Like the Black Pond and the Hausgraben before it, the (upper) Messingschlägerteich is fed by the Piepenbek, which has its headwaters in the foal paddock. There was also a lower Messingschlägerteich, which was drained when the railway line was built in 1864. South of the railway embankment, the street name Messingmühle still indicates this. All of these ponds were created for fish farming at the time of the Reinfeld monastery.
The Messingschlägerteich is a place of idyllic nature. However, its current name came about later. It points to a site of early industrialization, namely the use of water power to operate a hammer mill. Location descriptions from 1854 show that there were brass mills at both ponds, which were formerly called Großer and Kleiner Wohlersteich. Both mills were "closed down" in 1804. Until 1796 there was a third copper mill at Düvelsbrook, which is in the lowlands of the Mühlenau (Heilsau) not far from the Kalkgraben.
As early as the end of the 16th century, under the Plön dukes, numerous commercial mills were built: grain, tanning and powder mills. From around 1600, the demand for copper sheeting increased enormously to protect ship hulls against shipworm. As a result, hydropower-driven hammer mills were built in many places. Under Danish rule, the raw copper could be obtained duty-free from Norway. Large quantities of wood and peat were available on site to heat the annealing furnaces and restore the pliability of the hammered copper sheet. Brass, an alloy of copper and zinc with improved properties, was later used.