Hydroelectric power plant in Zülow, Hydroelectric power station in Sternberg, Germany.

The Wasserkraftwerk Zülow is a red brick powerhouse with a red tiled roof, taller on its right corner, where three pairs of green double doors stand below two windows and a lamp on a bracket. Its left range has five tall rectangular windows. Water from the Mildenitz canal drops 22 metres through a 1.80-metre concrete pipe to two Francis turbines.

Plans for generating electricity here date to 1908, but construction by Philipp Holzmann AG only began in 1922 after World War I. The state-founded Mecklenburg-Schwerin Landes-Elektrizitätswerke completed the plant, which fed into the grid in 1924. In 1945 Soviet troops dismantled the original turbine sets, breaking through the machine hall wall with a tank; the present turbines date from 1954 and the generators were renewed in 2005.

The plant's name comes from the village of Zülow, east of Sternberg, where the Mildenitz was diverted over 5.8 kilometres to feed it. The water passes a 250-metre tunnel, a small lake and a second reservoir before dropping 22 metres to the turbines. The tunnel was built as compensation so the fields of the Oertzen family stayed connected after expropriation.

The plant stands in Zülow, east of Sternberg, on the Mildenitzkanal within an end moraine ridge. The preserved ensemble includes the canal, concrete bridges over it, the gauge house, the intake structure, the residential house and the machine hall; the 1954 switchgear and rake system are kept as museum pieces. The grounds are private property since 2004, so view the buildings from outside.

In 1945 Red Army soldiers broke through the machine hall's outer wall with a tank to reach the large turbines; a large gate now stands where the hole was. The two turbine sets date from 1954, while the generators were renewed in 2005. The plant has belonged to a private owner since 22 April 2004.