Plessa magpie mill

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The Elstermühle

The technical monument Elstermühle Plessa is located on the right side of the Black Elster in the Brandenburg municipality of Plessa and is a water mill that originally consisted of two mills, a cutting mill and a grain mill . It has an idle display system and a small museum, and there is also a small sawmill in the outbuilding.

The office of the Förderverein Naturpark Niederlausitzer Heidelandschaft eV, a base of the Naturwacht and the rustic restaurant “Mühlenschänke” are located in the mill building .

Technical specifications

The 6 m large Zuppinger mill wheel

history

The Elstermühle estate in Plessa was mentioned in a document as early as 1420. There is evidence that the mill had been owned by the Kühne family since 1825.

The cutting mill has been proven to be a half-timbered structure on piles with external wooden cladding since 1580 and was driven by water power. A grain mill was operated from 1630, but it burned down in 1710 and was rebuilt as a half-timbered building a year later. The half-timbered structure of the building was made from square-cut tree trunks, and the compartments were smeared with a paste of clay , chaff and chaff. In connection with the Elster regulation beginning in 1852, the river bed of the Black Elster changed and a weir had to be built at the mill in 1857, which before the regulation could only be reached by barges over the 27 rivers and ditches of the Black Elster. The Elstermüller had royal water rights and was also the lock master at Plessa. As a result of the drainage of the marshland surrounding the mill, the piles of the southern mill wall sank so far that around 1900 a massive underpinning had to be carried out. At the same time, the technology of the mill was renewed, which has been preserved and functional to this day. In 1903 the property got a well with a pump. Before that, all of the drinking and commercial water was taken from the river. Clemens Kühne, the last miller at the Elstermühle, took over it in August 1909 and ran it until his death at the age of 87. When the local briquette factory began to supply the town with electricity in 1925, a sawmill was built in the Mühlenhof as a result of which the old cutting mill was torn down. The sawmill was driven by the main shaft of the grain mill, which was passed under the road and made it possible for the Elstermüller to use water power and electricity . An existing generator suggests that the miller also generated electricity for the mill operation himself, but this cannot be proven. At the same time, a bakery was built on the mill building, which deviates from the original architectural style for economic reasons and was operated until 1966.

The Elstermüller owned the fishing rights, which were entered in the land register with 1000 Talers. In 1920, 4 to 8 quintals of fish were caught in the Black Elster on Saturdays.

Elstermühle in Plessa

In 1961 the heirs of the mill sold the entire property to the LPG . The now electrically operated grain mill was mainly used to cover personal needs. The LPG converted the living space into office space. In the 1970s, a bypass road was built over the mill's property, as the pillars of the weir made it easy to build a bridge. The weir was quickly dismantled and the mill has been deprived of water to this day. With the dissolution of the LPG in 1990, the mill operation could no longer be maintained, so that the grain mill and sawmill could only be operated until 1991.

In December 1991 the Friends of the Niederlausitzer Heidelandschaft Naturpark eV, financially supported by the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg , acquired the entire property and extensive reconstructions were carried out on the listed buildings. The engineer Felix Walther from Elsterwerda took over the construction management. There were also offices and seminar rooms. The employees of the biological station and the friends' association were the first to move in. Afterwards the refurbishment of the flour mill took place and on June 17, 1995 it was opened to the public with a mill festival. In 2017 the mill and the property were sold by the development association.

Location of the individual buildings

SketchElstermühlePlessa2.jpg
  • 1 bakery
  • 2 office / bulk floor
  • 3 mill
  • 4 cultivation
  • 5 water wheel
  • 6 old weir
  • 7 stable buildings
  • 8 dry toilets
  • 9 chicken coop
  • 10 dog kennels
  • 11 sawmill
  • 12 stable / bulk floor
  • 13 Servants' House
  • 14 bridge

Individual evidence

  1. List of monuments of the state of Brandenburg: Elbe-Elster district (PDF) Brandenburg State Office for Monument Preservation and State Archaeological Museum
  2. Bad Liebenwerda home calendar, 2004/2005, p. 240

Web links

Commons : Elstermühle Plessa  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 27 ′ 46 ″  N , 13 ° 37 ′ 48 ″  E