What would life be without the printing of books?

Hardly any other invention has changed the world as much as printing. The first printing press built by Johannes Gutenberg over 550 years ago marked the beginning of a long technical and cultural development.

The Printing Museum WEISS in Monschau-Imgenbroich guides visitors through history to the most modern printing machines and the Internet.

What would our life be without the achievements of the black art? You will be confronted with this question right at the entrance and find out what different areas of life would be affected by it:

Books and magazines would be copied by hand in huge writing rooms and would be priceless. Teachers would lecture from hand-written notes and students would have to write everything down. The contents of packages could only be noted down by hand. To buy a home the only way to transport the money would probably be in a huge treasure chest.

Philosophy

Francis Bacon

We should focus our attention on the power, the impacts and the consequences of inventions which were nowhere more striking than in the case of those three achievements unknown to the ancients - namely letterpress printing, gunpowder and the compass. These three inventions changed the appearance and state of the whole world.

[Novum organum, Aphorismus 129]