Penig paper mill
| Penig paper mill Schoeller Technocell GmbH & Co. KG Penig plant
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| legal form | GmbH & Co. KG |
| founding | 1537 |
| Seat | Penig , Germany |
| Number of employees | 100 |
| Branch | Paper maker |
| Website | Schoeller Technocell: Penig site |
The Penig paper mill was founded in 1537 as a paper mill in Penig , Saxony , and today still produces paper goods as a paper mill under the name Schoeller Technocell GmbH & Co. KG Werk Penig . This makes the Peniger plant the oldest paper mill still producing in Germany.
From the beginning until 1834
On April 15, 1537, Burghardt Schmidt from Glauchau set up the first paper mill in Penig. For this purpose he received a loan of 200 guilders from Hugo von Leisnig , which, according to the contract, earned interest at 10 guilders a year. The rebuilding of the weir on the Zwickauer Mulde by the citizen Hans Horn from Chemnitz in 1539 favored the upswing of the paper mill. In the first few years, the papers scooped from the handmade paper contained the Peniger city coat of arms, the Altenburg rose . In 1562 Gregor Schmidt, Burghardt's son, took over the mill, after which in 1570 Simon Schmidt was the owner of the paper mill. On January 14th, 1603, he sold the mill to Caspar Lenkersdorfer, whose descendants managed it until the 18th century. The Saxon Elector Christian II. Granted in 1609 the paper mill Peniger the "rags collection privilege", which in 1613 by Elector I. Johann Georg was confirmed. In 1711 there was a big fire in Penig, in the course of which the mill burned down, but was quickly rebuilt afterwards. About 18 years later, Johann Christian Keferstein bought the mill for 3,000 guilders. This began the more than 100-year-old K (a) eferstein era, in which from 1805 to 1823 a woman, Johanna Maria Käferstein, was also at the helm of the paper mill. Carl Heinrich Graf von Schönburg again confirmed the privilege of collecting rags for the Peniger mill in 1765. In 1772, the first German paper money was introduced in Saxony, the "Electoral Saxon Casse-Billets". The paper for this was produced in Christian August Käferstein's paper mill in Penig.
From 1834 until the end of the Second World War
In 1834 Ferdinand Traugott Flinsch joined the company as a partner. On June 30, 1836, he acquired the entire paper mill from Gustav Franz Käferstein for 14,000 thalers . Then he transformed the mill into a factory. If the paper was previously made by hand, it could now be produced as an endless belt. In 1838 the first Fourdrinier paper machine from the Bryan Donkin company from England was built. In 1847 the factory supplied the city of Penig with oil lamps. About 300 workers were employed in the factory in 1848.
In 1857 and 1858, the sons of Ferdinand Flinsch, who died in 1848, acquired the neighboring Wagner hammer mill and the Milkersche grinding mill and used their water power plants. The upper mill moat, which was destroyed after a flood , was renewed. A second, larger paper machine from the company Bertram & Sons, Edinburgh, was purchased in 1863; it produced up to 5 tons of paper in 24 hours. At that time, writing and printing paper were the main products. In 1864 a separate gas station was established on the factory premises, which not only supplied the factory but also Penig with illuminating gas . The Reisewitz straw pulp factory near Penig was built as a supplier in 1871, and the factory was later converted into a paper factory. The name Reisewitz came from a restaurant nearby that served beer from the Reisewitz joint stock brewery near Dresden .
In 1872 the company was converted to a joint stock company with the name "Patentpapierfabrik zu Penig". The share capital was 3 million marks in 10,000 shares . Two years later the Wolkenstein plant and the Geithain rag sorting facility were acquired and the company expanded in 1888 to include the Willischthal plant near Zschopau , which was acquired for 900,000 marks. In 1889 the Schönburgers sold the New Palace in Penig to the paper factory, which used it to store and sort old textiles. This led to the popular nickname “rag lock”. In 1897, 25 years after the company was founded, production had increased 85 times compared to 1840. The renovation of the yellow main building of the factory, the construction of the fresh water pipe from the Höllteich near Chursdorf and the renovation of the mill ditch and weir system of the Zwickauer Mulde for the use of hydropower took place during this period. A Francis turbine was delivered by J. M. Voith in Heidenheim in 1890.
After the First World War , production stagnated and the period of inflation brought great hardship. In August 1923, Wilischthal workers moved to Penig in order to enforce a payment of 250 gold marks for each. The requirement was partially met. From August 27, 1923 to October 17, 1923, the plant again produced banknote paper. After the introduction of the Rentenmark in December 1923, the worthless paper money that was flooding back was processed into wrapping paper for months. In 1938 around 960 people worked in the paper mill.
Expansions in the GDR era
After the end of the Second World War , the annual production was only 3,400 t. The company was confiscated by the Soviet occupying forces and placed under the trusteeship of the state of Saxony. It was converted into public property in 1948 . The new name was now VEB Patentpapierfabrik Penig. A year later, the paper mill was incorporated into " VVB Zellstoff-Papier-Pappe" based in Heidenau (later VEB Kombinat Zellstoff und Papier Heidenau ). In 1950 an annual production of 25,000 t was reached again. In the years 1958 to 1968 the production of writing and printing papers was largely stopped in favor of decor papers. The Göritzhain and Lunzenau paper mills (founded in 1885 by the industrialist Wilhelm Vogel) have been part of the business since 1965 . The outdated operation at Reisewitz was discontinued six years later and converted into a coating plant. In 1972 the Rochsburg paper and cardboard factory Christian Braun KG was bought. On January 2, 1974, the Reisewitz coating plant in Penig was inaugurated and two years later the plant was expanded to include the Wolkenburg plant. Since 1977 the production range has included laminate and decorative paper for the furniture industry, textured wallpaper, wallpaper base paper, writing pads, insulating paper for the laminate and cable industry, zinc oxide paper and non-carbon paper as well as cigarette filters. Around 44% of the products were decor papers and around 70% of the companies in the furniture industry in the GDR used decor papers from Penig. At that time, the main factory in Penig had around 2000 employees. In 1982 the VEB Oberlausitzer Feinpapierfabrik Bad Muskau was incorporated. The plant had its own company sports club, the BSG "Rotation", and a company holiday home in Bärenstein . In 1987 a historical pan mill was erected on a pedestal on the southern entrance road to Penig as a technical monument to commemorate the history of the paper mill .
The paper mill after the fall of the Wall
After the fall of the Wall in 1989 , the company was converted to the Penig GmbH paper mill. On September 1, 1991 "Felix Schöller GmbH & Co. KG" bought the main factory in Peniger from the Treuhandanstalt . Currently (2019) 112 employees produce an annual capacity of 28,000 t of decor paper and resin-impregnated paper at the Penig site with one paper machine. At the beginning of 1993 the Reisewitz coating company was restarted by former employees. For the further production of exercise books and pads, PVP Papierverarbeitung GmbH Penig was founded by old employees in 1992, which still produces writing materials to this day. Of the eight former subsidiary plants outside Penig, only the Lunzenau site (Lunzenauer Papier- und Pappenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG) with around 30 employees currently produces raw felt cardboard and cardboard, all other plants were closed after 1990. The paper mill at the Lunzenau site filed for bankruptcy on August 16, 2019.
A papermaking cabinet is set up in four rooms in the factory. The history of papermaking is explained to visitors there. Equipment for the production and testing of paper is also on display. Among other things, there is a tensile strength tester from 1898, but also a accounts receivable book in which deliveries from February 1835 to July 1842 are recorded.
literature
- R. Schwarz: King Albert and Sachsenland: A Festschrift. 1828, p. 230.
- Friedrich W. Süs: The trading house Ferdinand Flinsch: memorial book for its fiftieth anniversary celebration on April 20, 1869. Mahlau & Waldschmidt, Frankfurt am Main 1869.
- Heino Castorf: The patent paper factory in Penig. A contribution to the history of paper. Wohlfeld, Magdeburg 1897.
- Karl Keim: The paper: its manufacture and use as a material for the printer and paper processor: a teaching and manual for the paper producing industry and the graphic and paper processing trade. Blersch, Stuttgart 1951.
- Dora Doss, Wolfgang Schlieder, Heinrich Kühne: Owners and papermakers in Saxony and neighboring areas. Deutsche Bücherei, Leipzig 1973 / IPH, Marburg an der Lahn 1993.
- Johannes Mädel, Heiner Unger; Technocell decor (ed.): The Peniger paper mill and its watermarks. A historical journey through five centuries. Mironde, Niederfrohna 2005, ISBN 978-3-937654-05-8 .
Web links
- Article on the 475th anniversary of the paper mill
- Shares issued by the Penig paper mill (1872–1945) (PDF; 11.8 MB)
- Schoeller Technocell GmbH & Co. KG website
- Reisewitz GmbH website
- Web presence of PVP Papierverarbeitung Penig GmbH
- Website of the Lunzenauer Papier- und Pappenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG
Individual evidence
- ↑ penig.de
- ↑ sachsenbund.de (PDF); Stable paper money in the 18th century. The Saxon cash register tickets. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @ bundesbank.de, accessed June 7, 2016
- ↑ albert-gieseler.de
- ↑ Paper mill files for bankruptcy. FreiePresse, accessed on August 22, 2019 .
- ↑ Article in the "Free Press"
- ↑ sachsen-fernsehen.de ( Memento of the original from December 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Paper mill files for bankruptcy. FreiePresse, accessed on August 22, 2019 .
- ↑ Uwe Lemke: Time travel in the Peniger paper history . In: Free Press . August 1, 2019, p. 11 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 2.3 ″ N , 12 ° 42 ′ 35.1 ″ E