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Friedrich Gottlob Keller
Friedrich Gottlob Keller, born on 27 June 1816 in Hainichen and died on 8 September 1895 in Krippen on the Elbe, invented groundwood pulp – the process by which paper is still made from wood today. Before that, rags were needed, and they were scarce and expensive. Keller never grew rich from it. He spent the last forty-odd years of his life in Krippen near Bad Schandau, and that is where he is buried. Not to be confused with the Swiss poet Gottfried Keller.
How the invention came about
Keller was a weaver and reed maker like his father. Around 1841/42 he wrote in his ideas book that one ought to “make paper from wood fibres produced by friction” – in other words, rub wood into fibres on a grindstone. Wasps’ nests, made of chewed wood fibres, are thought to have inspired him; it is also said that he remembered grinding cherry stones on a grindstone as a child. At the end of 1843 he succeeded in making paper from groundwood and rags. On 11 October 1845 an edition of a newspaper was printed in Frankenberg on this paper.
Cheated of his reward
For 700 thalers Keller handed the idea over to the paper maker Heinrich Voelter from Bautzen, who applied for the patent; when Keller could not pay the renewal fee in 1852, the rights belonged to Voelter alone. Together with Johann Matthäus Voith, Voelter developed the grinding machines further – and out of this grew the Voith company, which still exists today. Keller himself failed with a mill in Kühnhaide in the Ore Mountains, which was damaged by a flood. Only from 1870 did he receive money from grateful wood grinders, after an appeal in 1892 a small pension, and in 1893 a Saxon order and the freedom of Hainichen. The sources contradict each other on the year and type of the patent.
The years in Krippen
In 1853 Keller moved to Krippen and worked there as a mechanic. He carried on inventing – a stone-working machine and pencil sharpeners, for which he received Imperial patents between 1881 and 1884 – but those brought him hardly anything either. In 1870 German paper makers helped him with money for a house. His home stands at Friedrich-Gottlob-Keller-Straße 76; in front of it, a large wood grinder made by Voith commemorates him as a technical monument. His grave is in the Waldfriedhof (woodland cemetery) in Krippen, there is a memorial with a bust on the Elbe cycle path, and a viewpoint near Krippen is called the Kellerfelsen.
Wood-grinding mills in Saxon Switzerland
Keller’s invention spread especially here, where there was plenty of wood and water power. The Neumannmühle in the Kirnitzschtal was also a wood-grinding mill from 1870; since 1996 it has been a technical monument and is considered the oldest surviving original facility of its kind. And in the Sebnitztal, from 1892, Robert Sputh made the beer mat out of groundwood.
As of: 10/2026
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