February 01, 2018

02/02/2018: Millers of tomorrow visit Ötzi the Iceman in Wittenburg

Students from 18 countries at the Swiss School of Milling paid a visit to Mühlenchemie, the German specialist in flour improvement and flour fortification

The occasion for the visit was the enlargement of the FlourWorld Museum inWittenburg and the opening of Germany’s first Iceman exhibition, entitled “Ötzis Einkorn”. It offered the millers of tomorrow a unique opportunity to delve deep into the history of cereal growing.
 

Students from 18 countries at the Swiss School of Milling paid a visit to Mühlenchemie, the German specialist in flour improvement and flour fortification.
Image credit: Mühlenchemie / ©Alle Rechte vorbehalten

The FlourWorld Museum regards itself as a “forum for cereal science”, providing an insight into the significance of flour. It opened its doors as a unique conference centre with rooms for seminars and other events highlighting the milling profession in its historical context. The first to use this opportunity of combining scientific lectures on flour improvement and flour fortification with cultural exchange at the FlourWorld Museum were students from the Swiss School of Milling.

The subject of the unique exhibition is the history of man’s most important staple food. The heart of the collection is the “Sackotheque”, with over 3,500 flour sacks from mills in 140 countries. In this way the collection becomes a “hall of fame”, a tribute to all the millers who provide the world’s population with flour – day in, day out.

Whereas the subject of the ground floor is the flour sacks themselves and their motifs, the upper floor is concerned with the history of flour in its cultural context. The title “Flour Power Life.” conveys the huge significance the apparently unremarkable product “flour” has had for the history of mankind – for it became the essential staple food of populations and the basis of every state structure larger than that of a tribal society. So flour is not only a symbol of life; it is also a symbol of power.

As an impressive narrator of the ancient history of grain-growing, “Ötzi the Iceman” greeted the students from the Swiss School of Milling and thus opened the multimedia exhibition. The mummified body found in the glacier ice of the Ötztal Alps is perfectly preserved and enables us to look back 5,300 years, to the early days of agriculture in Europe. An examination of the remains of the Iceman’s fur coat revealed two grains of cultivated einkorn. Einkorn is considered to be the oldest cultivated grain variety.

For the young millers, the visit to Wittenburg opened up a new view of their profession and its importance.

“Our international students were especially impressed by the unique exhibits on the cultural history of cereals. We are leaving the FlourWorld Museum with a host of pleasant, interesting and educational impressions”, said Michael Weber, principal of the Swiss School of Milling, summarising the day spent in Wittenburg, and thanked Mühlenchemie for the invitation and its hospitality.

Inquiries about visits can be made through the museum’s website, HERE.


Visit the Mühlenchemie website, HERE 

The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine Milling and Grain
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.


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