In 1878 Wilhelm Riedel switched the Maxdorf mill from processing flax to hemp. That same year, Jos. Riedel built a new glassworks next door which started production on 6 January 1879. Wilhelm Riedel drew up the plans for what was to be the most modern glass foundry in the region. The design of the building had a distinctly English allure, no doubt due to the six months the young businessman spent in Britain as a volunteer apprentice in the late 1860s.