"The Mühlenhof, also called (Electoral) Ross and watermill, is a historic grain and oil mill in today Linn belonging to Krefeld.
The mill is located as part of a farm complex east of the old town of Linn on the outer castle and moat. This moat, formed by the dammed Linner Mühlenbach, also served as a water reservoir for the mill.
Noteworthy is the double drive: Normally, the grinder was driven by a water wheel; but if the mill creek did not carry enough water, there was the possibility of evading a Roßwerk, that is, a goepel driven by workhorses.
The mill is first documented in 1602, but it is believed that the mill is similar in age to the castle Linn and the associated city, which was used to supply the mill. The mill was formerly, as was the nearby Geismühle, a table mill of the Cologne archbishops and electors, rulers of the office Linn and lords of the castle Linn, and enjoyed Mühlenzwang in the parish Lank.
The disadvantage of the favorable location for water supply on the moat, for example, proved in the Thirty Years' War: the mill was unprotected from attacks outside the city fortification, was therefore plundered several times. Finally, it was completely destroyed during the Kurhessian occupation of Linn (1643-45), possibly because it was in the way of an extension of the fortifications. Then it was rebuilt in 1650 as an oil and grain mill.
After the Napoleonic conquest of the left bank of the Rhine Mühlenhof came in the year 1805/06 in the context of the secularization of the archiepiscopal estates together with the castle Linn in the possession of the Krefelder silk manufacturer Isaac de Greiff. This left the mill yard to expand to a four-wing farmyard in its present form until 1816, with the watermill in the south wing, the Roßmühle was integrated into the north wing.