Wasserkraftnutzung im Mittelalter in Südwestdeutschland und angrenzenden Gebieten

In the Middle Ages, water power was not only used to drive grain mills, but also numerous specialised mills in which wood was sawn, iron was forged, metal was ground, gunpowder was milled, tanner's clay was stamped or cloth was milled. Water was used as the driving force for these and other functions. This had far-reaching consequences: Without paper mills, for example, the educational and knowledge revolution of the late Middle Ages would not have been possible. With the use of water power in south-west Germany and the neighbouring regions from the early Middle Ages to the 16th century, an important factor of the medieval economy is examined on a broad source basis, without knowledge of which many developments in the agricultural and commercial sector would hardly be comprehensible. The focus is not only on questions of technical history, but also on aspects of social, economic and legal history.