The Site
The paper mill in Niederzwönitz is Germany's oldest operational paper mill. As one remaining example of more than twenty paper mills, founded during the 16th and 17th century in the western Ore Mountains, it represents a whole group of similar paper production sites that emerged following up on the Zweite Berggeschrey (the second mining rush). Fast growing and flourishing mines and mining related industries at that time lead to the establishment of a centralised electoral Saxon mining administration, that along with the administrations of the growing mining towns, required an increasing amount of writing paper. Watermarks of the paper mill can be found in numerous files and documents of the local mining authorities. This intrinsically links the Niederzwönitz Paper Mill to UNESCO World Heritage mining region and justified its listing as an associated component of the UNESCO World Heritage site Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region.
Until the mid-19th century, rags and scraps were transformed into handmade paper. Industrialisation brought a shift to cardboard production, primarily for use in footwear, furniture, and packaging. After its closure in 1973, the Niederzwönitz Paper Mill underwent extensive restoration, opening its historic facilities to the public as museum in 1984, which still today holds the complete machinery of the cardboard factory. Ball boiler, grinding mill, beater, and wet press, powered by water and motors, still reside within the impressive half-timbered building. Its uninterrupted use since 1568, most recently as a cardboard factory, underlines the authenticity of the building, which still bears witness to 400 years of paper manufacturing history in the Ore Mountains. Representing numerous lost Saxon paper mills from the early modern period, the Niederzwönitz Paper Mill is part of a transboundary project that, together with partners the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain, aims to have pre-industrial European paper mills included within a serial nomination in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Besides stunning architectonical and technical testimonials, the Technical Museum Niederzwönitz Paper Mill holds a variety of paper related collections. Hereby especially a collection of historic watermark papers ultimately entwines with the history of the mill and the history of pre-industrial papermaking itself.
Today visitors can get in touch with traditional paper craftsmanship while attending guided tours and courses in the museum’s paper workshop. Following a recent redesign of the permanent exhibition and its reopening in 2020, visitors can explore not only the original production areas but also the living quarters of the paper millers, offering insights into their intertwined lives and work.
The Training Course
The 2025 training course continues the collaboration between European Heritage Volunteers and the Niederzwönitz Paper Mill, following the successful project in 2024. Last year’s efforts focused on the conservation of the water system that powered the mill and the preservation of the historical machinery used in paper production. In 2025, the focus will shift to the historical paper itself, ensuring its documentation, conservation, and long-term preservation.
The historical paper collection of Niederzwönitz Paper Mill holds sheets and documents of handmade paper dating back to the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries alongside a large collection of 19th century and early 20th century machine made paper. A former private collection, closely linked to the paper mill, holds the private research library of a local collector and autodidact. The most precious books are those made of handmade paper and bound in leather or finely embossed parchment, often illustrated with fine etchings. Due to a complicated object history, both the individual sheets and bound volumes require detailed examination, conservation interventions, and restoration treatments. This year’s European Heritage Training Course will focus particularly on the paper itself, its composition, age, and the watermarks it carries, providing insights into their historical significance and preservation needs.
Watermarks are fine symbols, letters or geometric forms that can be revealed by light, shining through the fabric of the paper. Created using wires that were sewn onto the papermakers' moulds, they can be regarded as the signature of the papermaker or the owner of the respective paper mill where the paper was produced. Thus, the documentation of watermarks can deliver crucial information on the age and the origin of paper sheets. The exact documentation and digitalisation of these often-enigmatic symbols enable paper historians to complete and refine chronological series that are crucial for dating papers, whose age cannot be determined by the texts written on them. Moreover, also the wide variety of motifs can deliver various cultural and historical information.
A close examination of the paper, the composition of the fabric and the state the historical sheets are in, can help not only to preserve those valuable historical testimonies but also reveal important facts on the economic state of the producing mill. Also, information on the water quality, and the supply on raw materials of the respective workshops can be achieved by taking a closer look on the sheets themselves. Paper produced in a certain region can ultimately reflect specific economical and historical states and processes. Acknowledging that paper itself can be seen as some kind of historic archive.
The European Heritage Training Course will aim on one hand to carry out close documentation of the paper itself, and on the other hand to archive, clean, conserve, and partly restore the valuable sheets, documents and books.
Many of the sheets and books have endured damage due to humidity, fungi, anobia, or are soiled. Every kind of damage, mechanical as well as biological, will be recorded in the course of a detailed damage survey. After the condition and all possible damages of the objects are recorded, the paper soiled by dust and soot will be cleaned using a specific dry technique. Larger fissures may be carefully fixed, using specific conservation strips. Mechanical as well as biological damages will be documented. Under a wide scope the material and the composition of the paper’s fabric will be examined. All obtained information will be gathered in specific data sheets.
An integral part of the task will be the documentation, determination and digitalisation of the watermarks. Using light desks, the dimension of the marks and their relation to the warp wires as well as to the rims of the sheets will be measured. Photographing and redrawing the marks under specific criteria will provide the base for further investigation. The dating and the identification of paper mills and papermakers, using related literature and watermark databases will complete the research. In the end the data will be put into the museum’s database and published.
The training course will be led by museologist with special education in paper documentation and conservation and an archaeologist with comprehensive experience in various documentation techniques.
As part of the educational programme, the participants will deliver presentations on the preservation of historical paper and the role of archives in cultural heritage conservation, sharing case studies from their home countries. These discussions will examine challenges in conserving aged documents, manuscripts, and archival collections, encouraging a comparative perspective on heritage preservation practices worldwide.
The training course will conclude with a practical session in traditional papermaking at the workshop of the Technical Museum Niederzwönitz Paper Mill. To further contextualise the work, the participants will visit other historically relevant sites in the region, gaining a wider understanding of the place of the Niederzwönitz Paper Mill within the broader cultural landscape.
The training course will take place from September 14th to September 27th, 2025, and is jointly organised by European Heritage Volunteers and the Technical Museum Paper Mill Niederzwönitz.
