The mill is located in the valley of the Ihne in the farming community of Mühlhofe (east of the district of Valbert) and, together with the mills in Fretter and Eslohe, is the last surviving bone mill in Westfalen. It was built around 1849 as a quarry stone building and took the place of a Kornmühle that had already existed since 1548.
The neighboring residential building dates from 1892. The purpose of the mill was to crush animal bones in order to produce flour, which was used as fertilizer in agriculture. The necessary driving power was supplied by the river Ihne, from which water is diverted about 250 meters from the mill and dammed in a pond. Since the renovation, the water continues underground in the adjoining millrace and drives an overshot water wheel on one side of the building, which is connected to a thumb shaft inside the mill.
This sets in motion the tampers suspended in a wooden frame, which crush the bones in an upstream trough-shaped depression. The bones themselves were either delivered by the butchers or brought from the surrounding slaughterhouses to the Kraghammer train station, from where they were transported to the mill by horse-drawn carts.
The first owner of the mill was Wilhelm Stamm, who traded extensively in the bone meal produced. Until the beginning of the Second World War, the flour was used exclusively as fertilizer. In 1939 this was forbidden to all such mills by a decree of the Reich government of the time, so for a short time soap and glue were produced from the crushed bones.
In 1944/45, the mill was shut down and began to deteriorate thereafter. In the 1980s, extensive renovation work was carried out with the support of the town of Meinerzhagen, the Märkischer Kreis district, the Office for Agricultural Regulations and the Westphalian Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments: Among other things, the rammer and the water wheel were restored, the pond was dredged again and the weir was renewed. The bone mill has been a listed building since 1986 and has been fully functional again since 1989.
An outside visit is possible at any time, from 1.5. until the beginning of winter every first Wednesday of the month from 15:00-17:00 or by individual arrangement with the Heimatverein Meinerzhagen the bone mill can be visited. Please contact in this regard:
Mr. Pätzold - Phone 02358-1624
Opening hours: every 1st Wednesday of the month (May until the beginning of winter) from 3 to 5 pm, on the Day of the Open Monument and on the German Mill Day.
Please note: the bone mill will be closed until the end of 2023!
Tourist information of the city of Meinerzhagen: 02354 / 77-132
Text source © Heimatverein Meinerzhagen
All information without guarantee!