cycle trail ‚hammer mills & mills‘

Felsmühle

An interesting location
The Felsmühle is the oldest flour mill in the former Grafenwoehr district and is recorded on old maps. A stone with the year 1462 on the mill testified to its age until 1945. In 1948, during the reconstruction of the bombed mill, this stone was not visibly walled in. Its location on the Creußen River and at the outlet of the former Felsenweiher pond is special; this was a reservoir since the Middle Ages. It served as a protection for the city in the north and east. In 1569, after about 200 years of existence, it was drained, because in the meantime the city wall had been extended.

Water power from the mill race
After the Felsweiher pond was drained, the artificial mill stream was created to provide the Felsmühle with water power from the Creußen. A weir near the Saliterer diverted the water. In addition, the town acquired the Felsmühle and leased it out. However, the previous owner family Podenmeyr bought the mill back from the town in 1580.

War, floods, fires
The owners and tenants of the mill changed often. During the Thirty Years‘ War (1618-1648), the Felsmühle was plundered by Swedes due to its location outside the city walls. The miller at that time, Strobl, got into trouble and had to give up his plan to add an oil and linseed mill to the business. About a hundred years later, at the request of the Grafenwöhr tanners and clothiers, the miller Reng planned the construction of a tanning mill for the comminution of vegetable tanning agents.

In 1774, tax invoices of the Pflegamt show that the property was divided, two thirds were taxed to the miller’s widow, one third to the new miller Mayr. In 1815/16 the renewal of the Felsmühl bridge over the Mühlbach mill stream is mentioned, after the old one was destroyed by floods. Around 1912 a new one was built of stone.

In 1840 the Felsmühle fell victim to a fire and was rebuilt by the then miller Thomas Meyer. The plans from that time have been preserved. Three generations of Meyer were followed by a miller Holzgartner until 1867, then two generations of Fiedler. Barbara Zeitler married into this family. Her brother Michael exchanged his property for the mill of the Fiedlers in 1889. Thus the Felsmühle came into the possession of the Zeitler family, which still lives here today.

The mill in the 20th century

In 1914 the 4.80 m high mill wheel was renewed by the miller and the wooden inlet was concreted. In the mid-1920s, a brown bread bakery was added to the mill operation. The mill was almost destroyed during the bombing in 1945, only the mill wheel survived the attack. Heinrich Zeitler (*1884) rebuilt the mill with brown bread bakery in 1948 with his wife Maria. Son Heinrich Zeitler (*1931), the last miller, continued the family business until 1965. In that year, the Felsmühl road was extended and, in the process, the mill stream, which had provided the mill’s water power for around 400 years, was filled in and the mill’s water rights were taken away.

Felsmühle with former mill stream, postcard from 1930