For over a hundred years, the knitting machines clattered in every house, but the opportunity to use modern technology was missed, demand declined, and the whole village sank into poverty.

Salvation came in the form of two gentlemen: the merchant Edmund Boden and the technician Johann Christian Lotter. Together, with the aid of a loan, they founded the first drawing instrument factory in Wilhelmsdorf, which is still standing today (Erlanger Str. 11). From then on the situation in the village improved. You can get an impression of the early period of the drawing instrument industry at the “ CompassMuseum,” the only known one of its kind in the world.

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