Röpckes mill

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The Röpckes mill in Uetersen was the largest mill in Schleswig-Holstein until 1962 .

history

Röpckes Mühle in the background, in front of it the horse-drawn tram - around 1900

The mill was founded in 1851 by Johann Röpcke in Uetersen. The building was built in the traditional half-timbered style and was already large for the times. At first it was operated as a Göpel mill. The mill was powered by horse power . Mainly oat groats and buckwheat groats were produced , which were sold in small shops. In 1883 the son Martin Röpcke took over the mill and had the building demolished in 1887 in order to set up a larger mill there. A large steam engine now powered the new roller mills . These were equipped with porcelain rollers and later gave their name to the famous Porlan flour . In addition to groats and meal , wheat flour was also made during this period . This was initially sold in the Holstein region as well as in Altona and Hamburg . Four covered wagons with two horses each were used for the transport, and they were out and about every day. In the following years the company was expanded further. In 1894 and 1897, the two sons Johannes and Adolf joined the company. In the meantime, Martin Röpcke had started making contacts in the Nordic countries in order to open up sales markets for his wheat flour there. Together, the export business was further expanded and agencies were set up in Denmark , Finland , Norway and Sweden . The export achieved considerable sales figures for Porlan wheat flour . Large quantities of this flour were later exported to South Africa .

The high sales figures made it difficult to buy wheat . This now also had to be purchased from abroad. He was brought by ship across the Pinnau to the Uetersen harbor and reloaded there. In 1905 the large grain silo was built to store the flour. The workforce of the company had meanwhile increased to around 40 employees and they processed around 100 tons of grain in 24 hours. At the end of the 1920s, export business to the Nordic countries declined, but domestic demand for wheat flour increased. In order to cope with domestic demand, the company's own horse-drawn vehicle fleet was abolished and a forwarding company took over the transport of the wheat flour together with the Uetersen railway .

On March 24, 1938, there was a major fire in the mill. The fire brigade summoned was initially powerless to face the flames. The neighboring fire brigades from Moorrege , Heist , Groß Nordende and Elmshorn were called for help immediately . The Elmshorn fire brigade advanced with their then ultra-modern automobile ladder. Another 100 air force soldiers came from Uetersen Air Base to help. In the early afternoon part of the silo roof collapsed. In the evening the fire was finally under control and the first emergency services could be withdrawn. The extinguishing work, however, continued for a few days. The badly damaged grain silo was rebuilt and expanded. With a capacity of over 3000 tons of grain, it became one of the largest silos in Schleswig-Holstein. In 1951 the company wanted to celebrate the company's centenary, but the Second World War , the post-war period and currency reform destroyed this plan, as the company was already struggling to survive. In 1956, the mill was modernized again to make it competitive again. The old steam engines were replaced by modern tar oil engines with an output of 240  hp . But the efforts were in vain. The large wheat-growing regions in Pomerania and East Prussia were lost during the Second World War . The wheat now had to be imported from overseas and transport was too expensive. The mill was shut down in 1962. Barley was still processed in the mill until 1968. In total, over 20 million quintals of wheat flour were produced in the company from 1851 to 1968 . In 1980, Röpckes Mühle was demolished as part of the redesign of the town center. Today only a street name and a five-story residential building remind of the former mill.

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Coordinates: 53 ° 41 ′ 3.5 ″  N , 9 ° 39 ′ 45.4 ″  E