Skins from raccoons and foxes hang dry in the beams. Red deer skins are piled up on one table, fluffy sheep skins on another. We are in the workshop of Jürgen Stölcker, probably the last tanner in the whole of Thuringia. The senior is someone who can pull the fur over the fox's ears, wash it with all the water and - a specialty of the tanner - really pull the leather off. Jürgen Stölcker is proud of his ancient profession, of his guild, even today, as he knows that it will die out. After him, there will probably be no more craftsmen like him tanning hides. Because his profession "is not for the faint-hearted", as he says. Wherever a tanner works, it smells of dead animals and sweet chemicals.

Anyone entering the workshop on Zöllnersgasse is somehow also crossing the threshold into a bygone century. The fully functional machines have long had historical value and enjoy the status of historical monuments. Most of the tools also come from the ancestors of the old family business, which Jürgen Stölcker took over in the fourth generation. His great-grandfather opened this tannery in 1895 in what was then the tanners' quarter, through which the Schwemmnotte flows - one of many at the time.

Today, the Stölcker tannery in Zöllnersgasse is the last representative of the once so important guild in Mühlhausen. Guided tours for groups can be requested via the Mühlhausen Tourist Information Office.