Room 3: Mass-Produced Grinders, Mid- to Late 19th Century @museum.de

We’ve now left the romantic Biedermeier era and are entering the Gründerzeit, or Founders’ Era, a time of growing industrialisation that lasted from 1848 to 1873. During this period, coffee became an everyday beverage for ordinary people, and that’s also reflected in the coffee grinders.

Artisans set up companies and were soon manufacturing their first small batches of coffee grinders. As well as ornate coffee mills for the upper classes, they also made basic grinders for ordinary folk.

There are a few models we’d like to highlight for you.

In the display case to the right of the entrance, you can see a lap grinder made by the firm of Redemann in 1862. The business no longer exists. Two dates are engraved on the grinder. 1862 was the year the coffee mill was made -- and 1907 was the year it was repaired. The date of the repair was proudly engraved on the grinder at the time – and no wonder, when a mill has been grinding coffee for almost 40 years with no problems.

On the right of the display case, on the top shelf, there’s a coffee grinder from Romania. It’s a one-off, so it wasn’t manufactured as one of a batch. The inlays show a farmer with a scythe and a woman in a smart dress. Take a closer look -- what do you think this piece was made of?

Did you guess ivory? Then we're sorry to disappoint you. It’s elaborately processed cattle bone!

But if you look at the second shelf from the top in the wall-mounted display case opposite, you’ll see a beautiful glass cylinder grinder from Austria, made in 1870 – and that one did come from a manufactory.