Origins

Indigo and the beginnings of indigo printing.

The flourishing east India trade through England and Holland brought indigo to Germany around 1600. Indigo is known to be the oldest organic dye. The native dyer’s-weed however soon pushed the tropical indigofera types of dyes out because of it’s better quality.

The blue dye, which is the basic requirement for indigo printing, comes from the leaves of a shrub type plant. In the 19th century Calcutta was the most important centre for indigo trade and it remained strong until about 1920 when BASF started producing a synthetic indigo dye.

Also the process of reserve print – which is what is used for indigo printing – came to Germany from India. In 1690 Jeremias Neuhofer from Augsburg created the first indigo prints with the reserve print process. Soon after that, the craft of indigo printing could be found wherever there was flax being grown and linen being woven.
In 1743  the "Blau- und Schönfärberhandwerk" (Indigo and dyer craft) of Minden Ravensberg even had their own dyer’s trade guild. In nearly every town and village there was one or more indigo dyer or printer. At it’s peak Nottuln had six of them.
At the beginning of the 19th century the dyers joined together in trade guilds. When the industrialisation of printing through roll printing machines started in the 1890s a lot of printers had to close down.
The Kentrup family adapted itself quickly and began specialising in tailor-made products in small quantities for the special needs of it’s clients.
Apart from that they were not solely reliant on the printing business because until 1954 they also ran a small laundry, a general store and an inn.
Today the inn ‚Kentrup Bläu’ and the printing business are independent of each other.