A 400-year-old mill still in the same old grind
Go on, admit it! Old Europe’s much vaunted historical monuments can sometimes be quite boring. Whether you’re being herded around an overpriced Schloss or listening to the earnest incantations of the guide in a rural museum, the past, while perhaps not quite dead, is often “un-alive.” People-less and functionless history becomes abstract and ungraspable. It is, therefore, a rare pleasure to discover a working historical site. The Hofbräuhaus-Mühle, a tiny mill at the very heart of Munich, has been pounding grain of one type or another for more than 400 years and looks set to continue for a while yet.
The mill, which lies on Neuturmstrasse, behind the Hofbräuhaus, just within what was once the old city wall—the lower floors of the building are actually part of the former fortifications—began its working life sometime before 1570, functioning as a malt grinder for the Hofbrauerei (Royal Brewery) next door. In 1870, the royal brewers moved to new premises, in Haidhausen, rendering the mill redundant. It was then sold into private ownership and converted to its present use as a wheat mill. Over the centuries, the mill has expanded and contracted according to the economic climate. There are currently four people on the payroll, including the company truck driver.
The interior of the Hofbräuhaus Mühle, found behind inconspicuous gray double doors, is a warren of rooms covering four floors. Ancient wooden floorboards tremble to the rhythm of the milling machines in which the grain is ground and sorted. The air is dusty with flour.
The first floor is the hub of this little -factory. Here, visitors can look directly into the machines and see grain being crushed by heavy steel rollers, while the present owner of the Hofbräuhaus Mühle, Stefan Blum, whose family bought the factory in 1921, sifts flour through layers of sieves to demonstrate how the grain is gradually refined.
For hundreds of years, the Hofbräuhaus Mühle was powered by water from a small canal called the Katzenbach, one of many man-made streams fed by the Isar that once crisscrossed the city, forming one of the primary sources of power for local industry. Both the mill and the Katzenbach have a special place in Munich’s history because it was from here that peasant-rebels planned to recapture Munich from the occupying Austro-Habsburg forces in 1705.
The peasants however, were betrayed and subsequently slaughtered by the imperial army. The municipal waterways continued to drive the mill until 1967, when local residents, angered by the number of children who drowned every year in the churning waters, forced local authorities to fill in the canal.
In the best tradition of a local company, the mill processes only grain grown in Bavaria. However, competition from other mills is stiff and production can no longer be expanded in the cramped rooms of the Neuturmstrasse 3, so the Hofbräuhaus Mühle has had to find a market niche for its finished product. Sadly, this means that you are unlikely to find flour from Blum’s company either at a nearby supermarket or in your breakfast roll. Instead, much of the flour goes to the pizza and ciabatta bakers of the city. There is also a shop next to the mill selling an enormous range of cereals for those who enjoy baking. For anyone wishing to try a real Blum product in an authentic Bavarian setting, they need go no further than the next Oktoberfest. Each September, the Hofbräuhaus Mühle delivers the flour used to make the extra-large Brez’n (soft pretzels) sold at the beer festival. And it’s not just any old flour that goes into this delectable and filling snack. It is specially milled and then left to “mature” for a couple of weeks before being baked and delivered to the Wies’n.
Anyone wishing to make the (one hour) tour of the Hofbräuhaus Mühle should call Stefan Blum a few days in advance, between 9 am and 5 pm, at Tel. 29 42 22. Groups of up to 20 can tour the mill for a total price of DM 120, or DM 150 if the tour is to be conducted in English. School classes may visit free of charge.
