Leonhard Tietz

Leonhard Tietz ( born March 3 1849 in Birnbaum, Posen Province, † November 14, 1914 ) was a German merchant and department store business. He was Jewish.

Life

Tietz opened on 14 August 1879 25 sqm small textile business in Stralsund. 1882 followed in Elberfeld, ie in the first major industrial center of Germany, in which a large number of its suppliers was located, a similar business, which rather quickly called for the double city " Elberfeld- Barmen " as Wuppertal until 1930, when too small proved. Consequently, he began a long-held desire to build a multi- departmental store on the French model, in this very " Boomtown " continental European industrialization, from 1885 in the local Duke Street for the first time for Germany to and also placed the company headquarters to this place. Basis of the rapid growth of Tietz'schen companies was introduced in the German economic history from him practice to sell high quality products at fixed prices for cash payment. Until then, it was customary to negotiate the price of goods time consuming before buying. In addition, he acknowledged its customers a right to exchange.

On April 7, 1891, he opened in Cologne a 180 -square-foot shop in the High Street. In 1892 Leonhard Tietz a department store in Aachen, first in the Großkölnstraße. In 1893, he moved the headquarters of his company from Elberfeld to Cologne. Already in 1896 they moved to the business on the market in Aachen and Built in 1906, a prestigious new building. 1905 his company was converted into a public limited company. After the death of Leonhard Tietz in 1914, his son Alfred Leonhard Tietz continued the business. The company grew through acquisitions and employed in the early 1930s approximately 15,000 employees at 43 locations.

Together with Gerhard Tietz led Leonhard nor the company, as in 1933, the National Socialists came to power and urged the so-called " linearization " of Jewish department stores. The company was renamed now in West German Kaufhof AG (formerly Leonhard Tietz AG), after 1936 without additional, remained in the internal structure but - in contrast to many other expropriated companies - receive. The Tietz family had to give up their shares to banks under value. She emigrated and was compensated after the war with DM 5 million. From the department stores of Leonhard Tietz today's Galeria Kaufhof GmbH emerged.

A similar fate befell the Hertie - founders ( Wertheim, KaDeWe ) Hermann Tietz, Uncle Leonard and Oscar Tietz, Leonard's brother. The Hertie department stores of Hermann Tietz in 1994 went to Karstadt.