Bookstore Graff

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Graff

logo
legal form GmbH
founding April 10, 1867
Seat Braunschweig
management Joachim Wrensch,
Frederick Wrensch
Number of employees 80
sales 14 million euros
Branch Book trade
Website graff.de
As of August 30, 2012

The Graff bookstore , usually just called Graff , is a company from Braunschweig . It was founded in 1867 by Wilhelm Graff . In 2013 Graff was ranked 33rd among the 50 largest bookshops in Germany. The bookstore is a member of the German Book Trade Association . In the 19th and 20th centuries there was also the A. Graff publishing house , which published literature on Braunschweig local history , historical novels and short stories as well as school books. In 1973, for example, the publisher brought out a reprint of the book Der Schatz im Silbersee by Karl May , published in 1894 , and published more of his books. Among other things, the publisher published the magazine for American studies in 1977 and was dissolved around 1985.

Company history

The history of the bookstore began on April 10, 1867, when Wilhelm Graff opened his bookstore at Kannengießerstraße  16 and announced this with the following advertisement.

"I hereby have the honor to give you the sincere notification that, after I have obtained a concession, I will open an antiquarian bookstore under my name Wilhelm Graff in the local area, my home town."

- Wilhelm Graff : History of the Graff bookshop

Since then, the company has been forced to make major changes several times. Particularly drastic because of its complete destruction during the Second World War as a result of the air raid on October 15, 1944 . In the course of the reconstruction , the bookstore moved several times within the city.

Wilhelm and Agnes Graff

The founder Wilhelm Graff initially had dictionaries , school books and atlases in his range of books . For example, he supplied the Braunschweig educational institutions. As early as 1868, Theodor Müller became a partner in the company, which subsequently developed into an assortment and art dealer. However, Müller withdrew after an inheritance. Instead, Agnes Graff, b. Gollmart, with her assets and took over the management, which resulted in the move to larger premises at Neue Straße  23.

Since the founder's health deteriorated, a partner was sought. This was found in the previous assistants Adolf Just and Paul Graff, who was taken from the Martino-Katharineum specifically for training as a bookseller . In 1896, at the age of 26, Paul Graff took over the management when Just also fell ill.

Paul Graff

Paul Graff around 1900.

The company expanded and Paul Graff decided to build a house in Art Nouveau style at Neue Straße 18a . After a sustained increase in sales, the premises were expanded. Another floor has now been opened for customers via a spiral staircase. Graff also developed into a publisher . He bought up publishing stocks, which helped the company weather the First World War and hyperinflation .

Paul Graff had no successor when he wanted to retire from business life after 50 years of work. Management passed to Johannes Wrensch, a Bremen export bookseller.

Johannes Wrensch

With the takeover by Johannes Wrensch in 1937, new priorities were set in the company, resulting in closer cooperation with the Braunschweig Technical University . The area of ​​scientific literature was expanded. In addition to his own children, Wrensch employed eight assistants and apprentices and introduced the “modern antiquarian bookshop”. But the Second World War ruined his work when, on the night of bombing on October 15, 1944, the Braunschweig city center was destroyed by a firestorm . As a result, the Graff bookstore lost its sales rooms and all stocks.

The new beginning after the Second World War proved difficult. The makeshift rooms were broken into and the goods stolen. The currency reform of 1948 made the laboriously rebuilt inventory almost worthless.

Post-war makeshift building with reference to the shop on Eiermarkt 1.

the post war period

Johannes Wrensch and his son Jürgen rebuilt the business on the Eiermarkt . The previous relationship with the university was also revived and the first employees were hired soon after. This ensured the company's continued existence and constant expansion. So Johannes and Jürgen Wrensch were able to open the doors in the house at Neue Straße 23 on St. Nicholas Day in 1958. Graff soon developed into the largest bookshop in the Braunschweig region. In 1965 a branch was opened on Mühlenpfordtstrasse , in the immediate vicinity of the university (which has since been closed). As early as 1968, the number of employees in the company rose from 40 to 70.

  • Commercial buildings

  • possibly Neue Straße 23

  • Neue Strasse 18a.

  • West facade of the Graff bookshop as seen from the Andreaskirche .

Thomas and Joachim Wrensch

Jürgen Wrensch's sons took over the business from their father in 1985/86. In 1990 they ensured an expansion of the sales area to 1,000 m². The Graff bookstore has since offered all areas of the domestic and foreign book market and opened up to the new media .

In 1999 they moved to a newly built house at Sack 15; the sales area was thereby doubled. The opening of a 3000 m² branch of the book trade company Thalia am Hutfiltern in November 2005 led to fierce competition for market leadership between the bookstores in Braunschweig. This was deliberately located in the immediate vicinity of the Graff bookstore branch, which has less retail space. Thalia had previously offered the company a takeover. It was mentioned that Thalia would open a second large store if the Wrensch brothers opposed a sale. The offer was refused. In 2007, another Thalia branch was added in the Schloss-Arkaden . New marketing concepts and strict cost management were necessary in order to counter a possible loss of customers. In addition, the “Café Lit” was set up and new priorities set, for example a cultural program with more than 100 events per year. Readings by authors , concerts, lectures, writing competitions and children's programs are offered here. The sales offer ranges from books, magazines and music CDs to a two-thousand-one shop that opened in 2009. In 2010, the competitor's large branch on hat filters was closed again.

Thomas Wrensch was also a member of the independent jury for the Peace Prize 2013, which is awarded by the Peace Prize Foundation of the German Book Trade Association. The award went to the Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich . Thomas Wrensch was also honored in 2017 with the “Friedrich Perthes Medal” for his commitment.

In 2014, the brothers jointly published a book entitled Braunschweiger Kanon der Literatur .

Frederick Wrensch

On March 1, 2019, Thomas Wrensch left the management of the Graff bookstore after 35 years and retired. His son Frederick has taken over this position for him, so that the bookstore is now run by the Wrensch family in the fourth generation. Frederick Wrensch studied business administration at the University of Mainz and initially worked for the European Contact Center at the Hyatt Hotel there. He then completed internships in various bookshops and publishing houses (including at Fischer Verlag , Osianderchen Buchhandlung and Libri ) and completed training as a book trade specialist at the Mediacampus in Frankfurt in order to prepare for the new area of ​​responsibility. He has been working in the bookstore since November 2017.

Awards

City bus of the Braunschweiger Verkehrs-GmbH with Graff advertising (approx. 1983).
  • Bookstore of the year 2006, category independent bookstore, awarded by the trade journal BuchMarkt
  • Bookshop of the year 2009, awarded by the Lower Saxony Minister for Science and Culture
  • Lighthouse bookstore of the month April 2009, awarded by Langendorfs Dienst
  • Prädikatsbuchhandlung - Partner for Reading Promotion 2009/2010
  • Marketing Lion of the Year 2010, the main prize of the Marketing Club Braunschweig
  • Prädikatsbuchhandlung - Partner for Reading Promotion 2011/2012
  • Prädikatsbuchhandlung - Partner for Reading Promotion 2013/2014
  • German Bookstore Award 2016
  • 2018, again awarded the undoped "Seal of Approval of the Federal Government".

Editions of the publishing house A. Graff (selection)

  • Horst Witte: Flora Academica. No. 2: Cheerful blossom harvest from science. A. Graff, Braunschweig 1971, OCLC 637311608 .
  • Karl May: The legacy of the Inca. A. Graff, Braunschweig 1974, ISBN 3-7802-0239-5 .
  • Karl Friedrich May, R. Schmid: The oil prince. A. Graff, Braunschweig 1974, ISBN 3-7802-0237-9 .
  • Karl May, Thomas Ostwald: Abdahn Effendi - Schamah Two stories. A. Graff, Braunschweig 1977, ISBN 3-7802-0248-4 .
  • American Studies magazine. Journal of American History. A. Graff, Braunschweig from 1977, ISSN  0170-2513 .
  • Paul Pitt, Max Wing, Frank Astor, Thomas Ostwald: John Kling . Book 134 The avenger of the unemployed. Book 217 The King of Beggars. Issue 255 people on the dark side of life. A. Graff, Braunschweig 1978, ISBN 3-87273-030-4 .
  • Hugo F Lamp: I never want to fight again. General Howard's campaign against the Nez Perce Indians who are unwilling to treaty. In the: Kalumet series. A. Graff, Braunschweig 1978, ISBN 3-7802-0351-0 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b According to the company's own information on email request.
  2. ↑ Ranking of the 50 largest bookstores ( memento from November 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) of the 2013 book report .
  3. ↑ Like Fafnir at the Nibelungen Hort . In: Der Spiegel . No. 15 , 1974 ( online ).
  4. ↑ Bibliography from 1963. In: Karl-May-Buecher.de. Publishing house "A. Graff Braunschweig ”, accessed on November 11, 2013 .
  5. ^ Statement by Thomas Wrensch, former managing partner of the Graff bookstore on August 31, 2012.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f story on graff.de
  7. ↑ Jana Gioia Baurmann: Book trade: The victims of today are the conquerors of yesterday . In: Die Zeit Online . 2013 ( zeit.de ).
  8. ↑ Jörg Plath: Cold War of Books . In: Der Tagesspiegel . January 30, 2006 ( tagesspiegel.de ).
  9. ↑ Thomas Wilking, Thomas Wrensch, Joachim Wrensch: Local marketing against the muscle play of the chain . In: book report . Vol. 41, issue 11, November 2010, p. 48-53 .
  10. ↑ Events on graff.de
  11. ↑ Author reading on braunschweig-spiegel.de.
  12. ↑ Doubling of the area on the 15th sack on graff.de.
  13. ↑ Thalia in Braunschweig will only have one location in future. boersenblatt.net, September 21, 2010, accessed on August 28, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Who will receive the 2013 Peace Prize? at boersenblatt.net, accessed on February 18, 2013.
  15. ↑ Swetlana Alexijewitsch receives the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade 2013 on friedenspreis-des-deutschen-buchhandels.de.
  16. ↑ Börsenverein honors Thomas Bez and Thomas Wrensch for their commitment on boersenverein.de.
  17. ↑ Thomas Wrensch, Joachim Wrensch: Braunschweiger Canon of Literature - 100 readers, 100 books, 100 opinions (=  Canon of literature ). First division in the Ed. Schmitz, Essen, Ruhr 2014, ISBN 978-3-932443-33-6 .
  18. ↑ Generation change in the bookstore Graff / Frederick Wrensch takes over . In: Börsenblatt . February 27, 2019 ( boersenblatt.net ).
  19. ↑ a b c awarded by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels , Landesverband Niedersachsen-Bremen.
  20. ↑ Predicate bookstores in Lower Saxony and Bremen 2013/14. on boersenblatt.net
  21. ↑ Excellent bookstore Graff. BZV Medienhaus GmbH, Braunschweig October 7, 2016 ( standort38.de - access only via login).
  22. ↑ Press release of August 28, 2018: German Bookstore Award 2018: Minister of State for Culture Grütters announces nominations. (In the lower section “Furthermore, this year there will be up to ten bookstores, […]” see Lower Saxony).