Josef Sachs

Josef Sachs (1872–1949) on a photo from the Florman studio.

Josef Sachs, tombstone at the Jewish cemetery in Solna

Josef Ernst Sachs (born January 4, 1872 in Stockholm ; † June 23, 1949 ) was a Swedish entrepreneur and patron. He was the founder of the Nordiska Kompaniet department store group , which he also headed as general director from 1915 to 1937.

Life

Sachs was the son of Simon Sachs (1839–1907), who immigrated to Sweden from Walldorf in Sachsen-Meiningen and had already risen to considerable wealth through trade . Josef Sachs was also enthusiastic about retail. After traveling abroad, he decided to build a large department store based on the Harrods model in Sweden . He realized this dream with the creation of the NK department store. The large department store, which opened in Stockholm's Hamngatan in 1915, had Sweden's first escalator and was geared towards the luxury consumption of the upper classes. During the First World War , Sachs was involved in negotiations between neutral Sweden and the Central Powers. Together with his brother-in-law Artur Thiel , Ernest Thiel's brother , he founded the Sachsska barnsjukhuset children's hospital in Stockholm, which was built in 1911. In the inter-war period, the department store group encountered considerable economic difficulties at times - the one-sided focus on a luxury range turned out to be problematic. The severe post-war recession in Sweden from 1921 to 1922 was particularly threatening. Sachs also owned a department store in Buenos Aires from 1920 to 1934 .

Sachs was active in the Chamber of Commerce for 40 years , was President of the Association of the Swedish Timber Industry and was a member of the Board of Directors of Enskilda Bank. In his private life, Sachs was an art collector with a wide range of interests. Finally he concentrated on Swedish china and silver. He granted his employees free medical care and pension rights. As an innovator in retail, however, Sachs also encountered resistance. So he founded, together with the (also Jewish) owner of Gothenburg's cheap department store Grand Bazar , Herman Gustaf Turitz (1884–1957), in 1930 the EPA department store, a unit price store based on the American model created by Franklin Winfield Woolworth . Thereupon there was a campaign from circles of the competing medium-sized retail trade with anti-Semitic overtones.

The memoirs by Josef Sachs appeared in two volumes under the title Saldo mein Leben ( Mitt Livs Saldo, Köpman och förhandlare, Josef Sachs , Norstedts 1949, and Mitt Livs Saldo, Resenär och organisatör, Josef Sachs , Norstedts 1949).

literature

• Sachs, Josef and his father Simon . In: Theodor Westrin, Ruben Gustafsson Berg (eds.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 24 : Ryssläder secretary . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1916, Sp. 272 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).

Web links

• Martin Olsson: Biographical Summary (Swedish)
• Peter Stein: Om judars insatser i svensk näringsliv . (PDF; 140 kB) - about Jewish entrepreneurship in Sweden

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter Stein: Om judars insatser i svensk näringsliv ( Memento of the original from May 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 140 kB), p. 19 ff. 
2. ↑ Peter Stein: Om judars insatser i svensk näringsliv ( Memento of the original from May 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 140 kB), p. 21.