Today, the agony of choice to find exactly the right grain mill is much more difficult than it was more than 40 years ago. In the 1970s you could count the available mills and above all the numbers of pioneers who constructed mills for household use on one hand, but Johann Thurner was one of them!

He was born in 1951 and died totally unexpectedly in 2008. The Salzburger Grain Mills were his life’s work.
Please read here his history and his grain mill’s

A part of life-quality
He owed his love of good cuisine to his mother, an outstanding cook and from his father – a mechanical engineer with a technically ingenious mind – he inherited his curiosity for how to make things really well.

Perfectionism or health awareness?
Probably both! Or how can one explain the fact, that a young mechanical engineer with a diploma in craftsmanship – engaged by a well-known international company in a leading position as expert for special purpose machines and apparatus having the best possible career prospects, decided to leave everything behind him in order to construct first-class grain mills?

Own ideas lead to success
In those days you had nothing you could either study or re-construct if you wanted to develop a grain mill for home-use – the motto was created your ideas, try them out – find out for yourself and then improve them! The fact that the “Salzburg Grain Mill” – the first type of mill he developed – is still today, decades later, considered as the Mercedes among all grain mills proves that he was a great success in doing this….

The natural granite mill-stone – the crown jewel of the Salzburger Grain Mills
The combination of old milling traditions with the latest technical innovations was his ultimate aim. It took five years of intensive research work until a naturally formed mill-stone (a special kind of granite) could meet his demands for the finest possible milling results.

He owed his success to his technical studies together with his common-sense and his many inventions in mill construction.

Good things should look good too

For Johann Thurner it was not only development and technology that were important, he also paid great attention to design. An ascetic, not only devoted to nature, but also as a modern person who enjoyed life to the full (enthusiastic yachtsman, mountaineer, lover of music, etc.) he considered a pleasing optical impression to be of utmost importance.
A mill should give pleasure and at the same time be an attraction in the kitchen. A mill should be placed so that it is available at any time to grind even just a handful of flour!

In accordance with modern trends – but not at the cost of quality
His mill model “Mini-Max” covered to a very high degree all requirements of our modern age. Combining minimum space requirement with the latest technology, it is an answer to our demand for the best possible price. The born technician could not and did not want to do without quality, which has its price.
His motto was: No compromise at the cost of quality!

Satisfied customers since 1977
The fact that businesses, families and farms still used Salzburger Mills, which they had bought over 30 years before, was for him -even during his lifetime – the proof that he himself had made the right choice and for us it still true today. By conviction – with feeling and understanding
As a young man, Johann had a dream: “I’m going to become a manufacturer of mills and my mills will give a lifetime of service, and they will mill finely and gently!“
His dream has been fulfilled – Johann lives on thanks to his mills!

Since his sudden death, his sister Christine has taken over management of the production of the Salzburger Grain Mills to ensure that the traditions created by her brother are carried on!