Historic mill
Introduction
The Historic Sanssouci Mill is the reconstruction of a Dutch windmill initially built between 1787 and 1791, under the reign of Frederick William II of Prussia. It is located a few meters west of the Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam and has been popularized by its predecessor, which was associated with the legend The Miller of Sanssouci; hence the “historical” attribute.[1] Based on this narrative, he is associated above all with the Prussian king Frederick II.
At the end of World War II, the wooden mill structure burned down during military clashes. After renovation work was carried out on the stone base during the 1980s, its reconstruction was completed between 1991 and 1993. The mill building, which is managed by the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg (SPSG) and considered a national heritage site, is run by the Berlin-Brandenburg Mill Association in the form of a museum.
History
Pole mill (first mill)
At the beginning of the 18th century, in the reign of "Sergeant King" Friedrich Wilhelm I., Potsdam became a garrison and residential city. The subsequent increase in population made more windmills necessary, since the existing seven[2] were no longer sufficient for supply. The new constructions, subsidized by the king himself, were progressively acquired by the majority of the millers. In 1736, the miller Johann Wilhelm Ludewig Grävenitz, also Gräbenitz (* 1709),[3] received permission to build a pole mill on the "Wüsten Berg" mountain in the Bornstedt mountain range. The costs of the building, erected between 1737 and 1739, were around 800 thalers, and the annual rent was 40 thalers.[4] The rental income was collected by the Potsdam estate management office, then flowing into the public treasury.[4] In addition, the foundation of the military orphanage, founded in 1722, required a lease contract from Grävenitz, as owner of the land belonging to it. to the town and crown estate of Bornstedt, but he refused to pay. The disputes dragged on for years and ended only when the miller no longer had to pay land rent.[4].
Frederick II, monarch since 1740, ordered the construction of the summer palace of Sanssouci in 1745, just a few meters east of the mill. In addition to the inconvenience caused by the construction work, the miller feared future alterations in the wind currents that would render the wind mechanism useless, so he would complain to the king already during the construction phase. He commissioned the Chamber of War and Dominion to review the matter and wrote: would later lead to the rise of legends. In 1749, Grävenitz received permission to build another mill on the east side of the Palace, but it burned down shortly after its completion. Shortly afterwards he received 400 thalers from the king for the construction of a new mill in "Milchow-Wiesen", north of the current Potsdam central station"). In 1753 he sold the Palace mill for 800 thalers to the miller Kalatz, which however would quickly fall into debt.[6].