Old Oil Mill

The age of oil production is now long gone. Today, Wittenberge Old Oil Mill with its hotel, restaurant, café, riverside bar, demonstration brewery, spa area with roof terrace, indoor climbing course and diving tower as well as the annual Elbland Music Festival is a nationwide draw for visitors. 

The town had only 1000 inhabitants when the Jewish merchant built an oil mill here on the banks of the River Elbe, exactly halfway between Hamburg and Berlin. This was the first oil trading company in Germany. The oil mill was followed by the port, railway connection and other factories. The population of the town thus quadrupled by the middle of 19th century!

The fate of the oil factory was eventful: it burned down, was rebuilt, fell into the vortex of the Great Depression, was nationalised in the post-war period, closed forever after the Energy Revolution and partly demolished. What was left was a complex of architectural historical buildings with an impressive array of details. Arched windows, staircase towers, decorative friezes and console trim: this was unusual ornamentation even back in the 19th century. Today, the oil mill still stands as a testament to an unrivalled quality and aesthetic of industrial buildings.

The old building substance has been carefully restored with respect for its history. Blackened bars, historic iron fittings, old lattice windows and repeatedly improved brick façades tell of a long and eventful life. 

Tip: Wittenberge is embedded in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Elbe-Brandenburg River Landscape. The reserve covers about 53,000 hectares and follows the River Elbe for about 70 kilometres – from the Saxony-Anhalt border to just before Dömitz in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.