Steinbacher Mill
The Steinbacher mill is on the Neckar situated historic mill property in to Neckarzimmern counting hamlet Steinbach in Neckar-Odenwald in northern Baden-Württemberg . In the plant, initially only used as a flour mill, gypsum was also ground from 1841. From 1914, the mill building was used to produce electricity for the gypsum tunnel in Neckarzimmern , and later for a short time for all of Neckarzimmern and Haßmersheim . From 1929 at the latest, the mill was only used for storage or workshop purposes. Due to structural changes, the old mill building has meanwhile been expanded into a larger hall complex.
history
A miller in Steinbach was first mentioned in 1555, the mill itself was first mentioned in 1564. In 1602 it was owned by the Lords of Berlichingen , who at that time owned Hornberg Castle above Steinbach and thus exercised the manorial rule over Neckarzimmern and Steinbach. After 1630 the mill was owned by various millers and also by the lords of Gemmingen , who had meanwhile been raised as landlords . Erpho von Gemmingen sold the mill in 1683 to Georg Philipp Heuss, who already sold it in 1689, but is again called a miller in 1702. In 1784, like all other Neckar mills, the mill probably fell victim to an extreme flood. Nothing is known about the duration of the reconstruction until a master miller Maysack is named as the owner in 1829. In 1841 plaster of paris was found near the mill, whereupon plaster of paris began to be ground in the mill. After several changes of ownership, a Mannheim speculator appeared as the owner in 1889. In 1890/91 the barons of Gemmingen bought the property again and modernized it. The mill was used as a water drive, a gypsum mill with a gypsum distillery, a grain mill and a sawmill. From 1895 plasterboards were also made, the workforce was around 20 to 30 people. The gypsum processing in the mill was closely linked to the gypsum gallery in Neckarzimmern .
In 1914, BASF acquired the mill and the gypsum gallery. Since the extracted gypsum was processed in the nitrogen works in Oppau in the future, the mill operation ended. Instead, the mill was used to generate electricity for the gypsum tunnel and a gypsum crushing plant at Neckarzimmern train station . In the 19th century, only the Gasthaus Zur Steinbacher Mühle was located near the mill . Numerous other buildings were built under the direction of BASF, some as workshops, some as residential buildings for the workforce. After the Reichsschwefelwerk was built on the opposite side of the Neckar in Haßmersheim during the First World War , the mill supplied Neckarzimmern and Haßmersheim with electricity from 1918. After the establishment of a nationwide power supply, turbine operation in the mill ended. All machines were removed from the building by 1929 at the latest. The mill was used as a granary, from 1942 foreign workers and prisoners of war were quartered in the building.
While the Reichsschwefelwerk was dismantled after the First World War and the gypsum tunnel in Neckarzimmern attained military importance that lasted the war during the Second World War , the buildings in Steinbach, which were still owned by BASF after 1945, were rented to various companies. The buildings fell into disrepair, in particular due to their use by the Ratay tannery. In the late 1950s, BASF finally sold the building to Curt Baumann , who also ran a tannery there, although the population was initially opposed to it because of the poor experience with the previous tannery. In the mid-1960s, Baumann relocated the tannery to the place of origin of the hides to be tanned in Montevideo . The halls in Steinbach then came to Carl Fach from Thayngen, who wanted to manufacture cosmetic products there. A fire and the expansion of the B 27 led to the demolition or modification of some buildings. For a time the building complex was then used by Sunkist as a bottling plant; today workshops and a furniture store have moved into the building. The original mill building has now merged into a larger hall complex, but the gable of the building and its roof shape still bear witness to its great age.
literature
- Volker Gierth: The Steinbacher Mühle . In: Mosbacher Hefte 15 , Mosbach 2005, pp. 168–182.
Coordinates: 49 ° 18 ′ 37.4 ″ N , 9 ° 8 ′ 50.1 ″ E