Trade organization
| Trade organization
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | VEB |
| founding | November 15, 1948 |
| resolution | 1990 |
| Reason for dissolution | Liquidation and sale |
| Seat | Potsdam , Germany |
| Branch | Trading company |
The trade organization ( HO ) was a state-owned retail company in the Soviet Occupation Zone , which was run in the legal form of public ownership and continued in the GDR until it was dissolved after the fall of the Wall . Trade encompassed all areas of life - from food to household goods.
history
The HO was founded in East Berlin in 1948 on the instructions of the DWK . After a short period of preparation, the organization opened a shop for textiles and shoes on November 15, 1948 in what was then the Friedrichshain district in Frankfurter Allee at the Samariterstraße subway station . Shoes without a voucher cost 120 to 300 DM , men's suits up to 630 DM with an average monthly wage for an industrial worker of 200 DM. On November 16, a candy store opened on Neue Königstrasse . A bar of chocolate cost 20 DM here. The food offered in the HO could be purchased without giving up food stamps . In return, the prices were initially twice as expensive on average, but they were always the same in all stores. At the same time, another 28 HO stores and 21 HO restaurants opened, also outside of Berlin.
Almost a year later, on April 1, 1949, the number of HO sales outlets increased by leaps and bounds: with the SMAD command 124, stores previously managed in trust were converted into HO branches. Flying HO stores established themselves in the small towns and villages, and private traders were able to conclude commission contracts with the HO. With the profits, the HO began to build new buildings.
Soon the HO reduced its prices gradually, in April 1950 even by up to 30 percent.
On February 22nd, 1949, the People's Chamber of the Soviet Occupation Zone passed the law to improve the supply of the population , which regulated the legal and financial basis for the HO. The organization received a share capital of 50 million Ostmark and took its headquarters in Potsdam . Paul Baender became the first managing director of the state sales facility .
The number of sales outlets increased rapidly: in 1950, 2,300 HO stores generated around 26 percent of the GDR's retail sales. By 1960, 35,000 stores had been established, which achieved a sales share of over 37 percent. By far the greater part of sales was achieved by consumer retail outlets . Since these were run on a cooperative basis and were not a state enterprise like the HO, the government tried, especially in the early years of the GDR, to favor the HO. Nevertheless, both established themselves in parallel in the everyday world of the GDR. This was also reflected in the coexistence in almost all of the new development areas in the big cities.
New forms of sales also first found their way into a HO grocery store in Berlin-Weißensee , Klement-Gottwald-Allee : a self-service facility opened here on December 13, 1956.
Structure and principles
The trade organization was divided into the areas of industrial goods, food, restaurants , department stores and hotels. In the 1960s, the subsidiary of the Centrum department stores was established , which had shopping centers in many district cities in the GDR. The HO shops and department stores coexisted with those of the consumer chain .
A specialty was the HO for the Wismut , which established itself especially in the uranium mining areas of the GDR. There were also thematically oriented sales facilities such as the HO-Schachzentrum , which opened in Leipzig in 1961 and mainly sold chess items . Even the then world champion, Bobby Fischer , was one of his customers.
Another specialty was the HO-Spezialhandel , which carried high-quality goods, also from import or licensed production , and whose sales facilities were only open to special groups of people. For the workforce of the specialty trade, there were high-quality product allotments, called “Dresdner Ware” internally, especially from the food sector, which were sold at normal prices (not delicatessen prices ). The specialist trade also supplied the “Speztorg” stores . The sales facilities in the area of the NVA were led under the abbreviation MHO (military trade organization). From 1987, the specialty trade traded under the name VEB Spezialhandel Taucha .
The trade organization also operated hotels in all districts of the GDR.
- In Berlin, for example, the Hotel Berolina was operated as an HO hotel from the opening in 1963 , and the Hotel Chemnitzer Hof from 1952 in what was then Karl-Marx-Stadt . In Leipzig, the Hotel Astoria and Hotel International belonged to the HO until 1964 , as did the Hotel International in Magdeburg. From 1965, the above-mentioned hotels were taken over by the then newly founded Interhotel DDR . In Weimar, the Hotel Elephant was operated as an HO hotel from the mid-1950s until 1966 ; From December 20, 1966, the Elephant belonged to Interhotel DDR . In Neubrandenburg the Hotel Vier Tore belonged to the HO until 1989 , from 1990 it was taken over by Interhotel .
- Bad Liebenwerda: Hotel Weißes Roß
- Berlin: Hotel Adlon
- Dresden: Gewandhaus and Hotel Tourist
- Eilenburg: Hotel Roter Hirsch
- Eisenach: Hotel Hohe Sonne , Hotel Stadt Eisenach and Parkhotel
- Gotha: Hotel Mohren
- Lehde near Lübbenau: Hotel Fröhlicher Hecht
- Löbau: honey fountain
- Meinigen: Hotel Sächsischer Hof and Landsberg Castle (Meiningen)
- Mühlhausen: Hotel Schlenker
- Radebeul: train station hotel
- Rostock-Warnemünde: Hotel Neptun and beach hotel
- Thale: Berghotel Rosstrappe
- Weimar: Hotel International
- Wernigerode: Hotel Gothisches Haus
- Wildenthal: Berghotel Auersberg
In 1989 there were 420 HO hotels in the GDR. After the fall of the Wall , around 150 were returned to former owners. The rest of the property was sold to new owners by the Treuhandanstalt or offered as real estate without earmarking, as there were no interested parties.
Financial specialty
The HO excise was the price premium on managed goods for which there was a double price level, equal to the difference between the price of rationed goods and the HO price. When the food stamps were abolished in 1958, most of them disappeared, but were still levied on coal in state and private trade until 1990.
With the discontinuation of the brands, both HO and Konsum sold all the same items at the same prices, the state-determined EVP .
gallery
HO department store in Berlin (1949)
HO grocery store (1950)
HO department store Schmiedefeld
Industrial goods - HO - City of Dresden
Web links
- Ines Mietzsch: Consumption and HO (private homepage)
- State trade organization (HO) and consumer cooperative on planet-schule.de.
- More details about the special sales points of the HO on zeitklicks.de.
- What was left of the HO on ARD / MDR-Mediathek, Umschau broadcaston November 20, 2018.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stefan Wolle: The big plan: Everyday life and rule in the GDR 1949–1961. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2013 ( books.google.de ).
- ↑ "Free shops" prove themselves. In: Berliner Zeitung , December 15, 1948, p. 6.
- ↑ Angela M. Arnold, Gabriele von Griesheim: rubble, railways and districts. Self-published, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-00-009839-9 , p. 26.
- ↑ a b c d East zone: In the HO-cash desk . In: Der Spiegel . No. 14 , 1950 ( online ).
- ↑ The first self-service shop in the GDR has opened , accessed on February 11, 2019.
- ^ A b Juliane Schütterle: Class struggle in the department store. Care and special care in the GDR, 1971–1989. (PDF) dissertation; Retrieved February 11, 2019.
- ↑ Vacation homes almost sold out. In: Berliner Zeitung , October 28, 1993, p. 10.
- ^ Meyers New Lexicon in eight volumes. Fourth volume. Leipzig 1962, p. 172.
- ↑ Tina Schwarz: Filinchen, Brause, Nudossi. This was paid for in the Kaufhalle during GDR times mz-web.de , February 9, 2019; accessed on February 11, 2019 (a small overview of what cost how much in the GDR 1985).