Bar Press / Lithographic Printing @museum.de

M: This room, which features a replica of a working printing press, is dedicated to the inventor of lithography, Alois Senefelder. He developed the press in 1798. The original is at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

F: The portraits at the far end of the room show Alois Senefelder on the left and the music publisher Johann Anton André on the right. André was the scion of a Huguenot family that had immigrated to Germany in the early 18th century. Thanks to the association between these two men, lithography began its successful march across the world in the early 19th century. As to where Mozart comes in – select stop number 21 to find out more.

M: Lithography, printing from stone, was a new, fast and inexpensive method of printing – the forerunner of such modern planographic printing processes as offset printing. The press was set up in music publisher Johann Anton André’s print shop in 1800, and was first used commercially to reproduce musical scores.

F: If you’d like to know how the press works, take a look at your smartphone, where we’ve set out the individual steps in the process.

M: A sheet of paper is inserted into the folding frame of the bar press -- the tympan.

Using a greasy crayon, the subject to be printed is drawn in reverse on a polished slab of stone. The stone is subsequently treated with etching fluid, and colour is applied.

The tympan is folded down on to the stone, and the pressure on the tympan is increased using a foot-pedal.

The bar scraper is drawn across the tympan. During printing, the stone is kept damp at all times.

After that, the printed sheet can be removed. The process allowed large numbers of copies to be printed within a short time.

F: The lithography stones on the wall are the 19th century originals used at the André publishing house.

M: We have an operational printing workshop here in the Bernard Building which features all the different printing processes. Anyone can use the workshop after attending an introductory course.

F: Following this excursion into the world of printing technology, your tour continues on the upper floor. A lift is available for visitors who would prefer not to take the stairs.