The company traces its origins to the construction of a paper mill by Merton Speiss on 27 February 1584 in Relliehausen at the source of a river in the Solling (a range of hills).

On 30 August 1769 the descendants of the Spiess family sold the mill to Peter Johann Jacob Heinrich Andrae from Osterode for 4,500 Reichsthaler.

On 13 August 1884 Oskar Andrae sold the firm to H. J. Heinemann of Hannover who immediately began the construction of a new production facility.

Unforeseen difficulties and costs forced Heinemann to give up the factory, and it was sold in 1886 to Carl Hahne who renamed the mill into “Büttenpapierfabrik Hahnemühle”.

Today, the firm employs approximately 200 employees worldwide in the production of paper for painters, graphic artists, illustrators, bookbinders, photographers and printmaker as well as for the production of specialty papers in industrial applications (such as filter membranes for chemical and biological analysis).