Damaging, Destroying and Rebuilding of Watermills and Windmills in the Late-Medieval State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia
Damaging, Destroying and Rebuilding of Watermills and Windmills in the Late-Medieval State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia

Summary/Abstract: Watermills and windmills were an important infrastructural element in villages and towns of the late Middle Ages, which made it possible to grind proper volumes of grain and malt required for the production of two of the most important food products of the time: bread and beer. As such, they were vul­nerable to destruction during military conflicts of the period. Obviously, damaging or destroying watermills and windmills also occurred as a result of natural causes: atmospheric factors (surging waters, broken dykes in the case of watermills, or strong winds when it comes to windmills). Many installations of that type deteriorated through ongoing wear and tear as well as a lack of proper maintenance or sometimes even a conscious abandon­ment of their further use because of economic changes and reces­sion in agriculture. The issue of damaging, destroying, but also reconstructing watermills and windmills, will be presented here via the example of the dominion (Ger. Landesherrschaft) of the Teutonic Order in Prussia in the late Middle Ages (in the 14th and the first half of the 15th centuries). Apart from legal and economic issues connected with this phenomenon, we will attempt to define the scale and location of empty, destroyed, or only abandoned or damaged mills, which were later not rebuilt in the first half of the 15th century.

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