Lights that illuminate hearts.

In 2022, the Herrnhut Star Manufactory will look back on 125 years of manufacturing Herrnhut stars. It was in 1897 that the commercial production of paper stars by hand began in the Upper Lusatian village of Herrnhut. Herrnhuter Sterne GmbH has taken this handicraft into the modern age. Today, the Herrnhut Star is considered the origin of all Advent and Christmas stars.

The modern manufactory building on Oderwitzer Straße was inaugurated in 2010 on the site of the old factory building. The new building houses production, warehouse, shipping and administration as well as the visitor center. Visitors can expect to find a show workshop with a permanent exhibition and a cinema hall on site. In the show workshop, those interested can look at the hands of the professionals and see how much dexterity goes into making paper and plastic stars.

No matter what size, the stars always have the geometry of a rhombic cuboctahedron and are therefore only genuine with 25 points. 17 of them are square and 8 are triangular. A true masterpiece is the smallest paper star in the range, which measures just 13 centimeters. Skilled craftsmanship is required to make such a tiny star: small areas of paper are punched, narrow edges of glue are folded with a knife, and jag after jag is glued together with a brush and tweezers. After a year and a half of training, skilled workers need 1.5 hours to routinely produce a star.

HERRNHUTER STERNE GMBH
Oderwitzer Straße 8
02747 Herrnhut

www.herrnhuter-sterne.de

Distance: 57 km