Raußmühle

The Raußmühle is a historic farmstead in the Eppingen district of northern Baden-Württemberg. It stands beside the Himmelreichbach stream southwest of the town centre, near the village of Sulzfeld. The site has been a working mill since the 14th century, when Heinrich Ruthards first ran the water-powered grain mill in 1334. The name changed from Rußmühl to Raußmühle by the 16th century after shifts in local speech. The present U-shaped complex with its defensive features dates largely from the Thirty Years War, when the isolated mill was repeatedly raided and rebuilt. The Raußmühle matters because it preserves over six centuries of rural life in one place. The Müller family who owned it for centuries rose to prominence in Eppingen, supplying three mayors as well as foresters and innkeepers. After the milling trade ended in 1958 the buildings fell into disrepair until artist Frank G. Dähling bought the site in 1976. With help from local heritage groups and European workshops, he restored the ensemble, which was later recognised as European cultural heritage in 1996. Inside, visitors find the Archive for the History of Rural Life. Its collection includes medieval to modern mouse traps, grain sacks, board chairs, locks and keys, and objects of folk belief. One room houses a late-medieval smoke kitchen moved from Kleingartach. The farmyard, stables and barns with their original shot-holes remain as they were after the Thirty Years War, while the main house shows 18th-century renovation by the Weigand millers.