In 1987 the Bergisch Gladbach-based company Zanders Feinpapiere AG and the J.W. Zanders KG donated the Papiermühle Alte Dombach (Paper Mill) to the Landschaftsverband Rheinland. The Papiermühle Alte Dombach (Paper Mill) dating from 1614 provided a site in a centre of the Rhenish paper industry where the largest German paper museum has since been established. In August 1999 it was opened to visitors.
The mill building housed the factory facilities and the entrepreneurs‘ residences. Two independent mill businesses produced hand-made vat paper in Alte Dombach between 1725 and 1830. Not far away the entrepreneur Gustav Josua Müller built the Neue Dombach paper mill in 1810. From then onwards Alte Dombach only produced the fibre pulp and this was processed further in the Neue Dombach paper mill. In 1876 the Zanders company acquired the Dombach facilities which had been expanded several times. Around 1900 the company shut down production there.
