The Louisenthal Paper Mill, or Papierfabrik Louisenthal (PL) in regional language, is a German manufacturer of

security paper Security paper is a paper used in security printing that incorporates features that can be used to identify or authenticate a document as original, , watermarks or invisible fibres in paper, or features that demonstrate tamper evidence when fraud ...

. Founded in 1878, the company has been a subsidiary of the

Giesecke+Devrient Giesecke may refer to: People: * Heinz-Eberhard Giesecke (1913–1991), German historian * Karl Ludwig Giesecke FRSE (1761–1833), German actor, librettist, polar explorer and mineralogist * Markus Giesecke (born 1979), German futsal player from R ...

company since 1964 which is best known as a German manufacturer of

banknotes A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commer ...

History

In 1878, a

paper mill A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt ...

was established in

Gmund am Tegernsee Gmund am Tegernsee is a municipality in the district of Miesbach in Bavaria in Germany. The town is located on the north shore of the Tegernsee Lake, and near the source of River Mangfall. It is from Munich and from the district capital, the ...

. Since 1964, the company has been a subsidiary of

. The company owns a second factory at

Königstein, Saxony Königstein (, ) is a town on the river Elbe in Saxony in Germany. Königstein lies in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge District and had a population of 2,089 in 2018. It includes land on both banks of the Elbe, but the centre and most of ...

, acquired in 1991 after the

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

Manufacturing

The substrate bears essential security features of banknotes to protect against

counterfeiting A counterfeit is a fake or unauthorized replica of a genuine product, such as money, documents, designer items, or other valuable goods. Counterfeiting generally involves creating an imitation of a genuine item that closely resembles the original ...

. In the early days of banknote production, security paper was equipped with real

watermarks A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations i ...

and security threads. In 1994 the world's first banknote paper with

hologram Holography is a technique that allows a wavefront to be recorded and later reconstructed. It is best known as a method of generating three-dimensional images, and has a wide range of other uses, including data storage, microscopy, and interf ...

stripes was produced in Louisenthal (the 2000 leva banknote for

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

). After

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or Semisynthesis, semisynthetic materials composed primarily of Polymer, polymers. Their defining characteristic, Plasticity (physics), plasticity, allows them to be Injection moulding ...

banknotes could not establish themselves on the market, the mill brought a banknote onto the market in 2008 which combined the advantages of paper and polymer banknotes. In 2019, the company was the creator of two new technologies in a new set of banknotes by the

Bulgarian National Bank The Bulgarian National Bank (, , BNB) is the central bank of the Republic of Bulgaria. It has also been Bulgaria's national competent authority within European Banking Supervision since 2020. Headquartered in Sofia, the bank was established in ...

, which won the Best New Banknote award given by the High Security Printing EMEA Conference in

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

. As of 2020, the Louisenthal paper mill claims to be a leading supplier of advanced film elements as security features that produce color shifts and three-dimensional effects depending on the viewing angle.

Production

Employing a workforce of around 1,100, 320 of which are located at the Königstein site near

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, the paper mill produces about 13,000 tons of paper per year.

References

{{Reflist Banknotes Paper products Manufacturing