Intensive days at the trade fair are behind us, proving once again the outstanding importance of the leading trade fair with the widest range of products and services for experts in restoration and monument conservation in Europe. Around 13,400 interested, enthusiastic visitors were able to find out about various topics, issues, solutions and products from almost 500 exhibitors from 26 countries.
Part of it from day one – 30 years of Deffner & Johann at denkmal
As part of 30 years denkmal festivities Messe Leipzig invited exhibitors and the conservation community to "Denkmalschutz und neue Partnerschaften – wie stärken und bündeln wir Denkmalkompetenzen”. Deffner & Johann was one of the few companies exhibiting since the very beginning. As a symbolic acknowledgement, Mr Ralph-Uwe Johann was presented with an honorary lifetime entry ticket to denkmal.
"Deffner & Johann at denkmal 1994 - 2024 back then at the old Messe Leipzig exhibition centre. denkmal has been the highlight of our event calendar since – making new contacts, gathering with customers and business partners. Over the years, denkmal has become a big family get-together that we always look forward to.
With our Experts to Experts format, we regularly invite suppliers and conservation specialists to our stand to present solutions and product innovations for preservation and restoration at first hand. In this way, we contributed transforming denkmal from an old-style product exhibition into a marketplace for knowledge and innovation transfer for the European professional world. The fact that our efforts were honoured by being awarded the gold medal twice is a highlight for the entire Deffner & Johann team.
30 years of denkmal would not have been possible without the commitment of each individual in the trade fair team, who live and breathe heritage conservation and restoration and have made it a matter close to their hearts – this is how the trade fair is and remains relevant", says Ralph-Uwe Johann, owner and Managing Director of Deffner & Johann.
D&J range and catalogue 2025
Traditionally, we not only presented our comprehensive range for restoration, monument conservation and art handling, but also provided one or two guests with tips and tricks on a wide variety of issues.
Interested trade visitors were also able to take a first look at the hot-off-the-press D&J general catalogue 2025 – our popular ‘reference book’ with a range of products and solutions for monument conservation, restoration and art handling. The catalogue will be sent to customers in more than 60 countries from the beginning of 2025.
Experts to Experts – unique lecture programme at the Deffner & Johann stand
Visitors had the opportunity to meet suppliers and to shoulder-view experts as they worked and sharing best practice.
Preventive Conservation and Art Handling 
Yngve Magnusson (Dipl. Rest. Univ., Museum Lillehammer, Norway) shared his experience and tips on preventive conservation directly from his day-to-day work and provided comprehensive advice on specialist topics such as safe hanging systems from Temart, packaging options for transport and storage or tried-and-tested concepts for pest and climate management in museums and archives. With a view to sustainability, we presented a number of innovations, such as the Propadyn Museart moisture stabiliser and adsorbi CR granules for binding VOC pollutants for collection care.
CSGI Nanorestore® – surface cleaning with nanotechnology
Teresa Guaragnone (PhD) and Andrea Casini (PhD) used various sample surfaces to impressively demonstrate how effectively and reliably the innovative Nanorestore® products can be used for sensitive surface cleaning in restoration and conservation.
LEDAN® – injection an consolidation mortar
Product innovations, but also proven material solutions in the field of mortar, injection and consolidation alternatives as well as their processing, e. g. with the specially developed mortar syringe, attracted numerous interested parties to the table of Alfredo and Michele Bonaccini from LEDAN®/Tecno Edile.
Wistoba – Brushes
For the first time, we welcomed Thorsten W. Stollberg, co-owner of Wistoba. Using various samples, visitors were able to try out different brush trimmings – at the same time benefiting from Mr Stollberg's extensive specialist knowledge of the manufacturing process and the special properties and areas of application of the brushes.
Ottosson Färgmakeri, together with Burkard Münchow – Swedish linseed oil paint and their application 
Gunnar Ottosson and his two colleagues Marcus Björk and André Talborn provided detailed information about Swedish linseed oil paints and their production and associated products – as well as their sustainability. Ottosson has written down his experiences and knowledge about and with linseed oil and linseed oil paint in his book "Ein Buch über Leinölfarbe, Leidenschaft & den Süden Schwedens" – everything you need to know about linseed oil paint can be found in this book. It also contains plenty of inspiration, tips and ideas.
In addition, Burkard Münchow, window restorer and expert in the application of linseed oil paint, with the support of Anastasia Kathilu, demonstrated individual, necessary work steps such as the removal of old putty or paint residues from old windows until a window can finally be painted with fresh linseed oil paint. They were always surrounded by a crowd of visitors.
Speedheater® – surface-friendly paint removal using infrared technology
It was no different for our Speedheater® partners. Over the course of the three days of the trade fair, Birger Ericson, Johanna Orinder and Peter Carlander were able to remove old layers of paint from an entire historic wooden door during their demonstrations – effectively thanks to infrared technology, but at the same time without damaging the surface. The newly developed aluminium heat protection fabric for protecting surfaces that should not be treated or exposed to the heat of the infrared devices was presented for the first time at the trade fair.
aka® – sustainable products for dry cleaning
When it comes to dry cleaning more sensitive surfaces such as paper, wallpaper, textiles, frescoes or wall and ceiling paintings, aka® was the right choice. Dirk Born and Eleonora Bader demonstrated the complete aka® cleaning system to the interested trade visitors, including innovations such as various blasting granulates.
Paper Restoration – Maren Dümmler (M.A.) 
For the paper area, we improvised a workshop set-up with a work table, suction cabinet, the new FUCHS® suction filter device for soft particle blasting and the airblaster with various blasting agents. Maren Dümmler (M.A.), paper restorer, accompanied us again this year as an expert for the entire paper sector. During various demonstrations, guests were able to look over her shoulder or try out soft particle blasting on sample pieces themselves. Special attention was also paid to the use of wax-sealed pouches as well as handmade paper and the self-adhesive Tengucho.
XpectralTEK® – non-destructive multispectral analysis
António Cardoso, co-founder of XpectralTEK®, presented the XpeCAM® for the first time at denkmal, a camera for the non-destructive analysis of paintings, graphics and wall paintings, e. g. for the detailed recording of underdrawings, the characterisation of paint layers and pigmentation or for the examination of layer structures.
Let there be daylight
One area of the D&J stand shone particularly brightly - numerous luminaires with daylight quality in all sizes, attached to tables, scaffolding and easels or on fixed or mobile stands provided extraordinary light. In particular, our new products such as the HAROLUX® UV LED, SCANGRIP® Multimatch, FlexLine task lights and various ring magnifier lights were closely scrutinised by visitors.
Numerous other new products – brush series, pigment ranges, painting media, binders, microscopes, equipment for various applications and specialist literature – rounded off our exhibition programme.
THANK YOU
for this successful trade fair to all the guests and customers at our stand who shared their experiences, ideas and insights with us and informed themselves about developments, trends, products and innovations in restoration, conservation and art handling.
In particular, we would also like to thank our experts and suppliers who accompanied us to denkmal again this year and who jointly made stand G02 not just a marketplace of best practice and innovation but also of mutual cooperation and great fun.
See you at denkmal 2026!
