Grazer Mühlgang

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Here at the Mur discharge small power station of the KrW Weinzödl , the mill passage begins on the northern edge of Graz. Since around 2017, a fish pass has been crossing the Mühlgang so low that a paddle boat cannot be driven under. (2013) Years later, a concrete channel was laid across both piers.
Mühlgang at the Rosegger-Haus, emptied - view from Annenstrasse south into the Elisabethinergasse

The Grazer Mühlgang is a canal running through the city of Graz and further south to the right of the Mur , which was built for the operation of mills in the 13th century. It is owned by the Grazer Bäcker-Mühlen Consortium, is about 25 km long, communicates with three streams, is built over in places and is still used almost continuously today to generate electrical energy.

Only small traces of shorter mill passages left of the Mur have survived. The upper flowed through Geidorf and flowed into where the Schlossberg comes close to the Mur. The street names Am Langedelwehr and Mühlgangweg - and its curved course - are reminiscent of the diversion of a lower southern one, which then followed the course of today's Dr.-Plochl-Straße.

geography

The Mühlgang is diverted from the headwaters of the Weinzödl power plant in the north of Graz via the small turbine 3 to the right of the Mur, flows through all of Graz, Feldkirchen bei Graz and flows back into the Mur after 25 km in the south at Großsulz bei Kalsdorf bei Graz .

In the northern district of Gösting , the Thaler Bach , which comes from Thal , flows in from the right, the Aubach and the Schleifbach (piped since 2017) to the left. The Aubach (also: the Aubachl) can be seen as a continuation of the Thaler Bach.

The outlet of the Schleifbach is about 30 m after the Gösting (Viktor Franz) power plant, immediately after Viktor-Franz-Straße, and at a length of about 1.25 km to the mouth of the Mur at Mur-Mittelwasser, it drops by about 10 m . Water wheels were operated in 6 places, none of which drove a flour mill. After 3 years of non-use, the water rights authority reported the last water right on the Schleifbach to have expired in 1983. The owner of the brook planned the setting of the majority of the flow of the Schleifbach into a fiberglass-epoxy pipe and the construction of a power station next to the previous confluence with the Mur (at the level of the allotment gardens Lendkai 157) for about 5 years and in 2016/2017 construction started. The approximately 1.2 km long pipe has an inner diameter of 1200 mm, is joined with cylindrical slip-on sleeves and was mostly laid until August 2017. The commissioning took place around the turn of the year 2017/2018. The power house is located directly on the footpath and bike path accompanying the right bank of the Mur and is designed to accommodate a café with a roof terrace. The pipe lies essentially in the bed of the former open channel, but was lowered under road bridges (such as the Lendkai). A small amount of water has been flowing in the former bed since 2019.

In the north, the Mühlgang runs parallel (left) to Wiener Straße, in the Lend district through the Friedenspark (formerly Frauenbad) to the former paper mill (from the 16th century to 1956) and on to the Rondo on Marienplatz, where the Marienmühle (as a grinding plant Closed in 1989) and the Volksgarten begins. Between the houses on Volksgartenstrasse and Annenstrasse, the city mill (today with apartments, the inner wooden structure of the mill forms an atrium up to the roof) is crossed under. Along Elisabethinergasse, through the Rösselmühle (mentioned in 1270 - shut down as a grinding plant in 2014), the Köstenbaummühle (Köstenbaumgasse Korngasse), a power plant on Herrgottwiesgasse, the canal runs through Gries and touches the west side of the slaughterhouse and opposite the former Taggermühle (at the latest after bankruptcy Shut down in 2000, wooden mill wheel still rotten in 2014) continues a little east of Puchstrasse and from there via Puntigam to the city limits, where part of the water flows into the Mur and the other part continues to Feldkirchen (Lebern, Mittermühle, Petermühle).

Rösselmühle

First mentioned in 1270, it is the oldest mill in Graz and one of the oldest in Austria. The Rösselmühle was shut down in January 2014 as the last mill in Graz. It is located on Elisabethinergasse / Oeverseegasse and borders the former post garage to the south. Their name refers to the draft horses that were kept until the end of the 1950s. Most recently 22 employees worked here and they ground 90% wheat and 10% rye flour, which was sold to end consumers in small packs via retailers. She was a member of AMA and exported to Singapore. Since 1920 it was the Rösselmühle Ludwig Polsterer GesmbH subsidiary of the Lower Austrian Ludwig Polsterer Holding in Enzersdorf an der Fischa . With the takeover of Polsterer Mühle by Pfahnl Backmittel GmbH , Pregarten , in early 2014, Pfahnl became the second largest milling company in Austria. The Rösselmühle brand will be retained for customers, but the Rösselmühle was discontinued in January 2014. The electricity production via turbine (s), which began decades ago, continues. The Rösselmühlgasse runs from Griesplatz to the bridge over the Mühlgang above the mill.

Usage today

There are a total of 12 hydropower plants that are operated on the (right) Mühlgang. From the former Jesuit mill (Ebenwaldner Mühle) at the Göstinger Maut (Wiener Straße, at that time No. 50, today No. 182 - petrol station), the Viktor power plant was built somewhere around 300 m up the mill aisle, where the Schleifbach is diverted, between 1903 and 1905 Franz, which is still in operation today in Viktor-Franz-Straße near Eiswerkgasse. Energie Graz operates three small hydropower plants on the Mühlgang. Wasserkraft Marienplatz GmbH operates a small hydropower plant near Rondo on Marienplatz, which caused a local flood in 2010. A wooden waterwheel from Taggermühle (Puchstrasse 17), which closed after bankruptcy, has been idle since around 2000.

The mill passage usually has 11 m³ / s water flow. Since in particular the unregulated Thaler Bach flows into Gösting at the top, the supply of the mill passage from the Mur is reduced to possibly 3/4 of the normal amount hours before an expected heavy rain, so that the extra water can be absorbed without flooding.

Twice a year the mill tunnel is emptied in order to check that it is in order, to sweep it down and to do repair work on the channel. If the feed sluice is closed at the top, the mill run drains out within about 12 hours. When clearing in advance at the end of June, the length of the emptied sewer will only be viewed from the accompanying paths in order to be able to plan the cleaning and necessary renovation work. Since the filling also takes time, the water flow only reaches the target again after 3 - 4 days. The main departure takes place in September after the period of midsummer thunderstorms. With hand shovels, small dumpers that travel in bed, truck cranes and excavators, 300 t of bed load and mud, but also a lot of things thrown in - around 2013: 200 bicycles - are lifted out. When water drives the turbines again after 7–10 days, the concrete of any modifications has also been able to set waterproof. Before the maintenance work, the workers' fishing association saves the fish that have remained in the mill passage by fishing. In 2015, this was also done by means of electric fishing and a generator on a backpack.

Occasionally the mill run makes headlines locally because people and dogs have been rescued from it. An elderly man who fell into the Mühlgang in the area of ​​the Langensiepen allotment garden with his bike died, although a little below a lashed log floats diagonally on the surface of the water, as a last chance to dumbbell on the left bank before the power plant rake if you haven't reached other exit ladders.

  • Where the Rondo (Graz) stands today, the mill passage was briefly visible when the Marienmühle was demolished in 2005.

  • The bucket wheel feeds the pond in the Volksgarten and is a reminder of the former main purpose of the mill as a source of power for craft and industry.

Recent changes

In the course of the construction of the Mur power plants in Gössendorf (opened in 2012) and Kalsdorf (operation from December 2012, opened in October 2013), the mill tunnel in the south was extended by around 2 km. Around 2015 the inlet was built over with the renovation of the Weinzödl power plant with a concrete channel that crosses the river, which serves as a fish pass and leads from the right bank of the Mur at the Weinzödl power plant to the right bank below. Until then, the inlet area between the two concrete piers could be reached by paddle boat upstream in order to balance on the swaying eddy mushroom of the inlet current - an exercise with a low level of difficulty. Since then, the air space above the water level is only 50 cm high due to the underside of this concrete channel and thus too low to paddle through.

art

There used to be swimming pools fed by the Mühlgang, only in 2003 a “club for non-swimmers” was built about 30 m above the Rösselmühle as a real * utopia art project by Peter Arlt and Rotor , whose dilapidation on August 29, 2011 is lamented by the Grazer Stadtblatt. It was planned to encourage people to swim, but the hygienically insufficient water quality - individual houses still discharge their sewage into the mill tunnel - made it necessary for this fact to be communicated with "non-swimmers" in the project name and the declaration of membership to the club. Members received a number code for an electronic lock in the door of the boundary wall to the Rösselmühlpark. The wooden footbridge on the left bank could be accessed around the clock. Two swimming pool-typical NiRo entry ladders reached into the water. Neither the view nor the treading of water allowed to reach the bottom of the water. Occasionally people used the Mühlgang in the club to swim. Only with very energetic swimming can you avoid drifting in the middle of the water for a short time, at the edge of the water a pipe bridge at the bridge of Rösselmühlgasse could be reached with committed swimming upstream.

On the same strip of meadow, the footbridge had already been dismantled, the "Kunstkraftwerk Klangbad" by Reni Hofmüller and Nicole Pruckermayr, a sound installation with underwater noises from the mill passage, was presented from September to October 2015: water drove a submerged yacht generator, sounds were made in the water recorded and played over loudspeakers between the Postgarage and Mühlgang. Walks along a central section of the mill walk were offered. For the exhibition “The Mur. A cultural history ”was contributed and a publication was presented in July 2016.

In a further art project opposite the Roseggerhaus (Elisabethinergasse / Annenstraße), the access bridge to a former inn was provided with boards indicating an inn "Zum Mühlgang" with "specialties from the garbage" (dishes made from garbage).

In 2015, a mill wheel based on a bicycle impeller dipped into the current from above for 62 days opposite the confluence of Ungergasse and Elisabethinergasse, attached to the fence of the car filling station. Using bicycle parts, it drove an upward stretched mannequin arm to make waving movements. Hello World comes from the artist Markus Jeschaunig .

The passage of the left Mühlgang in the Körösistraße , in front of the Keplerbrücke

Sports

The Mühlkanal small power plant with a low head and an output of 215 kW is fed from the upstream water of the Mur power plant in Weinzödl (commissioned in 1982, increased efficiency in 2014/2015, fish pass (right) at the beginning of 2016) and thus diverts the Mühlgang. At the outlet of the turbine, a large mushroom vortex is created, which was navigable until 2015, but has been separated from a fish pass by the low-lying canal bridge since 2016 . Then the slalom training course of the Canoe Club Graz (KCG) begins in Mühlgang. Up to the first crossing bridge (only this one can be driven under with a paddle boat), the body of water still belongs to the power plant operator Verbund group , and only then to the mill consortium. Buildings made of wood on alternating banks create eddy water. The first bridge over the Mühlgang can still be driven under with the paddle boat, the second is no longer due to insufficient clearance. The slalom course can be reached from the Weinzödl on the left bank by crossing over the 80 m wide Mur in the power plant's upper water and 120 m across or via the power plant structure. From the right (the west) only a private road leads from the directional road out of town on Judendorferstrasse to this section of the Mühlgang. KCG activists renewed the gates, built a wooden entrance and eddy groyne and named the 30-year-old facility Gerhard Peinhaupt Slalom on March 16, 2016 - after the paddling world champion, who was back in the boat himself.

The Mühlgangarm, which immediately to the east of the old management building of the Taggermühle, past Puchstrasse and immediately afterwards the wooden mill wheel at the adjacent machine house, is cordoned off a few meters above. The water flows over an arched bypass arm that runs about 20 m further east. Here, young river surfers set up a narrowing at a partially existing weir sluice by a bridge, and below a ground weir through a board. The result is a short area of ​​shooting water, the end of which is accessed by surfboards at the water jump with the help of a tether.

In September 2015, active members of the Kanu Club Graz set up the Mugl-Wave in the area of ​​the Innovation Park Puchstrasse and Puchmuseum, just below the bridge at the level of the roundabout . Self-made at € 5000 material costs. With an overhead weir made of two wooden boards in a steel frame, one fixed, one to be lifted with threaded rods and a final base weir with a board that can be tilted up. In between, alternating left and right, a total of 4 groynes that offer eddy water for waiting positions and enable paddling up to the roller above. The roughly 50 cm narrow groynes made of formwork boards have steps below the water for getting out of the water, while holding ropes are mounted on the side walls. Just above the upper weir is a slightly sloping table with carpeting to jump in. Here, kayak acrobatics are practiced with the particularly short play boats.

Left (upper) mill passage

This mill passage through Geidorf - operated by the Älterer Mühlen Konsortium - was filled in around 1977. It ran in the area of ​​Weinzöttlstraße, Lindengasse, Kahngasse, Körösistraße and flowed back into the Mur a good 100 m south of the Kepler Bridge . The walled-up outlet under today's cycle path is still visible. There is a substation in this area today. Before that, there was also a power station on Körösistraße that supplied electricity for the tram from 1918 to 1975.

Some references to this mill passage can still be found in the cityscape:

  • Note for pedestrians over Mühlgangbrücke (in the course of Rottalgasse) painted green and with a white arrow on an additional board to the street signs "Fischergasse" and "Körösistraße".
  • The listed building at Körösistraße 48 with an old sign (inside the entrance gate).
  • The building line of the concrete skyscraper after the Mühlgang was filled in (at the same time that of the lower older structure following to the north) protrudes clearly from the southern houses. The bike path in front of the house was only later forced onto the sidewalk between the advertising tram shelter and the front of the house.
  • The curved floor plan of the retaining wall formerly to the left of the Mühlgang to the west of the tram route on Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Kai.
  • Compared to the streets, the substation, which is now in front of this wall at a distance of the width of the mill aisle, is deep and corresponds to the height of the underwater of the power plant that used to run there. (Image)
  • Bricked-up arch contour in the embankment wall made of granite blocks of the Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Kais, under the southern end of the Elise-Steininger-Steg built in 2006 . (Photo) After processing in the small power station about 40 m in front of it, the Mühlgang flowed under the arched bridge and from the left into the Mur.

  • At the height of Hasnerplatz you can still see bridges over the filled-in Mühlgang, which is now partly a cycle path.

  • In the courtyard of this house at Körösistraße 21-23, the filled Mühlgang is now meadow.

  • At the Keplerplatz substation, the old route of the left mill passage can still be seen.

  • At the Keplerstrasse substation, the left Mühlgang turned under the Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Kai to influence the Mur. (Underwater)

  • Contour of the arch bridge of the quay over the mill passage. The Elise-Steininger-Steg has been supported here since 2006.

Others

Street names Mühlgangweg in the Graz-Umgebung district indicate (possibly past) Mühlganges: Höf , Kalsdorf bei Graz (Grazer (right) Mühlgang), Kirchenviertel (municipality of Gratkorn) , Lebern .

Web links

Commons : Grazer Mühlgang  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Water attractions, 6th water & canal run 2010 wasserwirtschaft.steiermark.at, Monday 22 March 2010, accessed 31 July 2017.
  2. ↑ http://www.akwi.at/index.asp?main=unsere_schule/schueler/2008_09/3ak_kommunikationstage/3ak_kommunikationstage.html Academy of Business - Neusiedl am See, Communication Days Graz, 29./30. October 2008. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  3. ↑ http://www.nachrichten.at/nachrichten/wirtschaft/wirtschaftsraumooe/Pfahnl-Muehle-wird-mit-Kauf-Nummer-Zwei-in-Oesterreich;art467,1202626 Pfahnl Mühle becomes number two in Austria with purchase, September 2013 Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  4. ↑ http://www.kleinezeitung.at/s/steiermark/graz/4119542/Letzt-Grazer-Muhle-haben-still The last mill in Graz is still, kleinezeitung.at, January 17, 2014. Accessed March 16, 2015.
  5. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ewg.at
  6. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from February 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.energie-graz.at
  7. ^ Peter Riedler: Mühlgang in Graz overflowed: building flooded. Kronenzeitung, December 1, 2010, accessed on September 8, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Mill Consortium, tel. Info October 31, 2013
  9. ↑ Fish rescue , July 25, 2015, picture report on afv-graz.at, Arbeiterfischereiverein Graz, accessed July 29, 2017. - Power generator: Fig. 4/48.
  10. ↑ Green electricity for 22,000 households orf.at, October 25, 2013, accessed July 6, 2017.
  11. ↑ http://www.realutopia.at/frameset_kuenstlerinnen.html Real * utopian interventions in the Gries district, 2003, artists >> Arlt, Förster, Grillitsch, accessed December 10, 2014.
  12. ↑ http://www.peterarlt.at/index.php?kat=1&id=1344 Club of non-swimmers - with B. Foerster-Baldenius and Wolfgang Grillitsch, real * utopia, Graz, 2003. (Jörn Köppler, bauwelt, 1. August 2003) Website Peter Arlt. Last accessed November 13, 2015.
  13. ↑ <rotor> center for contemporary art. Retrieved September 8, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Grazer Stadtblatt, KPÖ Styria. September 1, 2011. PDF August 29, 2011. Last accessed November 13, 2015.
  15. ↑ Project info "Klangbad"
  16. ↑ Art in Public Space, Nicole Pruckermayr and Reni Hofmüller: Sound Bath ( Memento of the original from November 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. museum-joanneum.at, accessed November 6, 2016.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.museum-joanneum.at
  17. ↑ Hello World agencyinbiosphere.com, Markus Jeschaunig, 2015, accessed July 4, 2020. - Pictures, video.
  18. ↑ More power for Graz: Murkraftwerk Weinzödl goes back online - VERBUND. Retrieved September 8, 2019 .
  19. ↑ http://www.kleinezeitung.at/s/steiermark/graz/stadtleben/4948963/Kajaksport_Graz-hat-jetzt-einen-PeinhauptSlalom Graz now has a Peinhaupt slalom, kleinezeitung.at, March 18, 2016, accessed 16. June 2016.
  20. ↑ http://www.kajakgraz.com Kanu Club Graz, website of the association
  21. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7GnUbzARHI Lukas Cervinka: MUGL WAVE Graz, opening, youtube.com video (1:29) November 17, 2015, accessed December 27, 2015.
  22. ↑ Graz on the way to the kayak capital - the Mugl Wave is opened at 4-paddlers.com. Retrieved November 18, 2019 .
  23. ↑ "Pedestrians over Mühlgangbrücke " - overpainted reference to a bridge in the course of Rottalgasse over the left Mühlgang public-transport.at, photo from August 15, 2009.