Geism mill

Geismühle with strung wings

Location and history

Coordinates

51 ° 18 '39 " N , 6 ° 37' 58" E Coordinates: 51 ° 18 '39 " N , 6 ° 37' 58" E

Location

Germany

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia
- Krefeld - Oppum

Built

around 1300

Shut down

1945

Status

Restored as a branch of the Museum Center Linn visit

technology

use

Flour mill

Grinder

Two millstones, working grinder

drive

Windmill

Windmill type

Tower Dutch windmill ( ground sail on hill)

Wing type

Sail gate wing

Number of wings

4th

Tracking

Harvester on the cod end

The Geismühle (also called Geistmühle or Gelsmühle ) is a tower windmill between Krefeld and Meerbusch . The grain mill is around 700 years old, making it one of the oldest surviving windmills in the Lower Rhine region .

The name Geis (t) mühle probably derives from the location of the mill, a geest , d. H. a dry, barren sand ridge.

Although the mill is located directly on the outskirts of the Meerbusch district of Bösinghoven , formally it belongs to Krefeld (today the district of Oppum , historically Amt Linn ) and is one of the city's landmarks. The mill is located directly on the A57 on the west side of the motorway service station named after the mill .

Since a thorough renovation in 2006/07, the grinder is fully operational again. The mill is maintained by Bauverein Geismühle Krefeld-Oppum eV , belongs to the Linn Museum Center and can be viewed from the inside on every 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month from 2 to 5 p.m. from May to October (if the wind allows it even with a rotating Grinder).

history

The mill has a somewhat atypical shape, as it was originally (probably around 1300) not built as a windmill, but as a defense and watchtower in front of Linn Castle, about 2.5 km to the northeast . Of this as evidence loopholes windows and carried the remains of two fireplaces inside (for mills because of fire danger very unusual). From the tower, the Drosten of the Count of Kleve controlled the nearby Hohe Weg , a medieval long-distance trade route.

Only later (probably around 1450, after Linn fell back to Kurköln ) was the tower converted into a windmill. The mill was set up as an electoral ban mill and the farmers from Bockum , Osterath and Fischeln were subject to the mill compulsion and were only allowed to have their grain milled here. Heerdt and Büderich also belonged to the ban area until 1575 . Over the centuries the affiliation changed several times, as the different villages always tried to get their own mills.

During the Thirty Years' War , the mill was besieged, captured and plundered twice by Hessian mercenaries. Until the French occupation of the left Lower Rhine , the mill remained in electoral possession. The mill was then privatized around 1800. Sometime in the 19th century (probably 1808) the upper, conical part of the tower and the cap were renewed.

At the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Geismühle was badly damaged by an aircraft bomb and shut down. In the 1950s the damage was poorly repaired and in 1959 the city of Krefeld bought the mill in order to secure the preservation of the historical monument. The mill has been open to regular visits since 1991; however, the grinder was still not functional. The technology has only been fully operational again since a reconstruction and repair in 2006/07. In a ceremony on June 15, 2007, the mill was reopened by the then North Rhine-Westphalia Transport Minister Oliver Wittke .

technology

The Geismühle is a "tower Dutchman", d. H. a tower windmill with a rotating cap ( Dutch windmill ). The brick tower is cylindrical to slightly bulbous at the bottom and tapers slightly conically in the upper (subsequently attached) part. The four wings are sail gate wings .

For tracking into the wind, the mill has an external jogger (slewing gear), i. H. a sword bar system attached to the back of the cap, the so-called codend (Low German for tail ). To operate the jogger, a mound was subsequently poured around the foot of the mill, so that the mill became a basic sailor . This hill presumably replaced an initially existing wooden working gallery. The former ground floor of the five-story tower became the grain cellar and a wide entrance gate for carts was created.

The torque is transmitted from the vane shaft to the bunker ( crown wheel ) via a comb wheel . This sits on the vertical bevel shaft that extends from the cap down to the stone floor where the millstones are. There the rotary movement is distributed to two grinders via a large spur gear .

The historic cable lift, with which sacks of grain and flour could be moved from the grain cellar over the flour floor to the grain floor, has been preserved and is ready for use.

Sectional drawing
The codend
The harvester
Comb and crown wheel

Motorway service station

The Geismühle service station on federal motorway 57 is operated by Tank & Rast . It consists of two parts, Geismühle East and Geismühle West , for the two directions of travel, each with a restaurant and gas station (East: Aral , West: Shell ).

On the west side, somewhat hidden behind the Geismühle, there is also an ecumenical motorway chapel with a bronze round disc by Theo Akkermann .