30 Years of Doing the Right Thing: KURZ Marks Three Decades of Security-Foil Production at Sulzbach-Rosenberg

When LEONHARD KURZ GmbH & Co KG (KURZ) opened its optical film facility in Sulzbach-Rosenberg, few could have predicted how profoundly it would shape the global security feature industry. To this day, the site remains one of the company’s strategic production centres — and an example of industrial renewal, where a region built on coal and steel turned to optics and precision engineering.

Sulzbach-Rosenberg, in the Amberg-Sulzbach district of northern Bavaria, was once defined by heavy industry. Iron ore mining and the Maxhütte steelworks dominated local life for over a century, employing thousands and fuelling the post-war German economy. At its peak, Maxhütte was among Bavaria’s largest industrial employers, producing pig iron and steel for domestic and export markets.

By the 1980s, however, the picture had changed. Global competition, lower-grade ore, and soaring energy and environmental costs rendered local steel production unviable. The coal mines closed in the 1960s–70s, and Maxhütte began winding down in the mid-1980s.