wooden plank ramparts were replaced by an approx. 1.5 m thick rock wall or it was bordered; the brick mill gate tower now rose directly next to the inland mill that drained into the castle lake. The former Grafenmühle was integrated into the city wall and this is how its name Binnenmühle is said to have originated - also as a contrast to the outer Bischofsmühle on Aubach in 1178 - mentioned since 1186 "located in the north of the city" and the Neue Mühle on Neumühler See , first mentioned in 1357 has been.

History of the building

Schwerin Merian - engraving around 1640 K. The mill

In 1408 the dukes of Mecklenburg bought the count's inland mill back, and at the same time obliged the townspeople to only have their grain milled here. In the 17th century, the city of Schwerin received two bastions and advanced strong fortifications to protect the lowlands between the Pfaffenteich and the Burgsee, and mill gate bastions with parapets, gun posts and guard buildings were set up immediately in front of the Count's inner mill and the mill gate tower. In front of the bastions, the water now dammed up to form a pond. It flowed through a vaulted canal to the Grafenmühle, which at the time only had two larger water wheels arranged in front of one another. The Grafenmühle also fell victim to the Schwerin town fire of 1651; it burned to the ground. The fire broke out on July 18, shortly before the harvest; at the time both mill wheels stood still. To save them, the weir was opened and the wheels were turned in the water, but their hope of being safe was not fulfilled - they burned just like the mill and the town's mill gate. The Grafenmühle was rebuilt in 1731; After the planned renovation, it received four water wheels. Master miller Heldt had owned the Binnenmühle since 1841 - the Grafenmühle was in use until 1853. Only as a result of the city expansion with the overbuilding of roads in place of the flowing ditch was the mill operation stopped. The subsequent owners used the inner mill as a residential and commercial building and rebuilt the historic building for their own purposes. Today's Mecklenburgstrasse almost completely covers the river ditch. The other tributaries, such as those in Bischofstrasse, Schusterstrasse , Schloßstrasse (Schwerin) , Marienplatz, etc., have also completely disappeared.

The current building at Schloßstraße 30 (2014)

The count's inland mill received its current appearance around 1870 - the core of the inhabited building at Schloßstraße 30 is made up of two half-timbered houses , the former mill and the miller's house, united and veneered by a neo-renaissance facade with sgraffito decoration along Mecklenburg- and Schloßstraße . The courtyard and former garden side of the Count's inland mill facing Klosterstrasse still has half-timbered structures. The foundation walls, the vaulted cellars of the residential building still consist of remains of the medieval city wall made of rock. When looking at the former half-timbered mill building, the different storey heights is striking - this is evidence of the separate mill construction of two houses at that time. In 1889 the leather goods dealer Heinrich Herbordt from Schwerin acquired the property on which the inner mill was once located, which is still owned by this family. The business use of the building has changed more frequently over the past hundred years.

swell

  • The checkered history of the Grafenmühle in the 12th to 19th centuries . Source: Herbordt - own the building for residential and commercial use
  • Mill and pond in the Middle Ages: Schwerin City Archives - Information Editor SVZ Dietrich Barthel, Th. Helms D 38/85 5000 (1527) II-16-8 page 4/5
  • Horst Ende (Ed.): Greetings from Schwerin. Picture postcards around 1900. Koehler and Amelang, Berlin / Leipzig 1991, ISBN 3-7338-0068-0 , p. 4 (illustration).
  • City Archives Schwerin : Sixth Section Appendix Subject Register Schwerin Printed on November 18, 1910. Around 1340 ... the Grafenmühle Page 1
  • Schweriner express historical stories region April 13, 2013 Page 6 by Horst Zänger: Pfaffenteich - Fließgraben - Grafenmühle - Burgsee.
  • Prospect the prince. Mecklenb. Resid: City of Schwerin Merian - engraving around 1640 K. The mill

literature

Coordinates: 53 ° 37 ′ 39.7 "  N , 11 ° 24 ′ 45.7"  E