Hahnemuele’s history

At February 27th, 1584 the Herzog of Braunschweig granted the right to build a papermill to paper making craftsman Merten Spieß. In the following time the “Reylingehäusische Papiermühle” – the first papermill in the surroundings of the mid mountains “Solling”- arose. The papermill was owned by the descendants of Merten Spieß for 185 years until August 1769. Then the mill was sold to the Andrae family, which owned it until 1884. In 1884 the mill was bought by L. Heinemann, who sold it only two years later in 1886 to Carl Hahne. Carl Hahne renamed the mill into “Büttenpapierfabrik Hahnemühle”. In 1902 Hahnemühle was converted into a limited company (GmbH) and merged with Schleicher & Schuell, a company from Düren. In 1927 Schleicher & Schuell became the sole owner of Hahnemühle. At July 1st 2002 Hahnemühle was renamed as Hahnemühle FineArt GmbH. In 2004 Hahnmühle was demerged from Schleicher & Schuell and operates independently since then.

Product’s history

Up to the end of the 19th century Hahnemühle existed as a small manufacturer with less than 15 employees. The main products were finest handmade writing and foolscap papers. Under the leadership of Carl Hahne the production of artist paper and high purity filter paper began and the mill grew up. In the 1920’s there were more than 120 employees.

In the Industrialization era the production of artist papers became more and more. The first paper machine was a mould made paper machine, installed in the early 1920’s. A Fourdrinier machine follows. Although the production became more and more mechanized, until the 1960’s some of the papers were made completely by hand. Also in the 1960’s Hahnemühle developed the first vegan, acid free and archivable machine made paper without animal glues or other animal substrates in its papers. In the late 1990 the first Fine Art Inkjet papers were developed based on traditional artist papers. The highly awarded Digital FineArt Collection is the worldmarket leading paper range today. Galleries, museums and collectors trust in papers “Made in Germany”.

Today´s portfolio comprises traditional and digital FineArt papers for painting, printing and life science applications as well as specialty paper. All paper grades are manufactured according to old recipes from high-quality cotton fibres, cellulose or fast-growing plant fibres and pure spring water. Hahnemühle is the inventor of Digital FineArt papers for inkjet printing and art reproduction. As a pioneer and world market leader, Hahnemühle continuously refines its genuine artist papers for exclusive prints of photographs, digital art and art reproductions. The development and production of life science solutions is another focus area.

All papers and life science solutions have class–leading quality attributes and excellent ageing resistance. They are awarded as ‘Brand of the Century’ products and are available in more than 130 countries worldwide.

The company, headquartered in Dassel, South Lower Saxony, with subsidiaries in Great Britain, France, USA and China, Singapore and Australia.