Friedrich Wilhelm Waffenschmidt

Friedrich "Fritz" Wilhelm Waffenschmidt (born March 3, 1925 in Brühl - Pingsdorf ; † March 26, 2017 in Bensberg ) was a German entrepreneur and founder of the companies Saturn and "Hansa-Foto".

Career

Between 1946 and 1948 he attended the engineering school in Cologne . In July 1949, he married Anni Kühl (born June 29, 1924 in Berzdorf ; † July 27, 2017 in Bergisch Gladbach -Bensberg), whom he had met at the dance school. At that time, Waffenschmidt was employed in his parents' electrical business, which he left in October 1950. He moved to the Bonn-based company Kleine-Erfkamp & Co. , one of the leading electrical wholesalers in West Germany. In October 1955 he founded the Cologne branch of the even larger electrical company Stratmann ( Hagen ), the Cologne branch of which after a short time had higher sales than the Hagen headquarters. On March 21, 1959, Waffenschmidt visited the self-proclaimed "largest record dealer in the world", Sam Goody in New York City . The impressions gained here strengthened his view that at least in the sound carrier market, wholesaling no longer has a future. The size of the retail trade had to be dimensioned in such a way that a wholesale trade would become obsolete.

Entrepreneurship

The company Saturn Electro-Handels GmbH & Co. KG , which he founded in Cologne in July 1961, supplied diplomatic missions all over the world until 1966. On October 24, 1969, Saturn's largest hi-fi studios in Europe were opened to the general public. The sale at "guaranteed low prices" was made possible by a judgment of the Federal Court of Justice , which ruled on June 30, 1966 that the vertical price fixing of records was inadmissible. This cleared the way for individual retail pricing. In November 1972, the record department at Saturn was opened with discount prices. Because of the low prices, which undercut the “non-binding guide prices” applicable for records, many traditional competitors suspected that Waffenschmidt would soon become insolvent . But just one year later, Waffenschmidt's company was the record dealer with the highest turnover in Germany, passing on the volume discounts that came with bulk orders for sound carriers to its customers.

Waffenschmidt's pioneering role was expanded to include numerous other business areas through skillful diversification, such as trading in radios, television and electrical appliances. At the beginning of the 80s he advertised in the five areas of records, hi-fi / stereophony, car radio, video / video cameras and photo with the slogan "The greatest show in the world". As of May 1978, the company also sponsored the successful BSC Saturn Cologne basketball club .

Waffenschmidt's fight against price maintenance in the photo industry was particularly spectacular. In February 1963 he founded the company Ultra Foto , which was mainly supplied by Japanese manufacturers and was therefore largely not subject to price maintenance. When he founded the company Hansa-Foto with an advertising strategy in November 1968 , the press, radio and television reported for weeks about his campaign with the slogan: “We're putting an end to the non-functioning price maintenance in the photo industry - the level of general undercut is considerable. “ In December 1968, Waffenschmidt separated from the partner Stratmann. On November 2, 1972, the record department opened directly opposite the Hansagymnasium at Cologne's Hansaring , which made Waffenschmidt's company famous. Records and later sound carrier developments had long since advanced to become a mass product that the space capacity could no longer withstand. As early as 1973 Saturn had developed into the largest German record dealer.

In November 1977 Waffenschmidt's company therefore moved into the well-known brick high-rise building on Cologne's Hansaring, with a sales area of ​​initially 1,500 m², later doubled to 3,000 m². Time and again he succeeded in winning over the media public with advertising slogans and PR gags, with a strategy of permanent top position (sales area, range, low prices) and a business policy of superlatives. Many managers and managing directors of other trading companies came to Cologne to study Waffenschmidt's concepts and strategies on site. Over five million customers bought from Saturn and Hansa-Foto every year. The group of companies had meanwhile doubled its sales almost annually.

Waffenschmidt family crypt in the Melaten cemetery - the figure on the right represents Anni Waffenschmidt.

On March 31, 1984, at the height of their business, Fritz Waffenschmidt and his wife Anni sold their company to Tertia GmbH, in which Kaufhof and several leading insurance companies were involved. Fritz and Anni Waffenschmidt remained managing directors of the holding company until December 1985 and then handed over their functions to the representatives of the new shareholders. In January 1986, the Waffenschmidt couple finally retired in Florida . The couple often came to Cologne during the summer. It returned to Cologne in 2006, Fritz Waffenschmidt suffered a heart attack in 2008, died after a long and serious illness in March 2017 and was buried in Cologne's Melaten cemetery . His wife Anni died just four months later at the age of 93 and was buried in the common family crypt (hall 67 at MA).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ralf Arenz, Joachim Schmidt: Founders of Saturn: Cologne entrepreneur Fritz Waffenschmidt died. In: Kölnische Rundschau. April 3, 2017. Retrieved April 3, 2017 . 
2. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Waffenschmidt: Saturn - A German career. ( Memento of December 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Festschrift der Waffenschmidt-Verwaltung, 1995, p. 40.
3. ^ BGH, judgment of June 30, 1966, Az. KZR 5/65; BGHZ 46, 74 guiding principle
4. ↑ Peter Fuchs (Ed.): Chronicle of the History of the City of Cologne , Volume 2, 1991, p. 375.
5. ^ Website of the Waffenschmidt-Saturn administration ( Memento from December 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
6. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Waffenschmidt: Saturn - A German career. Festschrift of the Waffenschmidt administration, 1995, p. 42.
7. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Waffenschmidt: Saturn - A German career. Festschrift of the Waffenschmidt administration, 1995, p. 61.
8. ↑ Obituary notice. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on February 16, 2018 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.