Museum Moorseer Mühle
The Moorseer Mühle on Butjadinger Straße in Nordenham - Abbehausen is the last fully functional Dutch gallery in the Wesermarsch district in Lower Saxony . Since 1978 the Moorseer Mühle and the associated business operations have been converted into a museum and continuously developed. Today's Museum Moorseer Mühle presents the largest mill ensemble in north-west Germany, preserved in its original state and opened up as a museum.
Mill history
17th century
The history of the Moorseer Mühle can be traced back to the 17th century. 1613 the "Obbehuser mill" is mentioned, which is probably a windmill could have acted on Klosterweg in Abbehausen-moor lake. In the chronicle of 700 years of Abbehausen, the construction of the "Hobemühle" is dated to 1600 and is located at Abbehauser Groden. The first documentary mention of a Moorsee mill can be found in the soul register of the community of Abbehausen from 1675, in which the Moorsee miller Clauss Fux is listed.
According to the contribution register (tax list) from 1679, half of the Moorsee mill and the miller's house belonged to Tiörck Ummen. In 1680 Wilken Ummen inherited the property. In the same year Tiörck and Wilken Ummen wrote a will in which it was determined that their shares fell to the parish poor. The lease proceeds of 220 Reichstalers were used to finance school education, the church, the pastor, the district court of Ovelgönne and the accounting officers. When Wilken Ummen died in 1688, the mill was leased. The respective miller had to settle the economic results of the mill with the church, since according to the Ummen's will, half of the mill belonged to it.
18th and 19th centuries
The post mill must have been removed from its original location around 1730. An auction record from 1731 proves that the wood from the Moorsee mill was auctioned. The proceeds went in equal parts to the co-owner of the mill at the time, Johann Ulcken, and the Ummen fund. The mill was rebuilt at its current location as a post mill.
In 1762, Anton Thaile from Neuchâtel bought half of the ownership shares in the post mill in bankruptcy proceedings. According to an entry in the fire register of the Oldenburgische Landesbrandkasse, the church also sold its property rights to Anton Thaile in 1800. Anton Thaile's son, Christian Theilen, inherited the Moorseer Mühle from his father in 1810. However, he went bankrupt in 1825. In bankruptcy proceedings, the baker Franz Sagemüller bought the mill. He handed over the windmill, the stables, the coach house, the house and the associated land to his son Johann Anton Sagemüller.
When Johann Anton Sagemüller died on February 23, 1852, he left the mill property with the lands to his son Franz Eduard. The post mill burned down on December 23, 1854 and was rebuilt the following year in the form of a gallery dutchman. Franz Eduard Sagemüller was busy running his farm, so he leased the mill and the affiliated bakery in 1871 to Hermann Hemken from Altendeich. In 1889 Georg Ostendorf leased the business from Abbehauserwisch. Ten years later, Ostendorf bought a peat factory and gave up the milling business.
20th century
On May 1, 1899, the mill and the associated buildings were leased by Anton Gerhard Reinken (* 1846, † 1905) and his son Johann Hinrich Gerhard Reinken (* 1875, † 1945). In 1900 the company was entered into the commercial register. During a storm on September 11, 1903, the wings got out of control and the mill caught fire. It burned to the ground. In 1904, the Reinken family bought the mill and engaged the mill builder Hermann Schwarting to rebuild it. For the economic continuation of the mill operation at that time a locomobile was used , which drove a grinding gear.
Johann Hinrich Gerhard Reinken took over the management in 1905 after the death of his father. The capacity utilization of the mill exceeded the capacity of the windmill in 1910, so that the operation was expanded to include a steam engine , which drives a second grinding mill, until 1912 . At that time Reinken had employed two millers, a baker and two carters in his mill. With the outbreak of the First World War , the mill operation was largely paralyzed. It was not until 1924 that there was a steady, albeit slow, upswing. In addition to the bakery , Gerhard Reinken expanded the agricultural areas of the mill, which served as the mill's third economic pillar.
National Socialism and World War II
After the seizure of power of the Nazis in 1933, the economic structure of the company changed. With the announcement of the Nazi four-year plan in 1936, the planned economy took the place of the free market economy and the mill operation was incorporated into the Reichsnährstand . From then on, the miller no longer worked for his own economic existence, but for the German economy. Heinrich Anton Reinken (* 1910, † 2001), the son of the miller Johann Hinrich Gerhard Reinken, joined the NSDAP in 1938 and was drafted in 1939. In his absence, the business was run by his wife Anneliese Reinken (* 1912, † 2003) and other family members. In addition, one female slave laborer from Russia and one from Ukraine worked in the household during the war . Gerhard Reinken died in 1945, so that Heinrich Reinken became the sole owner of the company.
In January 1945 the German Red Cross set up a hospital on the grounds of the mill. After the war, refugees were quartered in the house of the Reinken family . While on leave from the front, Heinrich Reinken walled up ten tons of grain to hide it from the Allied inspectors. With the income from this grain and the sale of ten pigs, the milling operation could quickly be resumed. After a short British captivity , Heinrich Reinken returned in June 1945 and took over the business in the Moorseer Mühle again.
post war period
In 1962 the Moorseer Mühle was placed under monument protection. At the time, in addition to the owners, two millers, a master baker, three carters and a groom worked in the company. In the summer months, when the mill was not very busy, farming offered the Reinken family an alternative job for the employees. In addition to paying the employees, the mill owner was also responsible for their nutrition. This task was taken over by Anneliese Reinken, who was supported by two housekeepers, a milker and a washerwoman. On June 23, 1969, the roof of the farm building with the bakery caught fire for reasons that have not yet been clarified. The flying sparks from the thatched roof also set fire to the gallery of the windmill and the house. However, the three volunteer fire brigades from Nordenham, Abbehausen and Phiesewarden managed to clear the gallery and the house. The farm building could no longer be saved by the fire brigades . The bakery was refurbished in the mill annex.
The Reinken millers managed the operation of the Moorseer Mühle until 1977 and also accompanied the process of converting from a business to a museum. The Moorseer Mühle survived the mill death for a long time, when more and more wind and water mills had to give up their operation since the beginning of the 20th century . It was the last windmill in the Wesermarsch that still economically processed grain into flour . This was possible due to the three economic pillars - the grinding operation, the bakery and agriculture - but also by adapting the mill to technical innovations. In addition to the wind and electric grinding aisle, the mill still has functional electrical processing machines. For health reasons, the Reinken family was no longer able to run the mill in 1977. The Wesermarsch district then leased the mill and converted it into a museum.
History of the museum
Local museum
The Museum Moorseer Mühle can look back on a long museum tradition. The first beginnings of a museum can be found in 1928. The then 15-year-old miller's son Hermann Reinken (* 1913, † 1979) founded a "local history museum" on the first floor of the miller's house. He divided his exhibition into a Lower Saxony farmhouse parlor and an adjoining bedroom . War memories such as orders and medals , inflation notes and a coin collection were exhibited in a further section .
1970s: Foundation of the Moorseer Mühle Museum
When the Reinken family had to give up the mill in 1977, local politicians recognized the mill's value as a tourist attraction for the Wesermarsch. The gallery Dutchman was also the only still functioning mill in the Weser-Ems district that was preserved in its original state . In order to preserve this cultural monument, the Wesermarsch district leased the mill in 1977. On July 25, 1978, an agricultural museum was opened in the mill in Moorsee. In the former granary of the Mooseer Mühle an exhibition with typical regional agricultural implements was created. The visitors to the museum were looked after by former mill master Heinrich Reinken and his son Jan-Gerd Reinken.
1980s: The new museum concept of the Rüstringer Heimatbund eV
In the 1980s, the agricultural museum's collection grew. In order to finance the museum, the Landessparkasse zu Oldenburg brought out silver and tin coins with the motif of the Moorsee mill in the 1980s.
In 1986 a small bakery was set up in the museum building and the path from grain to bread was developed as a museum educational project. In addition, the listed gallery Dutchman received new wings. At the beginning of 1987 the Rüstringer Heimatbund eV took over the museum care of the Moorseer Mühle. The aim of the Rüstringer Heimatbund eV was to preserve the mill and the historically grown building ensemble as a monument for the Wesermarsch district. Part of the museum concept of the Heimatbund was also to present the historical surroundings of the mill. In September 1987 the Rüstringer Heimatbund eV organized the first mill week at the Moorseer Mühle. Such events are still part of the concept of a “living museum” today.
1990s: Museum expansion
In the vicinity of the Rüstringer Heimatbund eV, ideas for expanding the museum have been developing since 1986. In 1988 the association submitted an application to rebuild the farm building that burned down in 1969. The district archaeologist of the Wesermarsch district, Rosemarie Krämer, developed the first museum concept in 1988, which envisaged the conversion into a specialist museum on the history of the Wesermarsch mills. Building on this concept, the first museum expansion started on May 24, 1991 with the construction of the museum building and a parking lot. A field barn , a Göpelhaus , a flutter mill and the miller's house were added later . On May 28, 1993, the specialist museum for mill history in the Wesermarsch region opened.
Museum building
The museum building received a historic bakery with a sales counter in the basement in the 1990s. The former Schwarting bakery from Ellwürden served as the basis for this bakery in the style of the 1920s and 1930s. In addition, Hermann and Hinrich Schwarting's original mill builder workshop in the museum building could be rebuilt - also in the basement. Hermann Schwarting had rebuilt the mill after the fire in 1903. There is also a museum education room and special exhibition area in the basement of the museum building. The permanent exhibition on the history of mills in the Wesermarsch is located on the upper floor of the building. It shows the historical development of milling from the beginnings of grain milling with stone hand mills to the end of milling in the Wesermarsch.
Mill
The gallery Dutchman is still in its original condition today. At the end of July 2005, renovation work began, including the restoration of the mill cap. Large parts of the cap had to be reproduced true to the original. At the beginning of December 2005, the cap was lifted back onto the mill and the blades were reinstalled. In January 2006 the dismantling and reconstruction of the gallery began. In addition, two defective grinding stones had to be replaced.
In May 2007, the Moorseer Mühle Museum expanded the permanent exhibition with a historic row of shops that originally came from a retail store in Stollhamm . This is located next to the agricultural collection in the former granary of the mill.
Göpelhaus
In 1994 a Göpelhaus , which used to stand on Strohhauser Plate , was dismantled and rebuilt on the grounds of the mill. A Göpelanlage is a historical drive device for mills or threshing machines . Horses were harnessed to a kind of carousel and ran in circles. The movement allowed them to drive various machines. In order to protect the horses and workers on the Göpel from drafts, a round roof was often built, the Göpelhaus.
Field barn
In 1997 a field barn was transferred to the area opposite the mill, in which agricultural machines are housed. The materials for the project came from various farms in Butjadingen and Nordenham. It serves as a shelter for large agricultural machines that have not yet been shown in the exhibition. These include a steam locomotive and a historic threshing machine. Also Ackerwagen with which the grain was formerly obtained, are in the barn.
Flutter mill
In 2002 a replica of a wooden flutter mill was inaugurated in the museum ensemble. A flutter mill is a wind-powered water mill. In the low-lying areas in the Netherlands and on the North Sea , it was also used to drain fields and pastures. The water is carried into a higher ditch via an Archimedean screw made of wood. From there it can flow into a main channel.
Mill Cafe
In the 1990s, the Rüstringer Heimatbund eV first set up a small café on the ground floor of the museum building. In autumn 2009, the renovation work on the mill's annex began. The mill café was located in the former bakery in the outbuilding. This offers an additional offer for museum visitors.
Miller's house
At the end of 2004, the Wesermarsch district acquired the former miller's house from the master miller who died in 2001. Renovation work on the Müllerhaus began in mid-2012. In 2014, the new permanent exhibition on the social and operational history of the miller family, which was set up here, was presented to the public. There is also an office for the museum management as well as an archive with an attached specialist library. Weddings of the registry office in Nordenhams take place regularly in the " parlor ".
Museum education and days of action
Various museum educational programs are regularly offered in the Museum Moorseer Mühle. The hands-on baking “From Grain to Bread” takes place several times a week. Then children in particular are taught how to process grain into flour. A public tour of the mill is also offered once a week. The mill is regularly put into operation by volunteer millers.
Since 2004 the project “School meeting point cultural landscape - encounters with cows, lapwing and cultural history” has been offered. As a result, the museum was recognized as an extracurricular learning location in 2006 . Since the school year 2018/19, the “Müllerpraktikum 1900” project has been taking place at the Museum Moorseer Mühle in cooperation with Oberschule 1 Nordenham. The project is a compulsory elective for the eighth grade in the subject of history and has a career-oriented focus. The students work together with the museum staff and get to know the everyday life of a miller around 1900.
Annual action days such as “All about sheep”, the bee day or the two-day mill festival are also part of the museum's program alongside weekly offers. Since 2018 there has been an annual special exhibition in the museum building. In 2018, the special exhibition "Your History - 40 Years Museum Moorseer Mühle" dealt with the history of the museum. In the 2019 museum season, the special exhibition “They're spinning! From craft to language use ”explains the origin of proverbs.
literature
- Adolf Blumenberg: Abbehausen-Ellwürden - Home in words and pictures. Abbehausen 1987, pp. 64-68.
- Christian-Siegfried Büsing: 700 years of Abbehausen - Chronological list of historically interesting dates, taking into account places belonging to the old community of Abbehausen. Nordenham 2011.
- Ingo Hashagen: When the wings were still turning ... The history of the former windmills and the only water mill in the Wesermarsch. Fischerhude 1986.
- Jan Christoph Greim: Your story - 40 years of Museum Moorseer Mühle. Nordenham 2018.
- Heino Vette: The Moorseer Mühle. Brake 1978.
Web links
Coordinates: 53 ° 29 ′ 25.2 " N , 8 ° 25 ′ 38.2" E