Owner’s history
On February 27th, 1584 the Herzog of Braunschweig granted the right to build a papermill to paper making craftsman Merten Spieß. The “Reylingehäusische Papiermühle” was the first papermill built in the mountainous region of Solling in the town of Dassel near Hannover, Germany. The papermill was owned by the descendants of Merten Spieß for 185 years until August 1769. The mill passed through several families before Carl Hahne purchased it in 1886. Carl Hahne renamed the mill “Büttenpapierfabrik Hahnemühle”.
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. In the 1920’s there were more than 120 employees.
In the Industrialization era the production of artist papers continued to grow. The first paper machine was a mould made paper machine, installed in the early 1920’s. A Fourdrinier machine followed. Although the production became more and more mechanized, until the 1960’s some of the papers were made completely by hand. In the 1970’s Hahnemühle developed the first acid free and archivable machine made paper. In the late 1990 the first Fine Art Inkjet papers were developed based on traditional artist papers.
Today Hahnemühle is one of the last paper mills that produces high quality artist’s papers and high purity filter papers for various purposes. Hahnemühle’s Digital FineArt Collection is the world market leader in the high quality inkjet paper segment.
Our traditional artist papers still are manufactured according to old recipes from high-quality cellulose and pure spring water. Our paper technologists also are reliable partners for artists, technicians and scientists when it comes to new applications in the artist market and the industry area.
We manufacture exactly according to the requirements of our customers while developing products for new market segments at the same time. Our motto always has been ‘Quality instead of Quantity’. With an annual production of just 3,000 tonnes, we regard ourselves as manufactory than a factory.
Hahnemühle today employs approximately 180 people worldwide and has subsidiaries in the UK, France, the USA and China. The production, however, has taken place for more than 430 years at the same location – at the highest quality level with innovation spirit and strong tradition.
Photo Rag ® Metallic
The latest innovation from our team of specialists that elevates FineArt printing to a new level is Photo Rag ® Metallic. As the inventor and pioneer of genuine artist papers for inkjet printing, Hahnemühle fulfils the wish of many photographers to include a FineArt paper made of 100% cotton in the Digital FineArt Collection – this time with a metallic effect. The evenly shimmering metallic effect corresponds perfectly to the haptic of a real artists’ paper from the benchmarking Photo Rag®-family and makes Photo Rag® Metallic unique on the market.
