Baumann'sche Mühle

The Baumannsche Mühle stands beside the River Echaz in Pfullingen, a small town in the Reutlingen district. Built in 1799 as a corn mill, it worked until 1963 and then became an electricity plant until 1988. That year it was restored and turned into a museum of milling. The main building rises four storeys high, and a smaller wing houses the wheel pit with its working undershot wheel. A fish ladder runs through the wheel pit so migrating trout can pass upstream. Inside the mill visitors see the full four-storey milling installation, rebuilt from parts of two vanished Pfullinger mills. The water wheel originally came from the Gipsmühle in Große Heerstraße, and the machinery itself was taken from the Haydsche Mühle in Klosterstraße. The restored mill can still generate up to 18 kW of hydro-electric power. The old living quarters now hold the Württemberg Costume Museum run by the Swabian Alb Association, which also serves as the biosphere reserve information centre. The ground-floor milling room hosts concerts, talks and small exhibitions. Outside, the riverbank path follows the Echaz through quiet Pfullingen, and the mill’s wheel turns steadily whenever the water is high enough. Visitors can walk round the wheel pit, peer into the mill’s floors through open doorways, and read panels about milling history and the biosphere reserve.