About us

A building with history

After a long slumber, from 1985 to 2017, Ursula and Günther Gräßel continue to run the nature campsite.

The Gräßel family is the 7th generation to live in the former flour mill. Their ancestors came from Bavaria and were originally beer brewers. They took over the existing mill and continued the miller's trade.

The most famous member of the family is the "duck painter" Franz (Xaver) Gräßel (1861 - 1948). He spent his childhood and youth here. The "Zur Gräßelmühle" inn opposite was built in his honour as an excursion destination and climatic health resort. The inn is now run by the Schäfer family as a dance and event venue with a lot of heart.

Flour production ended with the Second World War. The son Karl Gräßel, who was still learning the miller's trade, invented the "Gräßel-Egge" an agricultural weeding tool, in the early 1950s. The "Gräßel-Egge" was built right here on the estate with 8 employers.

When demand declined, the family set up a campsite in 1970. The large hay meadow behind the house has since become a small park with a special flair. The Sasbach flows across the property and is accessible. Only a few millstones and the old half-timbered house remain as reminders of the mill of yesteryear.

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The painter Franz Gräßel initially attended a secondary school in neighbouring Achern. From 1878 to 1884, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe under Conrad Hoff up to the master's level, where he mainly focussed on genre and portrait painting.

In 1885 he was appointed as a teacher at St Stephan's grammar school in Strasbourg. From 1886 to 1890, after travelling, he continued his studies with Wilhelm von Lindenschmit at the academy in Munich.

In the 1880s, his paintings with local rural motifs predominated. He was known as the "duck painter" because of his preference for the rural genre and for poultry. However, Gräßel also favoured portrait and landscape painting.
From 1900, he lived in Emmering near Fürstenfeldbruck, where a number of artists who became known as "Brucker Maler" had settled. In 1901, he married Wilhelmine "Minna" Auguste Müller (1850-1931). When the Bruck Artists' Association was founded in 1924, Gräßel became its honorary chairman.

In 1911, Gräßel was appointed Royal Academy Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich by Prince Regent Luitpold. Works by Gräßel are in the possession of important collections such as the National Gallery in Berlin, the Bavarian State Painting Collections and the municipal galleries in Munich, Nuremberg and Freiburg.

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Karl Gräßel auf einer Ausstellung

Die Egge wurde hier in der ehemaligen alten Mühle gebaut

Quelle: YouTube, Manuel Glaser, Manugrafie.net

The inventor Karl Gräßel
A field full of weeds that could only be removed with great difficulty gave rise to an invention. The Gräßel harrow.
As a miller's son, Karl Gräßel was inspired by the principle of a rotating mill wheel as a power transmission for the idea of a round harrow. The pull of a tractor creates a powerful rotary movement that loosens and works the soil very well. A revolution in field cultivation.

Various harrows are developed for flat and steep terrain. The diameter of a harrow could be up to 2.40 metres. Demand was highest in Germany, Austria and Switzerland between 1956 and 1969.

The structural change in agriculture and the associated technical changes finally put an end to this successful period.

The "Vor der Hornisgrinde" tractor and vintage car enthusiasts still cherish and maintain the tradition today. The harrow is now on display in the Sinzheim Museum of Technology among the agricultural equipment.

Quelle: YouTube, Manuel Glaser, Manugrafie.net