Carl Herlitz

Carl Herlitz (born December 14, 1867 in Ohlau , Silesia ; † February 12, 1939 in Berlin ) was a German bookseller and the founder of the Herlitz family business .

Life

Carl Herlitz was born as the son of Eduard Herlitz and Emilie Herlitz (née Baron). He had six siblings. The father had come to prosper as a businessman with a schnapps distillery and a renowned inn and was a councilor in Ohlau. Carl left Silesia at the age of 18, moved to the metropolis of Berlin and completed an apprenticeship as a bookseller there .

In 1904 he started his business as a stationery wholesaler in Schöneberg b. Berlin self-employed. The sole proprietorship of Carl Herlitz was listed for the first time in 1905 in the Berlin address book under “Representatives of foreign companies in the paper and contour utensils industry”. The founding of the Herlitz family company, from which Herlitz AG emerged in 1972, also dates back to this point in time . The Carl Herlitz office supplies wholesaler traded paper products with rubber rings and inkwells and was the first to sell adhesive films .

In 1910 Carl Herlitz married Berta Böker (1886–1962), with whom he had three sons: Heinz (1911–1991), Günter (1913–2010) and Walter (1918–2007).

Carl Herlitz was able to prevail against the competition in the stationery sector mainly because he regularly visited the Leipzig trade fair to present innovations to his customers. For example, he sold animal- shaped pencil sharpeners or a centimeter ruler that could be rolled up in a small case. With the usual range of exercise books, pens and pencils, it would not have been able to compete with the established wholesalers.

In 1929 the company was in the middle of Berlin's stationery wholesalers in terms of sales. After 31 years, Carl Herlitz withdrew from the company for health reasons and in 1935 left the company management to his son Günter Herlitz. He developed the company after the war into Europe's leading company in the paper, office and stationery industry.

While Carl's son Walter after the war the Berlin trade C & C Herlitz headed, was the eldest son Heinz Herlitz over 30 years of general counsel at the Central Cinema Company film production company of Artur Brauner .

Web links

• Chronicle on the website of Herlitz.