A parade with a historic character
The Gutenberg Museum in Mainz is one of the oldest printing and type museums in the world. Here you can experience the legacy of Johannes Gutenberg, who invented letterpress printing with movable type in Mainz.
The main attractions include two copies of the Gutenberg Bible and a reconstructed printing press. The museum is now being modernized and a new building is being constructed.
A logistical masterpiece
A project of the century, as the entire collection has to be stored temporarily during the construction period. To this end, some exhibits have been moved to the Gutenberg – MOVE transition museum. The remaining exhibits, however, will be temporarily stored. These include the collection on the history of printing, which brings together printing presses and machines from five centuries.
It makes us incredibly proud that we, as a specialist forwarding company, were able to carry out the historic relocation of the machines. We have been around since 1935 and we even brought some of the exhibits there in the 1960s.
The challenge of machine transportation
More than 40 exhibits, including printing presses, presses and steels from various centuries, have now been removed from the museum. The larger machines, such as the Heidelberg platen, were located in the basement, while the historical machines, some of which were still made of wood, were housed on the upper floor.
Unfortunately, the existing freight elevator could not be used as it was not designed for the weight. So our designer Jürgen Reising came up with a different solution. He developed an inclined elevator that used a pulley and forklift to slide the heavy load over the stairs. Step by step, the machines were brought to the first floor to be packed with special material so that they would not be damaged during the storage period.
In addition to the installation, the location of the museum, which is in the middle of the city near Mainz Cathedral, was also a challenge at this time of year. This was because the Christmas market took place on the cathedral square at the same time in December.
It was therefore impossible to reach the museum with a 40-ton truck. That’s why we opted for our 20-ton truck with a point-load reinforced loading ramp. It was able to drive into the museum’s inner courtyard to load the machines onto special pallets with the forklift.
After just under four weeks, the museum was empty. In mid-January, the museum was able to symbolically hand over the key to the City of Mainz’s building management department. It has not yet been decided when the new building will open – we are excited and look forward to being able to transport the machines back.
