Working museum in Leipzig-Plagwitz where around 100 fully functional machines demonstrate 550 years of printing history in operation.
September 12, 2026 – February 14, 2027
Large-format black-and-white woodcuts by the Berlin artist, who distills everyday scenes with subtle irony; the centerpiece is a woodcut panorama specially expanded with Leipzig motifs.
Eckehart Schumacher-Gebler founded the museum in 1994; in 2000 it was transferred to the private Stiftung Werkstattmuseum für Druckkunst Leipzig foundation, which since 2010 has been largely supported by the Giesecke+Devrient Stiftung. It is housed in an industrial building in Plagwitz with a printing tradition of almost a hundred years, whose facade architect Edgar Röhrig redesigned in the Art Deco style in 1922/23.
The museum sees itself not as an exhibition of silent witnesses but as a living workshop: around 100 working machines and presses on four floors illustrate relief, intaglio, and planographic printing, and specialists demonstrate them in operation. Special features include a fully operational type foundry, hand and machine typesetting, a hand bindery, a wood engraving workshop from around 1900, and a cabinet on music printing. Since 2013 the museum has also owned the complete collotype workshop of the Leipzig printing company C. G. Röder – one of the few places in the world where this process is still practiced.
The collection comprises around 4,000 typefaces in lead and wood, together with matrices and punches, as well as a specialist library of about 3,500 volumes. Changing exhibitions on graphic art and printing, workshops, holiday courses, and the Leipziger Typotage typography conference round out the program. The museum is part of the Saxon and the European Route of Industrial Heritage and helped ensure that artistic printing techniques were added to Germany's national inventory of intangible cultural heritage in 2018.
| Adults | €8 |
|---|---|
| Reduced | €4School students, university students, apprentices, people doing voluntary service (FSJ), people with a degree of disability of 50 or more, Leipzig Card holders |
| Children & teens | €2Children up to school age pay €2; school students pay the reduced price of €4. |
| Visitors with disabilities | €4Reduced with a degree of disability of 50 or more |
| Students & apprentices | €4 |
| Groups (5+ people) | –Guided tours and workshops for 5 or more people by registration only (see additional tickets). |
| Guided tour (5 or more people, plus admission) | €3per person; daycare centers and schools €1.50 |
| "Setzen und Drucken" (Typesetting and Printing) workshop (5 or more people, plus admission) | €3per person; daycare centers and schools €2.50 |
| Children's birthday party | €8per person |
Admission includes the special exhibition. Printing presses can be rented by the hour (e.g., toggle press, composing room, or etching press €25/hour plus VAT); members of the friends' association receive a 10% discount.
According to the museum, all exhibition rooms are wheelchair-accessible.
Great for kids & families
Several times a year, family workshops on Sundays (e.g., etching, typesetting, and printing); vacation courses during the winter, summer, and fall breaks; children's birthday parties can be booked. For preschoolers, a program in which they set and print their own name.
Tram 1 or 2 to Holbeinstraße; tram 14 to Nonnenstraße.
Paid parking
Paid parking garage opposite the museum.
Museum shop with cards, wrapping paper, books, and posters, much of it printed on the historic machines in the building. Free Wi-Fi.
Up to 120 guests.
For conferences, seminars, client receptions, and presentations for up to 120 people: lecture hall with projector and sound system, additional rooms and some production areas, and in summer a courtyard with a fountain. Prices and floor plans on request.
Inquiries & details| Guided tours | yes |
|---|---|
| School programs | yes |
| Good to know | Specialist staff explain and demonstrate the machines. Guided tours and workshops for 5 or more people by registration; creative courses (etching, linocut, stamp making), holiday programs, family workshops, and an open letterpress workshop. |
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