Room 7: Wall-Mounted Coffee Grinders @museum.de

Angular or round, decorated with agricultural or floral motifs– isn't it a shame that these wall-mounted coffee grinders have so thoroughly fallen out of favour? The designs are wonderfully varied!

It must have been so practical to step up to the grinder, turn the crank three times and have the ground powder fall right into the filter! These days, coffee from the supermarket is usually ready ground. But gourmet coffee-drinkers swear by freshly ground beans. And serious coffee fans grind them with a hand mill. But that coffee mill needs cupboard space. A wall-mounted coffee grinder, on the other hand – is a decorative feature in any kitchen!

Wall-mounted grinders were once the pride of every housewife who owned one. The first wall-mounted grinders appeared from the mid-19th century onwards. They were attached to a board that was bolted to the wall. One typical feature is the large ceramic hopper in which the coffee beans are stored. This represented a small revolution, because table or lap grinders could only take small amounts of coffee beans at any one time. Below the hopper is the grinding mechanism, including the crank, and underneath that, there’s a small catch cup, a container made of glass or plastic for the coffee powder.

Among the wall-mounted grinders, you’ll find the names of major manufacturers: from Alexander von der Nahmer, better known as the Alexanderwerk, based in Remscheid, to Leinbrock from Bad Gottleuba, and Zassenhaus from Solingen. Today, only the firm of Zassenhaus is still manufacturing traditional and contemporary coffee grinders.

Rolf Scheuermann collected a great many wall-mounted coffee mills. If you could only browse through our archive! Please stay where you are for a moment. We’d like to show you a very special coffee-grinder.