Ahorn AG
| Ahorn Aktiengesellschaft
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1830 |
| Seat | Berlin , Germany |
| management |
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| Number of employees | 598 |
| sales | 73.2 million euros |
| Branch | Burials |
| Website | www.ahorn-ag.de |
| As of December 31, 2018 | |
The Ahorn AG (formerly Maple Grieneisen AG ) based in Berlin is a holding company that leads over fifty brands and companies and maintains over 200 partners collaborations that Germany's help in organizing burials. With a total of 250 branches, the company operates most of the funeral services in Germany and employs around 581 people there.
Ahorn AG is 100% owned by IDEAL Beteiligungen GmbH , a subsidiary of IDEAL Lebensversicherung a. G. , which is particularly active in the senior sector. The Ahorn AG includes the Grieneisen Bestattungen Berlin, the Antea Bestattungen in Central Germany and the grief aid Denk in Bavaria.
history
Founding and prosperity in the 19th century
Ahorn AG goes back to the coffin factory Julius Grieneisen founded in Berlin in 1830 by the carpenter Friedrich Julius Grieneisen , located at Mauerstraße 57 in Old Berlin . Initially only coffins and mortuary laundry were produced, the company began in 1869, after the Prussian Trade Regulations came into force (in which the office of the corpse commissarius appointed by the king , who took over the organization of funerals in the big cities, was abolished and so on A free, non-licensing branch of industry emerged) to organize funerals. Several specially built horse-drawn carriages were purchased for this purpose.
Due to the increasing population during the early days of Berlin, the company developed well, so that Grieneisen was able to open his first shop in 1871. A second branch was soon set up; next to the main store in Schützenstraße 52 ( center ) in Schillstraße 12 ( Tiergarten ). Friedrich Julius Grieneisen died in 1885 and the business was continued by his son Adolf and his grandson Julius. In the following years, the funeral home acquired a very good reputation, so that in 1888, in the so-called three emperor year , the funerals of Kaiser Wilhelm I on March 9 and of Friedrich III , who died on June 15, were held . were transferred.
Changing management and the effects of war and the division of Germany in the 20th century
In 1902 the brothers Andreas and Johannes Bolle (sons of the dairy owner and councilor Carl Bolle ) took over the company and expanded it further.
In 1907, the Julius Grieneisen funeral parlor in Berlin operated 12 branches and was considered the largest and most renowned institute in the city. In the same year the company headquarters was relocated to Potsdamer Strasse . In 1911 a new manufacturing facility for coffins was inaugurated on Belziger Strasse in Berlin-Schöneberg . The factory with modern machinery was considered to be the most modern production facility for coffins in Europe.
In addition, the new company headquarters and the management of the vehicle fleet were built on the site. In 1914, automobiles for transporting coffins were introduced, which by 1920 replaced horse-drawn carriages in the vehicle fleet. During the Weimar Republic , the company continued to build its reputation as a celebrity undertaker; thus, among others, Walther Rathenau and the former Empress Auguste Viktoria von Grieneisen were buried. From 1934 the funeral home was converted into a modern service company. The appearance of the branches was designed according to the designs of the architect Egon Eiermann . The facades were aligned with the newly designed Grieneisen logo (three-armed chandelier with Grieneisen lettering and the year of foundation) and the interior design was redesigned. In addition, active outdoor advertising was carried out using posters, and advertising was also broadcast on the radio.
After the Second World War , a large part of the sales rooms were damaged or were in the eastern part of Berlin , so that operations could only slowly be resumed. In the 1950s, all 15 branches were again changed in their appearance: among other things, in consideration of the population traumatized by the war, the exhibition coffins were banned from the shop windows. 1959 saw the introduction of special coffins for aircraft overpasses, which in turn had been developed by Egon Eiermann . In 1960 the company, which now employed 150 people in 16 branches, was taken over by GLOBAL Handels- und Verwaltungs-GmbH , which belonged to the IDEAL insurance group . IDEAL had been associated with the non-profit Bestattungsgesellschaft mbH since 1925 and was therefore already active in the funeral industry. In the period that followed, Grieneisen and GBG mbh worked closely together. From 1978 the company was also active in Bavaria, 1978 the first branch was opened in Munich , 1983 in Augsburg .
Grieneisen from 1990 and mergers
After reunification in 1990, the company, which in that year operated 25 branches in West Berlin , also started operations in East Berlin . The former branches there were bought back or transferred back. In 1991 Grieneisen was involved in the transfer of the coffins of the Prussian kings to Sanssouci .
On January 1, 1998, the GBG / GRIENEISEN Group and the Munich- based Ahorn Group merged to form Ahorn-Grieneisen AG , based in Berlin. The new company now had 168 branches in 76 cities in Germany and was by far the market leader in the funeral industry in Germany. In autumn 2003, the Munich-based TrauerHilfe DENK GmbH, with a strong market position in southern Germany, was also taken over, and the IDEAL insurance group became the sole owner of Ahorn-Grieneisen AG .
On January 16, 2004, the company's new headquarters in Berlin-Charlottenburg went into operation - the first meeting place . Other meeting houses were built in Kiel, Elmshorn, Leipzig and Hanover. This is where multifunctional communication and meeting places were created which, thanks to their open and bright design, enable a dignified approach to the subjects of death, mourning and dying.
In April 2005 IDEAL announced that it wanted to put 45% of Ahorn-Grieneisen AG on the stock exchange by 2007. The proceeds are intended for the construction of nursing homes, which are intended to complement IDEAL's profile as a senior specialist. At the beginning of 2008, however, the company announced that the IPO would be postponed indefinitely due to the difficult market environment.
At the end of 2007, the name was also changed, with Ahorn AG from Ahorn-Grieneisen AG , and Grieneisen and GBG being merged to form the new Grieneisen GBG Bestattungen GmbH .
The subsidiary Horizont - lifelong services GmbH , founded in 2002, was incorporated in December 2009 as the Horizont department under Ahorn AG. This department deals exclusively with the organization of repatriations from abroad and repatriations to the home or desired country of the deceased. As a partner of a large and globally active assistance service provider, the company carries out around 500 transfers a year.
In multicultural Berlin, it was only a matter of time before the funeral industry reacted to the different needs of religions on the subject of death and burial. Ahorn AG set up the IkinciBahar (Turkish: second spring, second half of life) department in 1994 and the Death and Faith department in 2004. These departments take care of the special cultural needs, rituals and dealing with death, mourning and burial of the world religions ( Judaism , Hinduism , Buddhism , Islam and Christianity ). As the need for multicultural funerals is constantly increasing, the IkinciBahar department was spun off in January 2011 and a separate company was founded: BuCa Burial & Care GmbH . Two brands will operate under the new company: Ikinci Bahar and Markaz Bestattungen, whereby Markaz Bestattungen has specialized in the devout Sunnis and Shiites .
To mark the 180th anniversary, the company is taking a stand against the trend towards anonymous burials and burials without farewell or memorial services with a radio campaign that can be heard on several Berlin stations. The Grieneisen devotional melody was composed especially for this purpose .
Grieneisen in the media
In Erich Kästner's Emil und die Detektiven , the company is named as a funeral home.
Some scenes with the actor Winfried Glatzeder from the VOX documentary The Last Mystery - Encounter with Death were filmed in the coffin store of Ahorn AG.
The production company Herbstfilm shot the film Endlich - From Living with the Dead with the support of Ahorn AG.
criticism
The business methods of Ahorn-Grieneisen AG are repeatedly criticized by consumer associations and journalists. In 2004, the Stiftung Warentest attested that the Ahorn-Grieneisen had insufficient cost transparency.
An article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung points to attempts to sell additional insurance to customers of the Ahorn AG grief relief agency.
In February 2007, it was reported in a TV report by the RBB that customers who take out death benefit insurance with the IDEAL insurance group would automatically be bound to a funeral contract with Ahorn-Grieneisen AG without having been informed of this fact. According to the journalists' findings, there are also work instructions according to which the deceased are to be transferred to high-priced coffins. If the relatives of the deceased opt for a cheaper coffin, a reburial fee will be charged.
Furthermore, it was criticized that Ahorn-Grieneisen conclude exclusive contracts with nursing homes and thereby prevent free competition in the homes. In addition, the personal data of the residents are to be passed on from the nursing homes to Ahorn-Grieneisen for acquisition purposes.
The ZDF magazine WISO took up the problem of the death benefit insurance, which is linked to a funeral contract, and the exclusive contracts between Ahorn-Grieneisen and old people's homes in June 2007.
Web links
References and comments
- ↑ a b consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2018 on bundesanzeiger.de
- ↑ Federal Gazette : Annual financial statements for the financial year from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013
- ↑ Grieneisen, A. In: Allgemeiner Wohnungs-Anzeiger together with address and business manual for Berlin , 1870, part 1, p. 233. "Wood and metal coffin factory and magazine, Schützenstraße 47. 2. Magazine: Mauerstraße 57" .
- ↑ a b Grieneisen, Adolf / Julius / Elise . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1890, Part I, p. 369. “Schützenstrasse 46, 47; Schützenstrasse 52; Potsdamer Strasse 134b; Prinzenstrasse 36 ".
- ↑ burials . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1939, Part II, p. 59. “Belziger Strasse 35”. Only one address in Berlin is mentioned; probably the headquarters.
- ↑ The GBG mbH was founded on 11 March 1925 as GmbH and goes back to the 1913 founded Versicherungsverein people Fire Mutuals funeral and was until 1929 a legally dependent division of IDEAL
- ↑ Germany's largest undertaker goes public . Handelsblatt online, April 1, 2005
- ↑ Finally - From Living With The Dead Trailer for the film
- ↑ Test of undertakers . test.de , October 21, 2004
- ↑ Bernd Kastner: Mourning Aid Denk: Warm condolences plus insurance . In: sueddeutsche.de , August 17, 2005. ISSN 0174-4917 . Retrieved August 12, 2012.
- ↑ Klaus Wiendl, Oliver Bendixen: The business with death - The bad tricks in burials . br-online.de. Archived from the original on January 1, 2008. Retrieved on August 12, 2012.
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: "Klartext" from February 7, 2007: Script and video contribution
- ↑ WISO broadcast in the ZDFmediathek , accessed on June 4, 2007. (offline)