From a small water mill
to an international company

This was the year of the meeting, in the town of Erfurt, between Napoleon and the great German writer, Goethe, 12 months before his novel, Elective Affinities, was published. It was the height of the Romantic period in the arts, and the painter Caspar David Friedrich was in his most creative phase. 1808, was also the year in which a resourceful and energetic businessman named Gustav Wilhelm Quirll laid the foundation stone of a 200-year company history.

Osnabrück region in the 19th Century: This was already home to two papermakers, along with iron foundries and brickworks. A coal mine also provided a living for more than 800 people. All these enterprises could be described as “early industrial”, as they displayed the characteristics of both factory and workshop. In the paper mills belonging to the businessman, a Mr Quirll, the main processes were still carried out by hand, by a wage-dependent workforce whose activities were largely based on the division of labour. At the same time, however, the large extent to which mechanisation was present also made it more like a factory.

Preparing rags for use as a raw material was a very laborious and strenuous procedure. They first had to be sorted. They must have wondered more than once who might have worn these clothes, and how they now found themselves in the Hasemühle paper mill (which took its name from the local river Hase). The rags then had to be shredded and cleaned. Although semi-mechanised rag-shredding was slowly coming into use, the women at the paper mill were to continue doing everything by hand for a few years to come.

The race to industrialise proved to be unstoppable by the middle of the 19th century. Factory chimneys were sprouting up all over, and steam engines and railways were conquering the world, as people flooded into towns and cities in search of work. Quirll, the papermaker, was quick to detect these developments. In 1849, he took the important decision to invest in a modern paper machine. This step was vital for the continued existence of his enterprise, as machine-powered paper factories were beginning to displace the existing traditional paper mills all over the country. Economic survival meant betting on progress.

In 1869, Quirll took the decision to sell the Hasemühle paper mill to his cousin, Wilhelm Westerkamp. He insisted that Justus Eggemann should be the co-owner. From then on, the works traded under the name "Offene Handelsgesellschaft Westerkamp & Eggemann" as a general partnership. Paper production was now streamlined to cover such straightforward items as desk blotters, file folders and writing paper. But the star product soon proved to be blue paper for use in tobacco pouches. However, as neither of the two mill owners was able to produce an heir willing to take over the factory, their era was a relatively short one. In 1908, the factory was acquired by two brothers: Gustav Kämmerer, an engineer, and Rudolf Kämmerer, a businessman.

On 1st October 1908, the new company came into being, initially as a general partnership known as "Westerkamp & Eggemann Nachfolger, Inhaber Brüder KÄMMERER" or Successors to Westerkamp & Eggemann, Owners: KÄMMERER Bros. This was then changed once more, in April 1910, to "Papierfabrik Brüder KÄMMERER" (“KÄMMERER Bros. Paper Mill”), and became a limited partnership in July of the same year.

The year 1918, which also marked the end of the First World War, saw the firms Felten & Guilleaume and AEG acquire shareholdings in Gebrüder Kämmerer, although the brothers remained in charge. From then on, the company was known as "Papierfabrik GmbH, vormals Brüder KÄMMERER" (Papierfabrik GmbH, formerly KÄMMERER Bros.). The takeover allowed a third paper machine to come into operation. This resulted in a sharp increase in electricity consumption, however, which led to the decision to supply the company with its own power plant. A reserve turbine, which was added in 1939, was designed to ensure continuous production.

The Kämmerer brothers had already decided, upon taking over the paper mill, that its line of production should undergo a radical transformation. They realised that production of the mill’s existing products was neither forward-looking nor likely to deliver any upturn in fortunes. Their commercial instincts, and careful observation of the market, encouraged them to go for special products. And the conditions then current were also favourable: the German cable industry was looking to domestic suppliers to meet its need for insulating materials. The brothers saw their chance and took the leap. They cultivated contacts with cable manufacturers, and soon entered into close relationships with the companies Felten & Guilleaume Carlswerk and AEG.

Construction work on the spur to the main Ems-Weser Canal had ended in the winter of 1915. This branch canal was soon to prove a vital for the KÄMMERER workforce, the so-called KÄMMERANER. During the First World War, the KÄMMERER and Schöller paper mills, which were normally competitors, organised shared inland barges for the transport of their coal deliveries. In 1936, works management submitted planning application for the construction of a shipping pier. Negotiations then ensued with the city council of Osnabrück and the waterways authority, and the corresponding approval was eventually issued: The pier went into operation in 1940.

These few historical documents about the KÄMMERER paper mill, which date from the time of the Third Reich, testify to the then-common war propaganda of the period. In retrospect, it is difficult to decide with any certainty the boundaries between propaganda and the truth, although the two probably overlapped. The March 1944 edition of a periodical called “Der Tambour” includes a piece on "Papierfabrik G.m.b.H. vormals Brüder KÄMMERER", which also mentions the presence of Eastern European female workers from Ukraine.

It is certain, however, that the firm enjoyed some luck in those unhappy times, and managed to survive the war with little damage. Production was fully back to normal levels as early as December 1945.

1945. The war was over, and the works had survived with only minor damage. Production returned to normal levels, and a series of conversions was carried out. The factory was under the control of the British occupation authorities. These post-war years were a time of rationing: coal and wood pulp, and even finished paper itself, all required the corresponding issuing and cashing-in of paper coupons. The paper mill then enjoyed a stroke of luck, however: there was a growing demand for spinning paper for use with agricultural twine, which was desperately needed for bringing in the harvest. And the KÄMMERANER managed to win the corresponding contract.

A trial paper machine from Osnabrück goes around the world. The idea, or rather the vision, for building trial paper machines actually came from Gustav Kämmerer himself, who, back in the 1930s, had begun to ply and experiment with a miniature machine from England, which was, however, only usable to a very limited extent. Its operating width of just 10 centimetres meant that many operations were simply impossible. Kämmerer’s vision: Why not build a paper machine that exactly imitated the workings of its full-sized counterpart? A proper machine, but in miniature? The purpose of such a venture was clear: to be able to experiment with new types of paper and raw materials, but without having to interrupt current production when doing so.

1976 – the turning point: This was the year in which the company was acquired by the two Finnish groups, Ahlstrom and Kemi OY. One of the triggers for this event was the fact that AEG – one of the two shareholders of KÄMMERER – was not in good financial health. The owners (AEG and Felten & Guilleaume) therefore took a joint decision to sell the works. This move happened to be timed to coincide with the strategic decision of the Finnish Ahlstrom Group to expand its operations in Europe, and in Germany in particular. The former KÄMMERER company went on to operate in subsequent years as an autonomous business unit under the Finnish management.

It soon became clear that the Finns intended to make important changes. The company’s product portfolio no longer matched demand, and the technology used in the paper mill had become outdated. Ahlstrom instigated a major programme of technological modernisation. Financial recovery proved to be slower, however: until well into the 1980s, the Osnabrück-based paper mill continued to report losses. Nevertheless, in retrospect, one thing is now clear: the acquisition by Ahlstrom secured the continued existence of the firm.

Test and retest, experiment with raw materials, amend formulas, discard and – start again. The company’s paper engineer, Ulrik Arneberg, repeated this process many times over, day after day, week after week. He was often to be found of an evening in the small basement lab, often with other colleagues, trying to improve, just ever-so slightly, the properties of a small piece of paper. And one of these small pieces of paper turned out to be a backing material for wallpaper, destined for large-scale production. 1981 subsequently marked the birth of KÄMMERER’s wallpaper division.

A pilot project in Osnabrück: Ahlstrom took on a pioneering role in the area of emission controls. In 1984, the paper mill became part of a pilot project, which was eventually rolled out with great success throughout Germany and also abroad. Today, the monitoring of emissions continues to rely on a remote data communications system, which uses the latest computer technology to feed fume emission readings straight into the IT systems of the local authorities. The project, known back then as “the glass chimney”, was something of a sensation.

In 1989, the plant’s conventional boiler-based configuration was replaced with an innovative alternative: A "fluidised-bed boiler" went into operation.

Two hundred years ago, papermakers used unfiltered water taken straight from the river Hase, which they pumped into their tubs and simply drained back into the river after use. Starting in the 1960s, KÄMMERER’s engineers increasingly refined the water-filtering process. They designed a two-stage filter system, which removed suspended particles from the water and let them accumulate as sediment. Thanks to steady further development, the use of the latest technology and advanced environmental management, water consumption today has dropped by around 20 % compared to the ten years prior. All wastewater readings are checked in-house on a daily basis, and unannounced external inspections take place at twelve-month intervals.

It was not until the 1990s that a corporate structure began to emerge in which the Osnabrück-based enterprise formed an integral part of the worldwide Ahlstrom Group. For the workforce, but also business partners, this became apparent when the company's logo underwent a gradual and very cautious transformation – KÄMMERER became Ahlstrom KÄMMERER and ultimately Ahlstrom Osnabrück. Although this change might have proved somewhat sad for the firm’s long-term employees, it was, of course, also a necessary and indispensable part of running a global group of companies.

"The past has shown us that – regardless of whether we work under the Quirll, KÄMMERER or Ahlstrom flag – we have always been capable of seeking out solutions for our problems and the task in hand. We have managed to withstand shortages of rags and water, times of war and economic downturns. But some things have remained constant: our team spirit and our identification with the company and its mission. One thing is repeatedly clear: only by staying together can we remain strong. The quality of our paper production and the smooth operation of all our departments and divisions depend absolutely on the quality of our people. Our employees really do form the bedrock of our success."
Jürgen Oess

In 2012, the Ahlstrom Group decided to dispose of its special paper products division, and found an ideal merger partner in the shape of the Swedish-based Munksjö Group. The competition and anti-trust rules of the European Commission meant that paper machines 3 and 4 at the Osnabrück plant could not be included in the sale, so this part of the business was acquired by Perusa, a German financial investor. These two paper machines and a team of some 270 employees constituted a new company with an old name as of 01.01.2014: KÄMMERER GmbH.

Following the severance, Ahlstrom Osnabrück GmbH continued to operate on the same premises. It produced poster paper, wallcover and silicon base paper – the latter being a backing paper for adhesive labels. Despite their different company names, both firms were mutually linked both in geographic terms and in such service-related areas as maintenance and administration.

With KÄMMERER's acquisition of the remaining Ahlstrom paper machine at the end of 2016, KÄMMERER Spezialpapiere GmbH and KÄMMERER Paper GmbH began operating as sister companies from 2017 onwards.

With more than six million euros, KÄMMERER is making sustainable and forward-looking investments in its in-house power plant. The goals are clearly defined: drastically lower carbon emissions, reduce energy consumption, continue its high level of self-sufficiency. To this end, the firing of the power plant is being converted from coal to scrap wood. But environmentally sound solutions are also becoming an increasing focus for our products. Initial testing has begun on barrier paper. These could become a significant alternative to the plastic film used in the food and packaging industries.

The company is working intensely on its green and digital transformation to climate neutrality. Machinery and processes are being modernised and digitalised – investment is high and the changes palpable.

To secure the future, KÄMMERER is also working on its "multi-generational company". The aim: a healthy blend of young and experienced employees. Our apprenticeship drive "Du hast uns gerade noch gefehlt!" (You're exactly who we're looking for!) is hitting its target; at ten percent, the apprenticeship quota is on a high scale.