The Eichenmühle

History of the oak mill part 1The mill, once an important link in the chain of human supply, was also very important in the Hursrück, it is the oldest testimony in the history of technology, and in the mill man first used the energy of the water to drive it. In the past, almost every smaller village in the Hunsrück owned one or more mills. These were often small, inconspicuous functional buildings that were located off the road in a stream valley, and did not resemble the stately buildings that you think of spontaneously when you hear the term mill. Most of the mills were used for grinding grain, for pressing oil, or for sawing. Wherever many tanners had settled, tacker mills were also profitable. Fulling mills were also built in places where woolen weavers practiced their craft. From the middle of the 12th century, the territorial lords introduced the mill compulsion. The mill compulsion obliged all subjects to have their grain ground exclusively in the Bannmühle, thus ensuring the miller a constant income for centuries. Violations of the ban law were punished. In the course of the 17th century the pressure to mill was loosened and cooperatives or farmers' mills gradually emerged. These were founded and maintained by small farmers' associations. There were many cooperative mills in the Kirchberg area in particular: the comrades shared the duties of the miller's trade one after the other. The meal community often had a mill school in front of which the sequence in the mill was determined. In the beginning of the 19th century, with the introduction of the freedom of trade in the entire German area, the ban law was abolished. Everyone could now grind freely wherever and with whom he wanted. Source: Text information board

History of the oak mill part 2The oak mill was located west of Kirchberg in the Kyrbachtal between the old Roman road and today's housing estate Dillendorf-Liederbach and already existed in 1483. In 1577 a new mill building was probably built. The name Eichenmühle may have been derived from the Baden Truchseßen Johann Jakob Eich, who lived in Kirchberg between 1553 and was the owner of the mill. Some of the millers in the second half of the 17th century were also brewers at the same time. In May 1892 the Scheidhauer family opened a "summer restaurant Eichenmühle restaurant" with billiards and a bowling alley, and in 1894 it was given up again. In 1894 the mill came into the possession of the Jew Jakob Aaronson and was used as an oil, grinder and barley mill. In April 1898 the mill building was destroyed by fire. In 1903/1904 the newly founded Nieder Kostenzer Mühlengesellschaft acquired the burned down oak mill, had it demolished and built a new grinding mill in the same place. The Nieder Kostenz company mill was in operation until 1964. In the same year it was sold to the city of Kirchberg and demolished in March 1965. Source: Text information board

A circuit of the gentler kind and yet a lot to see. Whimsy better walk.