Isabella Mueller Baroness of Stainton le Vale
Austria’s largest windmill is located in Podersdorf am See in the Seewinkel region of Burgenland. This mill, which is over 160 years old, is still completely intact. A mill like this once stood on the Wienerberg in Vienna’s 10th district, Favoriten. Favoriten is Vienna’s most populous district, home to 10 percent of the city’s inhabitants. It is hard to imagine that for centuries there were only a few farms, meadows, and fields there. On this then undeveloped land, on a remote road, stood a mill that was operated for many years by honest farmers. After they died, the robber baron Kilian von Drachenfels bought the mill on the Wienerberg. He kept the mill wheels running just for show, to give the impression that a real miller lived there. He added an inn to the mill where carters from Vienna could stay overnight. He and his entourage robbed them at night and killed them. The criminal robber baron was married to a kind-hearted woman who constantly begged him to renounce his life of robbery. But the robber baron had no intention of doing so and only laughed at her. When she asked him again one day, he became angry and threatened to throw her into the well if she brought it up again. One day, he actually carried out his threat and threw his wife into the well when she implored him once again to give up his unsettled lifestyle. At that very moment, the earth shook and tore a hole in the ground, into which the knight and his entourage were pulled amid screams of terror. From that day on, the mill stood still and fell into disrepair. The mill was considered a cursed place that people avoided. One night, a cart driver passed by the mill at midnight. He heard the mill wheels grinding and a babble of voices, but when he looked, he found no one there and the mill stood still. Filled with fear, he hurried back to Vienna and stopped at an inn, where he recounted the strange haunting. Since then, the mill has been called the Devil’s Mill, and ghostly haunting stories have circulated about it. It is said that the devil himself drives the robber baron and his servants with a whip at midnight to do the heavy milling work, which they do with loud moaning. The haunting will only end when his wife is recovered from the well and buried in the ground. The one who redeems the woman will be rewarded with a treasure. Many years passed until one night around 11 o’clock, a young knight and his squire rode past the mill on their horses. As a thunderstorm was approaching, they sought shelter in the old mill. Only a small corner was dry, as the roof of the mill had collapsed over the years. They set up their quarters for the night, but laid their swords to one side so that they would be ready to hand in case of an attack. At midnight, an old grandfather clock in the mill room struck twelve, and as if by magic, the robber baron and his entourage appeared and set to work. The young knight jumped out of bed and cried out loudly, asking how he could release the men from their curse. Then he heard a woman’s voice in the distance telling him that he had to fetch her from the well and bury her in the ground. Then she would be released and her husband and his entourage would also find peace. Then the clock struck the first hour of the day and the whole haunting was over. The knight and his squire went to sleep, and the next morning he climbed down into the well with a ladder. He found the woman’s body and buried it in the ground. No sooner had he filled in her grave than he heard a woman’s voice again, thanking him and telling him to return to his castle. For there was a treasure waiting for him on his table as a reward for his good deed. The knight rode with his squire to his castle, and sure enough, there was a sack on the table, filled to the brim with gold coins. From that day on, the haunting of the Devil’s Mill ceased and disappeared completely. Today, a tavern with the inscription “Gasthof zur Teufelsmühle” (Devil’s Mill Inn) commemorates the Devil’s Mill. The legend of the devil on the Wienerberg is so popular that the Austrian theater director and playwright of the Old Viennese Folk Theater even wrote the play “Die Teufelsmühle am Wienerberg” (The Devil’s Mill on the Wienerberg).
