To start with, every wallpaper pattern was unique, because it was hand-painted. From this, the skilled workman made reproducible patterns by hand "à la planche", with a wooden model. He would print the strips of paper - also leather or fabric - piece by piece using the wooden template.

The Rhine Gate is not big enough any more. Under the guidance of Franz Joseph Müller, the hand printing factory is built in what is to become Richard-Müller-Strasse in Breisach.

Machines are moving in everywhere. Even the production of wallpapers, which had been carried out by craftsmen not bound to guilds for around 150 years, is becoming increasingly mechanised. New markets are opening up. In Breisach, Franz Joseph Müller has recognised the new opportunities at an early stage.

Wallpapers are fashion products. And fashion moves with the spirit of the times. At the end of the 19th century, developments were based in Europe - as with clothes too - on French models: the houses of the bourgeoisie in Paris and Strasbourg. Adolf and Hermann Müller were responsible for successfully embodying the spirit of the times at Erismann from 1878 onward.

Were the Müller brothers familiar with the marketing philosophy of their contemporary, Henry Ford? In any case, they were among the first at the end of the 19th century to take out advertisements in the trade press in order to draw attention to their products.

During the Second World War, production was suspended. The wallpaper factory itself had withstood all attacks. But in the turmoil of the first weeks after the War, it was completely destroyed by fire on 18 July 1945. The factory was in ruins.

At the beginning of the 1970s, Erismann introduces flexographic and rotogravure printing.

The first new printing machine in the post-war era was built in 1948 by Kroenert in Hamburg. Up to 1952, it was followed by five additional printing machines.