Guenther & Richter Paper Factory

In 1880, the merchants, Gottfried Guenther and Clemens Richter, built a pulp mill here, where the Sosa brook flows into the Mulde River.

Initially, the factory produced white spruce wood pulp for the paper industry. After 1890, newly acquired equipment enabled it to produce its own paper. The water from the brook was used for the paper production. The water of the Mulde River, which was diverted to the factory by means of a man-made canal, was used to power all of the machines. Even before the general electrification in Germany, water power was used to generate electricity, which also powered its own lighting system. Steam engines were used to drive the paper machines, and only in 1975 they converted to using electric motors.

Annual production reached an amount of approx. 20,000 t of paper in the 1970’s and 1980’s. In the late 1980’s there were plans made to make extensive modernization changes. There was a plan to build a new production hall large enough for using a huge new paper machine from the former Soviet Union. The political change in 1989/90 upset the plans of modernization. Consequently, the unprofitable and obsolete paper mill had to close down on March 8, 1991.

In the years following, the old machines were dismantled and the old factory buildings were abandoned to deteriorate. A few years ago, a large part of the buildings were torn down. The buildings that are still standing were purchased by individuals or companies and so far have been partly restored.


Photos and images on this page: www.photo-2u.de, Sammlung Thomas Weigel