In a small paper museum with a water wheel and hammer mill, visitors can experience how paper, including Harz papyrus and parchment made from animal skins, was produced in the Middle Ages.
In a small paper museum with a water wheel and hammer mill, visitors, mainly school classes, students and experts from the paper and printing industry, experience how paper, including Harz papyrus and parchments made from animal skins, were produced in the Middle Ages.
This was our aim and our philosophy, to convey the three most important written media that led to the dissemination of knowledge throughout the world. It was said after the invention of the computer and the internet that now we only need a little paper, but it was a mistake. Research shows that around 10 times more paper is consumed in the world.
Our museum is lively and hands-on, and those who want even more can take part in the various workshops, such as "From tree to book". This involves not only making paper, but also producing a book in the old tradition with thread binding on the spine. The museum is also an educational facility, as our employees are trained here in the field of education by qualified specialists.
The foundation of the paper mill dates back to the Middle Ages. It was built on a "wösten Mölenstatt" by papermaker Friedrich Duricke from Abberode near Ilsenburg on the site of a grinding mill. His feudal lord, Count Ulrich XII of Regenstein and Blankenburg, gave him the right to make paper on the Bode millrace, on the border between Brunswick and Prussia (marked by "fish stones with two trout and the abbreviations B uP"). The date of foundation was the completion of the mill construction, October 24, 1549 - almost half a millennium ago. Rag paper or rags were the basic materials for the production of good paper until groundwood pulp and later cellulose, which was tested in China and Japan for over 2000 years and traded on the Silk Road and finally produced in Europe after around 1000 years - including in the Weddersleben paper mill. It is the fourth oldest in eastern Germany, but also the only one where handmade paper is still produced today.
