The first medieval „grain mill“

The location of the first medieval grain mill in Neuhaus is unknown. According to early official accounts from the middle of the 15th century, the „molen to dem Nyenhuiss“ together with the „Molner“ belonged to an outlying estate of the castle.[1] Assuming that this building was a water mill, the outlying mill must have been located on a natural or artificial watercourse.[2] A more recent account entry from 1603/04 refers to the maintenance or expansion of a millrace necessary for this: Work on a „Mollengrafft“, a „Mollengraben“ and a wooden „Floettwerck“ (weir) is mentioned.[3] Already a few years earlier a „Mollersche alhir“ is mentioned for Neuhaus itself, who sold „a fat pig“ to the castle kitchen for 4 and 5 Reichstaler each (1596/97). [4] Whether the miller’s wife lived directly north of the Paderborn gate bridge, where the 17th century „Mahlmühle“ stood, is a matter of conjecture. The expansion of the prince’s self-reliant economy, which also included supplying the court with rye flour and meal, probably went hand in hand with the castle expansion of the 1590s.[5] Under Prince-Bishop Dietrich von Fürstenberg, the sovereign grain mill was not initially leased to private individuals, but was run by wage-earning millers until well into the 17th century. In 1606/07, a „Hilbrandt d[er] Moller“ is mentioned by name, who probably made „Rennen“ (wooden pipes) for a wooden water pipe on behalf of the court together with his farmhands.[6]

Even after the Thirty Years’ War, the bishop’s grain mill apparently continued to operate on its own. At Easter 1664, the miller Boris Birckmeyer was paid 24 Reichstaler in „miller’s wages“ for one year’s work „for himself and his boy in addition to board“.[7] Similarly, there are no entries for leasing income from the „Neuhäuser Kornmühle“ in the official accounts for this period. The first leases to external millers appear in the early 18th century. In March 1711, master Johann Henrich Volmari asked the court chamber for an extension of his old four-year contract (1707),[8] in which he undertook to deliver an annual rent of 72 Malter of rye to the „Neuhäuser Kornschreiberei“ (Neuhaus granary). He was to have all the grain and malt consumed by the court milled and ground „multerfrey“, i.e. free of charge. The miller’s family was also required to fatten two pigs annually. Apparently the grain mill was badly damaged at the beginning of the lease (1707). By 1711 the building was thoroughly renovated, as indirectly evidenced by a weather vane dated „1710“.[9] Volmari’s more recent lease therefore explicitly notes that „the mill has been rebuilt completely from the ground up“. [10] After the Seven Years’ War, a water wheel of the hitherto two-stage grain mill, which was located opposite the mint house of Prince Bishop Wilhelm Anton von der Asseburg in 1764, is said to have been renewed.[11] The tenant of the later so-called „Roggenmühle“ (rye mill) is named in 1798 as the „Lippischer Amtmann Rötteken“, who, after giving up the old mint building (1783), wanted to convert it into a flat for the grain miller.

With the secularisation of 1802/03, the prince-bishop’s grain mill also became Prussian state property. From then on, the „Königliche Mahlmühle“ (royal grist mill) was issued to interested millers on a leasehold basis. In 1815 it already had three grinding gears, all of whose wheels turned on the west bank of the lower „Mühlenpader“.[12] According to the original cadastral entry of 1832, its owner was the master miller Heinrich Bodenstab.[13] In addition to the mill, the taxable property included a residential house of class 2, for which 2 Reichstaler had to be paid annually to the treasury. In the same year, in July 1832, master Bodenstab received royal permission to install a fourth grinding gear.[14] The wheel of this new „Graupengang“ was located opposite the three water wheels on the eastern bank of the Pader, with the grinding gear installed in the “altes Müntz=Gebäude” (old mint building).