Business was going badly when the Euskirchen cloth manufacturer Kurt Müller stopped the machines in 1961 and locked the gates of his once flourishing factory in Euskirchen. Today, the old looms are running again - in the LVR Industrial Museum Müller Cloth Factory.
It is as if time has stood still: A tear-off calendar from 1961 hangs on the wall, and the recipe for a dyeing solution that Ludwig Müller wrote there in chalk more than 60 years ago is still faintly visible on the door of the dye works. There are piles of handwritten notes at the weavers' workstations, here and there a cigarette packet that has been started. Even an old coffee mug is still there, as if its owner would return from a break at any moment.
It was to be a long break. It wasn't until almost 40 years after the last owner closed the factory that the doors opened again for the first time. And nothing had changed. The plant was still fully intact and is now back in operation. After the machines had been freed from dust, rust and cobwebs and lovingly restored, one of the most unusual LVR industrial museums was opened in the factory building in 2000. Since then, weaving shuttles have been whizzing back and forth on regular guided tours, turning loose wool into fine cloth. Visitors can follow live how powerful carding machines comb wool and filigree spinning machines form a fine yarn thread. The mighty steam engine from 1903 can also be marveled at in action on the regularly held "Steam Sundays".
The Müller cloth factory is also an example of the heyday and decline of the Rhineland textile industry, which actually began with paper. Originally built as a paper factory at the beginning of the 19th century, it was not until 40 years later that the factory was converted into a spinning and fulling mill - and experienced a veritable boom. Until Kurt Müller stopped the machines one day in 1961 and left the factory as it was. A real stroke of luck for today's visitors.
