The Berger Mühle, built by Peter Molineus in 1654, is one of the oldest surviving half-timbered buildings in the Bergisches Land. Originally a fruit mill was operated here. In the 1930s, however, it was converted into a residential building.
Mills were of great economic importance. The different products were created with the power of water. In the Berger mill, the water wheel turned heavy millstones, which ground grain – especially rye and oats – into flour. Six other mills in the Eifgen Valley served the same purpose. Above the Berger Mühle these were the Wellermühle and the Eipringhauser Mühle, below the Finkenholler Mühle, Neumühle, Rausmühle and Markusmühle.
The iron processing trades also relied on hydropower. In plants near Frohntal as well as at Hutzhammer and Bökershammer, the mill wheels moved hammers and the bellows of the forge fire. A powder mill already existed at the Bökershammer site. Here the water wheel set in motion rams that mixed the various raw materials of black powder. The bone mills produced fertilizer for the farmer. Here, too, the rotary movement of the wheel was transferred to the up and down of the ram via a camshaft. One location was next to the Berger Mühle.
Oil mills were important in the days long before electric light was introduced. Lamp and cooking oil was pressed from rapeseed and Rüberkamen. The cloth manufacturers used fulling mills in the production of fine cloths from the Bergisches Land.
(Text on the information board on site)