Rolandmühle

The Rolandmühle ("Roland Mill") in Bremen is an industrial grain mill that is one of the most important private production facilities in the harbour of Bremen. The company has about 100 employees and processes 350,000 tons of grain into flour annually for commercial and industrial use. Both imported and regionally grown grain are processed. The products have been supplied to both regional and export customers.

History

In the course of the construction of the oil mill of Franz Köcheln at Stephanitorsbollwerk in Bremen during the 1810s, the master miller, who came from Groningen, brought along many assistants, among whom was the 30-year-old Berend Erling, who was singled out as "uncommon skilled". Erling remained in Bremen after the construction, established himself as a miller, and raised his own first windmill in 1832. The Am Wall Windmill (Herdentorswallmühle) stands today as the last windmill along the old Bremen city wall (Wallanlagen). It was followed in 1846 by the mill at Stephanitor (Stephanitorsmühle), whose upper part burned down in 1911. The bottom part served until 1930 as housing, and was demolished during the renovation of the platforms of the Weserbahnhof train station. Erling's son Johann took over the company and built the steam mill at Tannenstraße in Vegesack in 1882, which burned down in 1897.

After the first steam mill was destroyed, and with windmills no longer being economically profitable, Carl Erling founded in 1897 a stock company and built a brick building with a steam mill at the Bremen Holzhafen. It had a capacity of 100 tons per day. The wheat that it used was imported from around the world, and the flour that it produced was shipped by barge within Germany. For overseas export, seagoing ships were used.