Siegfriedmühle, Historical gristmill in Xanten, Germany.
Siegfriedmühle is a seven-story conical brick tower mill of the gallery Dutch type, with a wooden gallery encircling the third floor and a tail pole. Its four sail-bar lattice wings span more than 25 meters. The lower two floors held the miller's living quarters, while the sack and grain chambers occupied the third and fourth floors and the milling floors the fifth and sixth.
The Siegfriedmühle was probably built in 1744 as a grain mill outside the town walls of Xanten. In 1771 it passed into hereditary lease to the Schmitz family. A steam engine was added in 1854 alongside wind power, and from 1928 the mill ran on steam alone. Lightning struck in 1912 and halted milling; World War II damage led to reconstruction in the 1960s with replaced masonry and new sails.
The mill is part of the Archaeological Park and shows how people in the region processed grain and what role mills played in everyday life. Visitors can see today how these buildings shaped the economic life of the area.
The ground floor now houses a restaurant where visitors can dine during their visit, while the upper levels display the original functional areas. The location sits on easily accessible grounds and can be viewed from outside, even if not all areas are open to the public.
Locals call it the Xanten Coffee Grinder (Xantener Kaffeemühle) because the conical brick tower with its cap and sails resembles a hand coffee grinder. The mill also carries the name Biermanns Mühle, after the maiden name of the last private owner, née Biermann, who brought the land into her marriage.
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