Friedrich Boelck

Friedrich Bölck (born July 16, 1877 in Oldenburg in Holstein ; † September 27, 1940 southeast of Eutin ) was a German entrepreneur who achieved considerable wealth and property in Schleswig-Holstein , particularly through the sale of margarine .

Life

Bölck initially completed an administration apprenticeship in Eutin, but turned to the grocery trade after working for a time in a law firm. In 1907 he opened a delicatessen store on Mühlenstrasse in Oldesloe , which formed the starting point for the development of a distribution system for margarine that branched out across Germany, which in 1924 already had 68 branches and employed up to 5,000 people by 1928.

The basis for the success of the “System Bölck” was on the one hand a well-organized peddler trade , in which a local warehouse keeper worked with traders who sold the goods with handcarts at the front doors and on the streets. On the other hand, its discount system proved to be an extremely successful means of sales promotion, in which the customer received a voucher worth 15 percent of the purchase price paid and could then use this voucher to shop at a correspondingly reduced price at the local retailers who cooperate with Bölck.

In 1926, Bölck had a coffee roastery built on Lorentzenstrasse in Oldesloe , along with a management and office building , which served as the administrative headquarters of his company. The Itzehoer artist and spatial designer Wenzel Hablik designed the office hall and another large room in the roof as colorful overall rooms. With funds from the Marshall Plan , the building ensemble, which had not been destroyed during the war, was converted into a district vocational school in 1950–1951 and housed, among other things, a complete carpentry, bakery, painter's workshop and forge in the commercial building with a bell tower. The housekeeping department with a large teaching kitchen was housed in the office building and the commercial department u. a. a sample shop and various display booths for decoration exercises. The buildings are now a listed building and include the German Red Cross and the Theodor Storm School. Bölck expanded the sales from Oldesloe abroad and at times employed more than five thousand people. In Bad Segeberg he built a highly productive margarine factory on the site of the old brewery.

In the 1920s Bölck temporarily owned Basthorst Castle near Schwerin , in 1928 he acquired the Trenthorst and Wulmenau estates in Westerau from the Hamburg merchant and councilor Friedrich Thörl (sold to the Reemtsma family in 1936 ), and in 1930 the Borstel estate (1938 to the Nazi state sold) and in 1932 by the Bremen merchant Gustav Lahusen the Grabau estate (sold to the Wehrmacht in 1936).

Since he knew how to combine social engagement with business acumen, he turned the Borstel mansion into a rest home for the children of his employees and customers, with the latter being able to purchase entitlement certificates for recreational stays as part of his discount system. He temporarily made the manor house of Trenthorst available to Paul von Schoenaich and the German Peace Society , which had its headquarters there until it was banned by the National Socialists and held its last general meeting there in 1932.

As a socialist and pacifist , Bölck was exposed to hostility in the Nazi state , which among other things led to his moving to the Grabau mansion in 1933 after willful damage to his villa in Oldesloer Salinenstrasse. He also got into economic difficulties due to the restriction of the peddling trade. He had to sell his goods and his companies, retired into private life in Bad Schwartau , Marienholm, and died in a car accident near the Süseler Moor in 1940 . He was buried in the Ohlsdorf cemetery in Hamburg .

Honors

In Bad Oldesloe, Friedrich-Bölck-Strasse, which is near the former headquarters of his company, is named after him.

literature

• Barbara Günther, Burkhard von Hennigs: Stormarn Lexikon. Wachholtz, Neumünster 2003, ISBN 3-529-07150-1 .
• Axel Lohr: Friedrich Bölck and the Bölck brand. In: Heimatkundliches Jahrbuch for the Segeberg district 2012. Kiel 2012, ISBN 978-3-00-039697-7 , pp. 53–77.
• Axel Lohr: Friedrich Bölck and the Bölck brand. In: Yearbook for the Stormarn district 2013. Ammersbek 2012, ISBN 978-3-920610-88-7 , pp. 50–72.
• Axel Lohr: The history of the Borstel estate up to 1938. Self-published, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-00-046413-3 .
• Eckhard Moßner, Doris Moßner: Grabau. Look in the past. Contributions to the village chronicle of Grabau. Neumünster 1994, p. 153 ff. And p. 345 f.
• Hubertus Neuschäffer: Castles and mansions in South Holstein. Weidlich, Würzburg 1984, ISBN 3-8035-1238-7 .
• Karl Sander: Bad Oldesloe. Men whose names our streets bear. Bad Oldesloe 1959, pp. 52-56.
• Peter Zastrow: The history of a Segeberg industrial plant from 1890 to 1970. In: Heimatkundliches Jahrbuch for the Segeberg district 2014. Kiel 2014, ISBN 978-3-00-047636-5 , pp. 114–124.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bad Oldesloe - Wenzel Hablik's color spaces in the Bölck office building, publisher: Schleswig-Holstein State Office for Monument Preservation, Kiel 2010
2. ^ Bad Oldesloe - Wenzel Hablik's color spaces in the Bölck office building, publisher: Schleswig-Holstein State Office for Monument Preservation, Kiel 2010
3. ↑ Ulrike Schwalm, DRK redevelops old coffee roastery , Hamburger Abendblatt, October 21, 2004, accessed on March 18, 2009.
4. ^ Two new architectural monuments in the Stormarn district, Stormarn district, April 10, 2008, accessed on March 18, 2009.
5. ^ The noble estates of Trenthorst and Wulmenau , Stormarn district (last accessed May 2, 2009)
6. ↑ The noble Gut Grabau , Stormarn district (last accessed March 18, 2009)
7. ↑ A woman from Hamburg discovers the grave of Friedrich Boelck. In: www.ln-online.de. Retrieved February 2, 2020 .