Mylau Castle is one of the first factory sites in the West Saxon region. The Brückner spinning mill was founded and built here in 1808, which developed into Saxony's largest spinning mill over the following decades. Mylau Castle therefore deserves special scientific consideration against the background of its industrial and generally bourgeois utilisation.

Various influences must be taken into account at this location, which made a significant contribution to the success of the industrial revolution in the North Vogtland region. These include the pre-industrial structures of textile manufacturers and home weavers, which still characterise Mylau's cityscape today with the "Turkey" district at the foot of the castle. The bourgeois utilisation of the former seat of Mylau Castle as a private residence, industrial site for two companies (Brückner spinning mill, Baust fabric printing works), representative town hall of a proud bourgeoisie and museum site for the preservation of the bourgeois cultural heritage should also be considered. The bourgeois "conquest" of the castle since 1772 against the backdrop of the incipient industrial development and its use for their own livelihood and representation made Mylau Castle one of the special sites of industrial culture in Saxony.

In addition, there is the general issue of the utilisation of castles as industrial sites, of which there are further examples in Saxony with Albrechtsburg Castle in Meissen, today's cultural castle in Großenhain, but also Osterstein Castle in Zwickau. Here, links can be established with the Ruhr region, which also connect these two early industrial development centres in this respect. The influence of the changing transport routes and means of transport in the immediate vicinity of Mylau Castle (Leipzig-Nuremberg railway line with the Göltzschtal bridge) should also be included in this complex of topics.

The diverse aspects of the industrial cultural significance of Mylau Castle and its relationship to the town and the region will be presented in a special exhibition at Mylau Castle Museum in the "Year of Industrial Culture 2020".

During the preparation of this exhibition, a considerable need for reappraisal became apparent, which currently makes a good scientific foundation for the planned exhibition impossible. Due to the perception of Mylau Castle and its eventful history through eight centuries, the focus of the museum's work has always been on the history of the building as well as historical events in the Middle Ages and the Reformation. Key areas of research were primarily formed by the preferences of the museum directors, such as aristocratic culture and the Göltzschtal bridge. The museum's extensive bourgeois collection was only used for illustration and decoration in the permanent exhibition and smaller special exhibitions.

In addition, due to personnel changes, there is a profound loss of knowledge about the castle, the town of Mylau and the region that is not or only partially recorded in the tradition.

This creates a discrepancy between the importance of Mylau Castle for the industrial development of the region, the scientific research that has been carried out on this topic to date and the availability of knowledge, results, and publications.

In order to remedy this shortcoming and, above all, to create a basis for the Year of Industrial Heritage 2020, the project "Digital Knowledge Base Industrial Heritage Mylau" is to be carried out in the first half of 2019. The aim of this model project is to create a knowledge base that brings together information on all available sources on industrial heritage for Mylau and Mylau Castle in particular. In particular, the extensive collection of documents in Mylau Castle Museum is to be catalogued against this background. In addition, there are sources and materials in municipal, district and state archives and libraries and unpublished knowledge in other institutions and from local researchers.

In this way, an overview of the sources and materials on industrial culture can be created and thus a basis for the development of the exhibition at Mylau Castle in 2020. A particular advantage is the great sustainability of the "Digital Knowledge Base Industrial Heritage Mylau", which can be researched at any time and made available in the long term for all interested parties via the "Digital Knowledge Base Museum" (https://histsax.hypotheses.org/).

At present, the knowledge base tends to focus on regional studies issues, but the addition of industrial culture for Mylau Castle demonstrates the great flexibility of the chosen format. This could also open up avenues into such a knowledge base for other museums and industrial heritage stakeholders in Saxony. Three events (opening, lecture and closing) are planned during the course of the project in order to make the topic accessible to a wider public and to present the work with the "digital knowledge base" to other industrial heritage institutions.

The "Digital Knowledge Base Industrial Heritage" project is essential for the Museum Burg Mylau in order to be able to participate appropriately in the "Year of Industrial Heritage 2020" with an exhibition project on early industrialisation.

The project is funded by the Kulturstiftung des Landes Sachsen and the Kulturraum Vogtland Zwickau.