He then moved to Scheuerfeld where he acquired the Berger paper mill and began the "Deutsche Duroleum Gesellschaft", making fiberboard plates again.
Johann Stegner, the son of a construction worker, was born on 20 December 1866 in Frohnlach, District of Sonnefeld, in the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha but he was raised in Scheuerfeld, then a village west of Coburg, in the same Duchy.