Hahnemühle Blog Series
The Company
Who is Hahnemühle and why should I buy their products? This blog series will explore Hahnemühle, breaking down every section so we can go into as much detail as possible and find out why this brand fits well within the Perfect Paper ideology. This first blog within the series will look at the company as a whole.
Producing papers with a passion and focusing on quality instead of quantity is very rare to find within a company. Hahnemühle is one brand that for centuries, has aimed in providing artist quality paper. With paper mills based in Germany, this company is a innovative manufacturer that is highly customer-oriented by sticking to their founding fathers ethos.
Hahnemühle Products
Hahnemühle is enthusiastically proud for such a long company history. Established in 1584 by Merten Spieß, a paper making craftsman who was able to build one of the first paper mills in Dassel, South Lower Saxony’s Solling uplands. They began a product range which solely comprised of mould-made writing paper and later creating artist papers. For 185 years descendants of Merten Spieß owned the mill, fine-tuning the quality and process. Up until the end of the 19th century it was still a small manufacturer with less than 15 people.
The company has since been sold a couple of times, in 1886 Carl Hahne purchased the mill, renaming it "Büttenpapierfabrik Hahnemühle”. In 1902 it merged with Schleicher & Schuell - a lead manufacturer in life science research - which became it’s sole owner in 1927. Since 2004 it has become an independent operation and although the company has had several owners it has still remained grounded, keeping a lot of it’s original values it still produces high quality and remarkable artist paper.
Original Hahnemühle Paper Mill
As a pioneer and world market leader it continuously refines its papers and provides quality attributes as well as excellent ageing resistance. These products have been awarded ‘German Standards - Brand of the Century’ and are readily available in more than 120 countries. Not only is the product sold world wide but it also has subsidiaries in Great Britain, France, China, USA and Singapore and now employs more than 200 people.
A key element that has always been apart of Hahnemühle’s history is it’s corporate and social responsibility. One of the key reasons they chose Dassel for their location is that it is the heart of centuries-old cultivated landscape, providing unspoilt habitats for wildlife, the site is at the edge of a nature reserve. Producing paper that is environmentally friendly is an extremely high priority for the company so they use their precious resources sparingly and responsibly.
Hahnemühle is an environmentally focused company
They use renewable energy that they generate themselves as to reduce CO2 emissions. They also use pure water sourced from the underground springs of the natural landscape. Their fibres are also sourced from exclusive FSC and PEFC certified forests as well as using fast-growing, renewable cellulose alternatives such as bamboo and hemp to help conserve resources. Additionally, Hahnemühle also size there products with a synthetic sizing agent and was one of the first companies to do so, which allows the papers to be animal free and vegan friendly.
As Germany’s oldest manufacturers of paper they understand the importance of sustainability and meet Germany’s strict environmental protection standards by taking responsibility and great care whilst running their business. Since 2008 they have gone a step further and created the ‘Green Rooster’ initiative. This includes various projects supporting animal protection and the environment. Some projects include donating money to orphaned elephants in Kenya, planting trees in Colombia and creating education programmes in Madagascar. To date more than 220,000 Euros have been donated to environmental initiatives.
Hahnemühle Green Rooster Initiative
For over 400 years Hahnemühle has been producing artist quality paper that supports the environment around them. They are a pioneer within the market that implement renewable energy and responsibly sourced materials that were the first to size all products with a synthetic sizing. They are an advocate for sustainability and have created many initiatives to assist with this. A perfect paper for any environmentally conscious or vegan individual that wants to use exceptional materials.
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