Max Weichhold department store
| Max Weichhold department store | |
|---|---|
,_2018-08-21_ama_fec.jpg) General view, year 2018 |
|
| Data | |
| place | Aue |
| builder | unknown |
| Construction year | 1894-1914 |
| Floor space | 600 m² |
| Coordinates | 50 ° 35 '17.8 " N , 12 ° 42' 9.6" E |
| particularities | |
| The floor plan is not rectangular at any point, but rather like a piece of cake. The base area was calculated with the roughly measured cutting lengths of 22 m and 29 m from Google Earth and without an extension. | |
The Max Weichhold department store is a department store opened in Aue in 1896 . Since 1990 it has been operated as a family company Euronics Weichhold GmbH in cooperation with Euronics Germany in the fourth generation. The department store building is a listed building .
History and architecture of the commercial building
The purchase of the property in the city of Aue, Bahnhofstrasse 20-22, and the preparatory work for the construction of a commercial building took place at the beginning of the 1890s. The trading company was opened in 1896. The merchant Max Emil Weichhold was one of the business people whose activities contributed to the rapid growth of the city of Aue at the beginning of the 20th century. The office building shows the year 1914 on the sloping corner, that is probably the year in which the facade with its fine architectural decoration was finally completed.
The following statements can be found in the documents of the Saxon Monument Office: The department store forms a “closed development in a final corner position. […] It is a sophisticated, metropolitan building with a factual, reform-oriented architecture, exceptional cubature and location ”.
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The four-story building with an extended (fifth) attic is located on the Muldentalbrücke on the Schwarzwasser in front of the confluence with the Mulde. Its facade is decorated with putti on the first floor and with plastic sandstone slabs in Art Nouveau style between the second and third floors . Since its inception, it has always served as a department store , and since the fall of the Wall , mainly for the sale of kitchen equipment and electronic items.
The structured hipped roof of the department store building is interrupted by several dormers and is covered with slate . A triangular inner courtyard was created due to the floor plan solution in the form of a piece of cake, which was adapted to the angled property. Immediately next to the actual department store is a two-story extension with a gable roof, which forms a unit with the department store and bears house number 22. The southern extension was supplemented in later years with a large hall, which is closed off with a barrel roof , up to the building line on the water side .
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At the end of the First World War , in 1918, both the department store owner and the city issued emergency money , for example labeled “Kaufhaus Weichhold, Aue i. Erzgeb. Voucher for 10 Pfennig ”. In addition, Max Weichhold expanded his company to include a ladies' tailor in the same year .
After the end of the Second World War , the new city and state government transferred all previous factories and department stores to new operators. The Weichhold family was not expropriated , but received a "notice of request for the building lease [...] in favor of the consumer cooperative ... with unrestricted use and use [...] for an indefinite period". In the period 1950 to 1990, the consumer in the house sold all kinds of everyday goods except food.
In 1990 the owner family took over the reins of the department store and since then has offered kitchen equipment and modern household appliances, including delivery and repair services.
The Mulde flood in 2002 flooded the entire Bahnhofstrasse and also destroyed the business premises of the department store. The renovation was completed in 2003 and the specialist shop was able to reopen.
Brief history of the Weichhold family
- Max Emil Weichhold
(19th century – around 1940)
Opened a department store later named after him in Auer Bahnhofstrasse in 1896 and ran it until around 1940. The family name Weichhold is not in the historical address book of 1890, so it can be assumed that Max Weichhold moved here . In 1922 he was entered in the address book as a businessman with the residential address at Bahnhofstrasse 22
- Max Wilhelm Weichhold (son)
(around 1915 – around 1990)
Son Max Wilhelm Weichhold became managing director of the family company in the early 1940s, but in 1949 had to hand over management to the consumer cooperative . He remained in the facility as director.
- Wolfgang Weichhold (grandson)
(* February 7, 1946 in Aue; † April 2, 2017 in Aue)
Max Wilhelm's son Wolfgang initially did not follow in the footsteps of his father or grandfather. In contrast, he completed an apprenticeship as a fitter at VEB Kühlanlagenbau Dresden . After successfully completing his degree, he was asked to do assembly work on the Vinnitsa – Cherkassy gas pipeline in Ukraine (then Ukrainian SSR in the Union of the Soviet Union ).
Back in his hometown, Wolfgang Weichhold opened a repair service for household appliances in 1979 . When the department store was transferred back into the ownership of the heirs of the department store founder with the German reunification , he had the office building on Bahnhofstrasse renovated and since July 1, 1990 has been trading in kitchens and electrical appliances with the company name Euronics Weichhold GmbH . With the profit and his growing popularity in Aue, he made a significant contribution to the renovation and reconstruction of several historically valuable buildings in the city center.
In the period between 1990 and 2010, Wolfgang Weichhold was involved in the Saxon Trade Association and thus made the city better known, not only in connection with the "uranium past".
The department store management also acted as a sponsor for FC Erzgebirge Aue , Wolfgang Weichhold became a member of the club's board of directors and honorary council . After all, he was also a founding member and, until 2010, an active participant in the Industrie- und Gewerbevereinigung Aue e. V. (Charter of July 10, 1997). He campaigned for the interests of the volunteer fire brigade as well as for the local association of the THW , for the home association and for the antenna community cell .
Wolfgang Weichhold was married to Christina Weichhold, together they had three children (Micha, Franziska and Stephanie).
- Michael Weichhold (great-grandson)
(born around 1980)
In continuation of the department store tradition, Michael ( Micha ) took over the company from father Wolfgang around 2010 and continues to operate it successfully with the same offers.
He is married and has at least one daughter (Peggy).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Monument overview , zip code area 08 for the West Ore Mountains, status from 2014.
- ^ Notgeld Kaufhaus Weichhold 1918 , on e-Bay; accessed on August 30, 2018.
- ↑ a b The miracle of Aue , in: www.zeit.de; accessed on September 1, 2018.
- ↑ a b WochenSpiegel Erzgebirge; Public announcements of the large district town of Aue with an obituary for the businessman Wolfgang Weichhold , April 13, 2017, accessed on August 30, 2018.
- ↑ On the flood: see the Euronics Weichhold homepage
- ↑ Address book of the factory town of Aue i. Erzgeb. and the parishes of Zell and Auerhammer ; 1890/1893 , accessed September 1, 2018.
- ^ Address book for the district of the administrative authority Schwarzenberg ; 1926 , accessed September 1, 2018.
- ↑ Honorable memory of Wolfgang Weichhold . In: WochenSpiegel for the Ore Mountains , April 7, 2017, title page; accessed on September 1, 2018.