Rudolph Karstadt

Rudolph Karstadt ( born February 16, 1856 in Greve mills, † December 19, 1944 in Schwerin ) was a German department store entrepreneur.

Karstadt was born as the son of the master dyer Christian Karstadt and his wife Dorothea. He had three sisters and five brothers. The trained retail salesman Rudolph Karstadt opened on May 14, 1881 his first " Manufactur, Confections and cloth business " in Wismar, which spawned the later Karstadt AG. His two- year older brother Ernst also operate small stores (eg Doemitz and Wandsbek ), the Rudolph bought from in 1900 his indebted brother. early as 1920, he had more than 30 stores throughout Germany. Karstadt maximized its profits by he switched off the intermediate trade, merchandise sales transacted centrally and its purchases were made directly from the manufacturers. Moreover, he introduced fixed prices for the goods offered. to date, price negotiations had been customary.

After Rudolph Karstadt had lost all its assets during the global economic crisis 1931/32, he left the company and moved back to Schwerin.