Lambertsmühle: A Historic Watermill and Local-History Museum in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Berg, German, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Economic
- Remains
- Watermill
On this page13 sections
History
Lambertsmühle is a former watermill in Germany, located in Burscheid in the wooded Wiembach valley. The mill probably originated in the twelfth century during the settlement of the Bergisches Land and later served as the compulsory mill of Haus Landscheid, a knightly estate. Farmers working the estate’s fields were required to bring their grain there for milling and to pay their dues at the same time.
Landscheid and the mill’s early names
The mill remained under the lordship of Landscheid until 1751. It was known as Hunds-Mühle and was also recorded as “die Honne” or “Honns-Mühle.” Its present name probably derives from Lambert, a man probably born around 1570 whom the lords of Landscheid authorized to live at the mill.
In 1751 Peter Busch, the last tenant, bought the property from the noble estate of Baron von Hall of Landscheid. Busch sold it ten years later to the miller Philipp Klein. The mill burned down in February 1766 and was rebuilt immediately in the half-timbered form that survives today.
Operation and decline
The Klein family owned the mill farm until 1858, after which the property passed through several owners. The bakery incorporated into the complex stopped operating in February 1942. Milling with the old machinery continued until December 1956 under Ernst Maibüchen, the last operator from the miller-baker families who worked at Lambertsmühle.
Large industrial mills and the animal-feed industry increasingly competed with the local mill. Orders for feed meal declined, and the iron waterwheel was not repaired after it came loose from its anchorage. The mill’s old legal privilege, or mill right, consequently lapsed.
Preservation and museum use
The Maibüchen couple transferred the mill complex to the city of Burscheid on the condition that a local-history museum be established there. The city council accepted the arrangement in December 1994 but did not have the funds to complete it. The Association for the Promotion of Lambertsmühle in Burscheid was founded for this purpose on 11 January 1995.
The association restored the buildings, returned the machinery to working order, and installed a 200-year-old loom in the former salt room. The mill resumed operation for demonstration purposes in 2002. The museum presents the former mill estate and its equipment, explains the process from grain to bread, and describes other former mills in Burscheid and its associated localities through text and images. Lambertsmühle has been a protected architectural monument in Burscheid since 1983, listed under number 22.
Remains
Main mill building
The principal building is a multi-storey half-timbered structure with a gabled roof that formerly housed the grain store. Its gable end borders the mill pond and carries the waterwheel. The original residential rooms survive with traditional Cologne ceilings, a regional form made with exposed timber beams and infill, together with their doors.
Inside the mill are the grain, stone, and flour floors, a milling mechanism, and a stone bread oven. The wholemeal grist leaves the milling mechanism through a flour chute and can be used to bake bread or cakes.
Water power and milling equipment
Watercourse and wheel
Water is diverted from the Wiembach about 200 metres upstream and collected in a mill pond. From there it travels through a headrace, without a dam, to the mill. Two sluices control the supply. After passing through the mill, the water returns to the Wiembach through a tailrace.
The mill contains an overshot waterwheel, driven by water falling onto its upper part, with a diameter of 5.60 metres. The wheel and gearing follow the form used at the mill until 1880 and are made of wood. The wheel shaft and spokes are oak, while the rims and buckets are larch. In the internal gearing, the spokes are oak, the rims are elm, and the teeth are hornbeam.
Milling mechanisms
Lambertsmühle originally had three milling mechanisms. A Dutch mill-building company restored one, completing the work in 2002. The millstones from the other two mechanisms, made of Mayen basalt, are displayed for demonstration purposes.
Farm buildings and workshops
Stable, coach house, and barn
A stable building dating from 1880 was formerly a cowshed and workshop. It now serves as a meeting and event room. The coach house contains a garage, workshop, and chicken house, while a barn houses agricultural machinery and equipment.
Craft workshops
The ensemble includes a functioning smithy with a forge, a woodworking shop, a wheelwright’s workshop, a shoemaker’s workshop, and a saddler’s workshop. A loom chamber contains a Gobelin loom, a handloom used to produce pictorial or decorative tapestry.
Domestic and agricultural features
Other parts of the complex include a kitchen, a wedding room, and a vaulted cellar with a wine cellar. In 2014, the association built the table-and-chair storehouse called St. Lambertus. The grounds contain an ecologically designed farm garden as well as working agricultural equipment, including an apple press and a threshing machine.
