Kurt Kaindl’s photo essay documents the Wurzmühle, one of the first paper mills in Europe, where paper is still produced today not from wood but from rags and rags. Harald Waitzbauer complements the documentation of a piece of industrial archaeology with a contribution on the history of paper production.In the northern Waldviertel region on the Lainsitz River stands one of the oldest paper mills in Europe. For over 200 years, paper has been produced here from rags and rags. For centuries, rag collectors swarmed to meet the demand for rags for the increasing paper production, until since the middle of the 19th century the raw material rags was replaced by the raw material wood: the paper craft became the paper industry.Today, the operators of the Wurzmühle seek to continue the old tradition of this unique paper mill, the production is limited to a few highly valued paper grades. The precious rag paper is mainly used as painting and drawing paper, as handmade paper for documents and by the pharmaceutical industry as filter paper. In the pictures of this unique documentation of the Wurzmühle, the beginning of the machine age becomes visible, a piece of industrial archaeology is traced. The photographs, printed in high-quality duplex, are supplemented by an essay on the history of paper production by Harald Waitzbauer.

Kurt Kaindl, *1954 in Gmunden, Austria. Lives and works in Salzburg,