Werhahnmühle

Eastern part of the Werhahnmühle with boiler house, chimney and silos, view over the Speichergracht (2008)

Werhahnmühle with evening lighting

Western part with a large window front in front of the facade

Entrance to the Legoland Discovery Center, in the foreground the Hansegracht

The Werhahnmühle in Duisburg's inner harbor is an office, museum and catering complex in the former silo and mill buildings of the Rheinische Mühlenwerke Herm. & Wilh. Werhahn OHG.

history

In 1896 Jacob Cohen built the first mill building and founded the Cohen Mill, later called the Rheinische Mühlenwerke . After his death in 1919, his sons Wilhelm Cohen (then chairman of the Duisburg-Wesel Chamber of Commerce and Industry) and Hugo Cohen (judge at the Duisburg Regional Court) took over the mill and rebuilt it after a fire in 1924. To finance the construction, cousins Herrmann and Wilhelm Werhahn from Neuss already took a 25% stake in this business in 1924. In 1935 the company was converted into an open investment company. On January 3, 1936, the co-shareholders Werhahn acquired 100% of the company and the company name changed to Rheinische Mühlenwerke Herm. & Wilh. Werhahn OHG. The Jewish Cohen family managed to emigrate to South America, so they could survive the Nazi era.

In 1969 the mill itself was shut down and it was merged to form Mühle Küppers & Werner KG in Duisburg - Homberg. The state grain reserves were stored in the old stores until 1994. The demolition could be prevented by a citizens' initiative. The master plan from Foster + Partners for the inner harbor provided for the preservation of the old industrial, storage and logistics buildings.

From 2001 to 2002 the entire building complex (approx. 27,000 m³ of enclosed space) was converted into exhibition space, offices, restaurants and medical practices by the building company Franz Brüggemann on behalf of GEBAG for 3.3 million euros. The buildings, which are now under monument protection, were either gutted down to the outer walls and load-bearing structures and rebuilt inside or completely removed and rebuilt in their old form. Some of the buildings were combined to form an ensemble (western storage facility, flour silo, material chutes), and some of the facade was interrupted over a large area with a separate window front (western facade in the silo area).

Building complex

The complex is located on both sides of the Speichergracht directly at the inner harbor. The buildings span 60 years of port and architectural history.

In 1896 the eastern warehouse was built by the Cohen brothers, in 1899 the western one by Ostwald & Levy. The simple brick buildings have a gable roof and are equipped with wooden posts or cast iron supports on the inside. The grain was stored in sacks or loose in bins.

The actual mill is located further to the west and was rebuilt in reinforced concrete frame construction after the fire of the first building in 1924. The regular, wide row of the facade results from the batteries of roller mills installed inside.

In 1934 the boiler house and chimney were added, and in 1938 the workshop.

In 1938 a new concrete silo with brick cladding was built between the mill and the old warehouse. It could hold a maximum of 12,000 tons of grain.

In 1959 the western warehouse was the last new building to receive a seven-story extension, consisting of a flour silo and transport systems for bag chutes.

Todays use

The larger of the storage buildings, now known as the IN'N Hafen business office , offers around 12,500 m² of high-quality office space. The restaurants on the ground floor and in the old sack warehouse use outdoor terraces on the Speichergracht and the promenade area to the port, including a pontoon anchored there. The Atlantis Children's Museum was initially housed in the former mill ; from April 2008 to 2012, the Legoland Discovery Center Duisburg was located there on approx. 3,500 square meters of exhibition space . The operators were Josef Kuhr and In'n Hafen GbR .

In the spring of 2007, an Australian fund acquired the building complex, but did not use or rent it.

On December 12, 2011, Alltours Flugreisen bought the Werhahnmühle at the foreclosure auction at Duisburg District Court for 17 million euros. According to the appraisal, the approximately 11,500 m³ rental space on the 3,748 m² property was worth EUR 17.1 million, plus two parking spaces with a total of around 300 parking spaces. Alltours already uses an office building on the other side of the inner harbor and wants to use the mill itself as well as rent it to other interested parties. The Children's Museum Explorado has been continuing the Atlantis tradition since May 2013 .

Since October 2017 the Werhahnmühle has been home to the "innovation platform" Startport launched by the Port of Duisburg . In a one-year accelerator program, start-ups with a logistics focus are specifically supported. As a result, the AI start-up Heuremo has also been in the Werhahnmühle since March 2018.

Web links

Commons : Werhahnmühle  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• History of the inner harbor on Innenhafen-Portal.de
• Business-Kontor in'n Hafen GbR Official website
• Pictures of the renovation
• Information on the renovation from the Brüggemann construction company

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mill now belongs to Australians.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Rheinische Post , December 10, 2007.  
2. ^ Bread basket of the Ruhr area. In: Innenhafen-portal.de .
3. ↑ Alltours buys Werhahnmühle. In: Rheinische Post , December 13, 2011.
4. ↑ Startport website. Retrieved August 21, 2018 . 

Coordinates: 51 ° 26 ′ 26.6 ″  N , 6 ° 46 ′ 19.6 ″  E