Clarissa windmill in Lümbach
The Clarissa windmill is a monument in Kirchhoven , a district of Heinsberg in North Rhine-Westphalia , listed in the list of architectural monuments in Heinsberg and in the list of windmills in North Rhine-Westphalia . Like four other mills, it is located on Selfkant-Mühlenstraße . The name Lümbacher Mühle came about because it is close to the Kirchhovener local time Lümbach. Today Kirchhoven including Lümbach belongs to the city of Heinsberg.
Emergence
The Lümbacher Mühle was built in 1882 by the miller Nikolaus Geffers. His son Leonhard suffered an accident at work in the mill hood in 1919 at the age of 51. He got caught in the rotating gears and was seriously injured. Two weeks later he died as a result of the injuries he suffered.
sale
Theo von Krüchten, brother of Leonhards - wife Elisabeth who died in 1910 - and ward of the children, sold the mill with 71 arable land for 13,000 gold marks to the Breberener miller Gerhard Krings. Due to the hyperinflation in Germany in 1922/23 , the money made was hardly worth anything later. Gerhard Krings and two of his six brothers learned their father's trade as a miller. Krings married Maria Agnes Schmitz from Selsten in August 1919.
Together with his wife, he built a house, a barn and stables for the cattle at the mill. They also ran agriculture. Since the grinding operation with wind alone was no longer sufficient, the mill was equipped with a petrol engine and later with an electric motor. In the so-called mill cellar, in this mill at street level, a grinding system with Breton millstones for wheat flour was installed; another grinding stage for grinding bread and feed grains and a peeling machine for oats and barley. In addition to these, there was a “squeeze” for making oat flakes. On the floor above - the flour base - was the "cleaning" to separate the peeled grain from the husks.
War years
At the end of the Second World War , the retreating German troops wanted to blow up the mill tower so as not to leave it to the British and Americans who followed it as an artillery observation tower. It was only thanks to the miller's skills of persuasion that the mill was preserved as a vital facility for the rural population.
On January 24, 1945, the divisional artillery of the British 52nd Infantry Division had artillery fire a. a. the German mortar positions switched off and the mill was damaged by 49 indirect artillery hits (fragmentation effect). On January 25th - after the last German troops had left the combat area in the direction of Rur - the Second World War in and around Kirchhoven was as good as over.
The American pioneer lieutenant Salomon appointed by the Allied military administration appointed Müller Krings as mayor of Kirchhoven on February 27, 1945 with cunning and a written order. In doing so, he forced him to make his grain available to the population of Kirchhoven free of charge. The supply was improved at the end of the Second World War.
renovation
A hundred years after the mill was built, urgently needed repairs were made, as the hood, blades and the remaining grinding gear were in need of renewal due to age. In November 1982 the old wings were removed and in March 1983 work began in and on the mill. After the masonry had been repaired with field fire bricks, the tower was given a weatherproof coating, which later had to be removed. The rotating mill hood was lifted off in June 1983. Some of the oak wood, which is over a hundred years old, could be repaired and reused. A new grinder with artificial stones was built in inside.
On September 30, 1983, the 15 t heavy, new hood was put on with a truck crane. The new wings, not easy to tame with a length of around 23 m, were drawn in on October 11th. On January 3, 1984, the then new sail gate wings turned for the first time.
Naming
Josef Tümmers, the owner and last commercial miller, kept his mill in good working order until his death in 1998. He gave her the name of his granddaughter "Clarissa". This makes this mill one of the few windmills that have a personal name.
Use today
Since 1919, when Gerhard Josef Krings bought the mill from Nikolaus Geffers, the mill was passed on to the daughter for lack of male descendants.
The oldest daughter of the last miller, Josef Tümmers, is the current owner of the mill. With the help of her family and the volunteer millers, she takes care of the continued existence of the mill.
After the “Verein Historische Mühlen im Selfkant eV” was founded in 2007, the condition of all four windmills in the western part of the Heinsberg district could be improved with the help of the volunteer millers . Since 2009, interested members of the association have been trained to become voluntary millers by Dutch teachers so that they can continue to operate the mills properly and professionally in the future. Grain milling has also been carried out again since 2012.
The Lümbacher Mühle is operated every Friday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. from the beginning of March to the end of November and is open to visitors. A small museum has been set up next to the mill, where the entire history is brought closer through pictures, documents, exhibits and curiosities.
Visits / guided tours / demonstrations
Visitors can visit the mill by prior arrangement.
Fixed dates
The mill participates in recurring events every year where it is open to visitors. The technology is demonstrated to the visitors and the story is told. These are:
- German Mill Day - every year on Whit Monday
- Open Monument Day - every 2nd Sunday in September
literature
- Karl Beumers: Stories from yesterday and the day before yesterday . Heinsberg 2014.
- Hans Vogt: The Rhenish windmills . Krefeld 2005, ISBN 3-9808235-1-2 .
Web links
- Website of the historical mills association in Selfkant eV
- Windmills in the Heinsberg district (Regio TV, published on Youtube on October 25, 2012)
Individual proof
- ↑ Information and contact ( memento of the original from November 25, 2015 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.
Coordinates: 51 ° 4 ′ 39 ″ N , 6 ° 3 ′ 48 ″ E