Gehlenberg Windmill and Museum Village

It's not just a mill, a Erdholländer standing there in Gehlenberg. In fact, the local history association has created a small historical village, almost an open-air museum with free admission, in a long and loving work.
The mill itself with a wooden shingle roof and codend dates from 1840 and still has the old grinder. Since 1980, the mill and the old Schute sawmill have been owned by the Gehlenberg-Neuvrees-Neulorup e.V. local history association, which subsequently completely renovated the bakehouse (built in 1927) with many volunteer helpers. Since then, bread has been regularly baked in the stone oven again.
Everytime on Sundays ...
From 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., the association offers coffee and homemade cakes in the newly designed hall of the Mühlenberg cultural center. During the summer season, around 80 Gehlenberg women bake the cakes and donate them to the village community.
Furthermore, toilets, a lounge and a local history museum were built by the Gehlenberger community. In the sawmill museum, the existing saws can be used again. There are also old agricultural machines and tools from craft trades (carpenter, wheelwright, turner, shoemaker, blacksmith, etc.) on display.
Outside, an old half-timbered school, a Göpel, a clod hut, a hermit's house, a wagon shed, as well as a ring kiln and drying shed of the former brickworks can be viewed.
In 2020, a 100 m² cottage garden surrounded by a picket fence was created. Just as it used to be found on the farms, the garden is divided into four areas (herbs, vegetables, strawberries and bee-friendly cottage garden flowers).

During the opening hours, all buildings on the site (school, Brush-Ollich-House, ring oven and local history museum) are open to the public. The expanded sawmill museum with the two large band saws, one of which dates back to 1890, two milling machines, a belt sander, a surface planer and a thicknesser, a sliding table saw and the historical saws that have been in existence up to now can also be visited. All machines can be demonstrated during guided tours. On the site in front of the sawmill there is an old timber crane and rails that transport the tree trunk directly into the horizontal gang saw from 1905. Right next door, the members of the village community have uncovered rails that lead to the large underfloor circular saw. The historic smithy, which is mainly equipped with machines and equipment from former Gehlenberg companies, is also open.
Every year there are about 60 guided tours in the Mühlenberg cultural center, which are conducted by Wilhelm Olliges or Hans Meyer. bookings are
at Olliges (04493/483)
or Meyer (04493/1240)
possible. The collections and buildings can also be visited every Sunday without a guided tour.

If you wanted to “highlight” all of northern Germany's mills, you would have a lot to do and it would be a bit boring. Here, however, unexpectedly there is a museum village “en miniature”. The detour is worthwhile, because you can not only look, but also experience something.

More information at thuelsfelder-talsperre.de/Region/24481-Friesoythe-Gehlenberg---Kulturzentrum-Muehlenberg.html