Upper mill (Meckenheim)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Upper mill

The Obere Mühle in Meckenheim is one of the few remaining historical buildings in the city. It was originally a ban mill and served as a feed and grain mill. The mill, which has been occupied since the 14th century, was named differently according to its location or its changing owners: Obere Mühle , Oberste Mühle , Stiftsmühle , Tomberger Mühle , Irnichs Möll or Mühlenwerke Hufschlag . The mill has been in operation since 1972, the city as the owner and a development association are trying to renovate and re-use it as a museum. The mill is the only technical monument in Meckenheim and, together with the adjacent miller's house, has been a listed building since 1997.

location

The Obere Mühle is located between the old town of Meckenheim and Münchhausen Castle in Wachtberg in the Swistbachaue, just under two kilometers away , with the Swistbach flowing on its west side . The address of the mill is Obere Mühle 8a .

history

Unlike the Lower Mill , which belonged to the Meckenheim property of the Mariengradenstift in Cologne and which was demolished after the Second World War , the Upper Mill was owned by the Cassius Stift in Bonn . It originally belonged to a Fronhof that no longer exists today.

Ban mill

From the end of the 14th century, the Cassius Stift had given its property in Meckenheim to the lords of Tomburg as a fief, which also included the Obere Mühle . In a document from 1421 it is regulated that the Bann- und Stiftsmühle has to pay nine Malter grain as an annual lease . In 1478 the heirs of the Tomburger leased the mill to a Renard von Flerzheim. From 1660 the couple Hilger Schmidts and Juliana Nussgens are notarized as tenants. At that time, the mill also had two bridges, a pond, several sluices, ponds, moats, meadows, pastures and dams. The tenant had to maintain and look after the property.

secularization

Presumably, the Obere Mühle was owned by the Cassius Foundation until 1802 and was only privatized during the secularization . The following owner is unknown. In the middle of the 19th century, the mill was owned by the Hufschlag family. At the beginning of the 20th century, the mill came into the Irnich family through marriage, and they continued to operate until it was closed in 1972.

In the 20th century, rye , oats and barley were processed and rye meal and rye flour were used to make dark wholemeal bread and cattle feed mixtures. Wheat flour was produced until the 1950s, after which the corresponding machines were sold.

Redevelopment

In 1992 the city of Meckenheim acquired the mill. In 1997, the Rhineland Regional Council placed the ensemble of buildings under monument protection. In 2003, the Pro Obere Mühle Meckenheim eV association was founded by members of a community project group - with the aim of supporting the city in the repair of the facility and making the mill suitable for museum and tourist purposes.

Thanks to the commitment of the association as well as the financial support of the city and the state building ministry, the first phase of the work on a basic security of the building structure was completed in summer 2008. Two years later, the second construction phase was also completed. In March 2015, a usage contract was signed between the association and the city of Meckenheim. In March 2016, the NRW Foundation made a donation of 100,000 euros to the association for further renovation, and the German Foundation for Monument Protection contributed a further 50,000 euros in July 2016.

Grinder and device for feeding the grist

In July 2007 Erhard Jahn, President of the German Society for Milling Customers and Mill Maintenance , was able to put the refurbished mill technology back into operation for the first time; the functionality of the machines from the 1940s was confirmed. The renovation of equipment and drive technology was carried out by the mill builder Axel Brüggemann. For this purpose, among other things, 80 wooden combs for the drive in the cellar, the wooden frame (vat) of the grinding process and the oat crusher were newly made.

Architecture and equipment

The ensemble consists of the mill and the miller's house. The residential building is probably the oldest residential building in Meckenheim with building structures from the 17th century. The two-storey building stands on a base and was built in a partially preserved half-timbered construction. Parts fell victim to a fire in 1908.

The mill building was originally one-story and also stands on a high base. After the fire at the beginning of the 20th century, only the foundation walls made of quarry stone (date inscription 1667) remained here . The reconstruction took place in 1911 and 1912. At the beginning of the 1920s, the timber-framed mill was extended. A canopy, which is no longer preserved, made it possible to unload grain even when it rained. The remains of a bag lift are still there. In the basement of the mill building is the room for the mill wheel, equipped with reinforced walls. Up until the fire in 1908, there was probably a medium-sized drive here , which was probably initially replaced by an overshot mill wheel with a diameter of 3.10 meters and shortly afterwards by an 11 HP water jet turbine . In addition, a 30 HP gas engine was installed in 1912 . In 1937/38 this drive was replaced by a 30 hp diesel engine that came from a cinema in Duisburg . Until 1944, the electricity for lighting was generated by a dynamo connected to the transmission . In that year, due to the war, the main drive was switched to electricity, and the mill was connected to the RWE public electricity network. The 30 HP electric motor from 1943, which was then used, is still in the extension of the building today.

The partially renovated mill bears the label "Mühlenwerke Hufschlag".

Mühlbach

The Mühlgraben is fed by the Swistbach, near which the Obere Mühle is located. The trench is diverted below Münchhausen Castle, about 1500 meters away from the mill. The construction of an otherwise common mill pond for damming the water was dispensed with at the upper mill ; Instead, an elaborate system of ditches with nested trenches was created to generate the necessary water pressure on the mill wheel. Possibly the trenches were also used for fish farming. After the mill had passed through, the water flowed back into the Swistbach through a still existing drainage ditch.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gabriele von Törne, Mühlentag in Lüftelberg: Between Klappern and Klönen , May 26, 2015, Kölnische Rundschau
  2. ↑ a b c Yearbook of the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis , Rhein-Sieg-Kreis (Ed.), Rheinland-Verlag, 1995, p. 16
  3. ↑ Martina Welt, GA interview: Sibylle Freifrau von Nordeck: "The commitment is admirable" , April 9, 2014, Bonner General-Anzeiger
  4. ↑ Gabriele von Törne, Meckenheimer Baudenkmal The Haferquetsche is functional again , July 6, 2017, Bonner Rundschau

Coordinates: 50 ° 37 ′ 6.1 ″  N , 7 ° 1 ′ 46.8 ″  E