Technisches Denkmal Spreewehrmühle e.V.

Description

Located on the Spree in the centre of Cottbus is the Spreewehrmühle, a listed watermill that is of particular importance as one of the few surviving river mills in Germany and as the only example of its kind in the new federal states. It stands directly beside the Großen Spreewehr near the diversion of the Hammergraben and forms a technical-historical ensemble there.

The site goes back to the construction of the Hammergraben in the 16th century, which was diverted from the Spree to supply a hammer mill and the adjacent pond landscape; the canal was first mentioned in 1554. The associated weir was altered several times and repeatedly suffered damage from floods. An 18th-century account praises the large open arch (Freiarche) with high flow rates; after a devastating flood in 1830 there was a shift to solid masonry structures (1832/33), remnants of which with six stepped, granite-capped piers are still visible today. The old weir was listed as a historic monument in 2014; during workshop work on a fish ladder the eastern pier was repaired.

The mill complex itself was built at the end of the 18th century as a pile-supported building housing an oil mill and a groats mill and was later expanded into a grinding and fulling mill. Its operation was tied to a second water right, so priority was given to the Hammergraben, the ironworks and the fish ponds. In the 19th and early 20th centuries technical modernisations took place, additional steam engines were installed and in 1903 the mill was connected to the electrical grid; in 1904 the mill passed into municipal ownership. After the Second World War milling capacity was increased; regular operation ended in 1959. In the 1960s parts of the complex were preserved and developed as an exhibit; its use as a museum continued until 2001, and in 2007 a mill association took over its care.

The two-storey building is a timber-frame construction with a gabled roof and, after restorations in the 1980s and the addition of dormers, today presents the appearance from that period. The original machinery from the 1950s was lost; the present mill machinery was reconstructed in 1985/86 using parts from regional mills. The installation operates as a single-stage rye milling system with three working floors; the wooden shaft transmits roughly 15 kW into the interior. Extensive repairs and replacement measures on the waterwheel between 2015 and 2020 restored its functionality for demonstration runs. The Spreewehrmühle thus remains a vivid testament to the regional history of hydraulic engineering and mill technology.