What began in 1928 with an unusual material and a merchant who designed his own patterns has become one of the last manufactories of its kind. Between then and now lie four generations, an expropriation, and a new beginning.
In 1928, Richard Willy Paul was thirty years old, a merchant, and he founded "Heimindustrie Putzkau" in Putzkau. Work was done at home, at the kitchen tables throughout the region, and from the beginning the assortment was remarkably broad: decorative and vase flowers, branches made of fabric and paper, boutonnières, items made from Staffa, chenille creatures and chenille dolls, grasses for binding bouquets, and an extensive assortment of artificial flowers. Richard Willy Paul designed the patterns and sketches himself. It must have been a good idea — the business grew quickly.
What remains of that most of all is one thing: the chenille. Brightly colored artificial silk, twisted onto wire, fluffy and flexible. The same material we work with to this day.
Nearly forty years later, his son Christian Paul took over — a trained industrial master and merchant. For his master's thesis project, he built his own machine in 1966: the Easter grass machine. From paper wool it produced Easter grass, and Christian became the only manufacturer in the region of the later new German states to produce it. From a test piece came a second mainstay that accompanied the business for decades — today, Easter grass is no longer produced.
In 1972, the business was expropriated. What the family had built over decades no longer belonged to them. The work continued, the knowledge remained in the family — but the company that Richard Willy Paul had founded was, for the time being, no longer an independent family business.
It took until after the fall of the Wall. On December 20, 1990, Dorette Paul, the company's daughter-in-law, founded the business anew. It was a fresh start — with the same materials, the same craftsmanship, and the name that has since hung above the workshop: Dorette Paul.
Today Ina Paul runs the company. A wide variety of items continues to be made by hand in Putzkau. The focus is on the production of chenille and the decorative articles still handcrafted from it. Four names, nearly a hundred years, and still the same patience at the wire.
Chenille is twisted, and we have no button that produces the decorative articles by machine. Every piece is unique. That is exactly what has not changed since 1928, and exactly why you can tell from every item that someone has touched it. That is our promise, and it is a very simple one: handcrafted production that guarantees the highest quality from the start.
