The history of the Riesenmühle
For centuries the water of the Riesbach has driven a mill here. This timeline shows a small selection of the documents and photos that have survived. Click any image to enlarge it.
1374: Earliest written record
In a letter of 1 September 1947 to the tenant at the time, Hans Mehringer, the von Münchhausen estate dates the mill back to 1374, adding that it is probably even older: “The present building was built as a mill by my direct ancestor, Börries von Münchhausen, in 1569.”
Letter from the von Münchhausen estate, 1 September 1947, with the year 1374 highlighted 1569: The present mill house is built
Börries von Münchhausen had the present mill house built in 1569. His coat-of-arms stone with the date can still be seen on the building. The old photo of a water wheel comes from Wilhelm Kleeberg’s book on the history of mills in Lower Saxony.
Old black-and-white photo: the rubble-stone mill house with its steep tiled roof 
Coat-of-arms stone of the von Münchhausen family, inscribed “Borias von Monichusen Anno Dni 1569” 
Historic photo of a large water wheel against a rubble-stone wall 1792: A new lease
From 1777 to 1794 the master miller Christoph Knapwurst ran the mill as a tenant and raised seven children here. His lease of 1792 with Franz Carl von Münchhausen is still kept by his descendant Georg Knappworst.
1903: An inventory
The inventory of 5 January 1903 describes the water wheel of the time: 4.28 metres in diameter, 1.5 metres wide, with eight arms. In April 1903 the garden and fields were listed too.
1948: A turbine replaces the wheel
The tenant Hans Mehringer replaced the water wheel with a Francis turbine built in 1947 by Maierwerk of Bielefeld. It still runs today, see Water power.
Maierwerk data sheet from 1947: ordered by H. Mehringer mill, Apelern; head 5.1 m, 142 litres per second, 480 rpm, 7.7 hp 
Concrete block housing the turbine at the mill wall, the waterfall beside it 1959: Veit Richter rebuilds the mill
By then the buildings had fallen into disrepair. The miller Veit Richter bought the property and restored it over many years. The Richter family also dug out the silted-up pond and brought a timber-framed bakehouse from Brelingen to the mill yard.
The mill yard when Veit Richter bought it: mill house and dilapidated timber-framed barn 
Mrs Richter in the revived mill yard 
Silted-up pond in front of the old house 
The re-dug pond in front of the new house 
The half-timbered bakehouse in the mill yard 1960: The army builds the bridge
During an exercise in 1960 the German army built the bridge over the Riesbach. Veit Richter reinforced it with steel girders in 2001.
1960: an army lorry with a crane lifts a bridge section over the Riesbach 
The bridge built in 1960, with the mill house and barn behind 
Renovating the covered bridge in 2001: new planks on the substructure 
Veit Richter at work on the bridge 2018: We move in
Since 2018 we, Theresia and Bernard, have lived at the Riesenmühle. More about us
Rowing boat at the jetty on the mill pond
