Consumption Lübeck

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The Lübeck consumer cooperative - also Konsum Lübeck for short - was a retail trade or consumer cooperative that was founded in 1904 from a consumer association . The consumer cooperative was merged with other cooperatives in 1972 to form Coop Schleswig-Holstein eG , which sold all retail activities to the Rewe Group in 2019 and is now an asset management company with real estate and company holdings with 77,000 members (as of 2020).

Construction and economic stability

The department store on Klingenberg of the consumer association for Lübeck and the surrounding area , built from 1928 onwards, is now a listed building
Enamel sign in the sales outlets of the consumer cooperatives around 1925 in the Hamburg cooperative museum

In November 1904 the Lübeck consumer association was founded by the Central Association of German Consumer Associations with the support of Heinrich Kaufmann . Two years earlier, due to the special circumstances in Lübeck, the company had not been founded. Also because of the intervention of Rudolf Wissel . The background was the Lübeck cooperative bakery, which had existed since 1899 - a productive cooperative that had many members and distribution stations and feared competition. The cooperative bakery was very popular in the Lübeck workers 'movement , not only because of the reliable and inexpensive bread supply, but because with its income it had created important facilities for the workers' movement, namely the "Vereinhaus" (from 1910 trade union house ) with a large festival and assembly hall and premises for the trade unions , the SPD and the workers' newspaper “ Lübecker Volksboten ”. Many Social Democrats had also found employment there. The labor movement was therefore skeptical and cautious about the newly founded “consumer association for Lübeck and the surrounding area”, although the consumer cooperative offered advantages over petty bourgeois retailers: quality at low prices, cash payment (no “cover letter” because of dependency), sales only to members (cooperative law from 1889), co-determination (each member only had one vote) and no profit orientation (the surplus was distributed as reimbursement). Nevertheless, it was difficult for the consumer cooperative to gain new members because of the Lübeck cooperative bakery. It was not until the end of July 1905 that the first goods delivery point was opened in Fleischhauerstrasse. At that time, the cooperative had 279 members. In 1910 there were 3,000 members and 11 distribution centers. 1914: 7,500 members. A large piece of land was acquired in Lübeck near the freight yard. A cooperative headquarters with a central warehouse, administration, apartments, goods delivery points and production facilities were built. Goods tax offices have also been set up in the surrounding area. In 1929, 36 of the 100 delivery points were outside Lübeck as far as Eutin and the Oldenburg district . In 1923 its own large bakery started operations. The consumer association with its 25,000 members was able to utilize the large operation well. The Lübeck cooperative bakery lost around 25 percent of its sales. A savings facility had been created and in 1930 administered 19,000 savings accounts for members of the Lübeck consumer association. Housing construction (1930 218 apartments) was also supported. The consumer association was fully integrated into the labor movement and its members were accompanied from "cradle to grave". Members were the Reichstag deputy Julius Leber and the later mayor Paul Löwigt . Willy Brandt grew up practically consuming because his mother and grandfather were employed there.

On the 25th anniversary in November 1929, the department store was opened on Klingenberg , which is located between Sandstrasse, Mühlenstrasse, Schmiedestrasse and horse market. The massive concrete skeleton building with expressionist clinker facing and Art Déco elements inside was a design by the Lübeck architects Alfred Runge and Wilhelm Lenschow . The department store initially saw itself as a pure clothing store. After the property opposite of the war-torn Hotel Stadt Hamburg was acquired in 1958, a modern new building was built there and connected to the old building via a double pedestrian bridge. It started operating on November 7, 1961.

Economic crisis and during National Socialism

The Black Friday, 1929 ushered in the financial and economic crisis. The full effect made itself felt in July 1931 with the collapse of the Darmstädter und Nationalbank in Germany. In Lübeck, the number of unemployed soared and led to a sharp drop in sales, which particularly affected the new department store. The attacks by the National Socialists , who were declared opponents of the consumer cooperative, also contributed to this. After the National Socialists came to power, the cooperatives had to come to terms with the regime and accepted National Socialists on the boards. The redevelopment was initiated with massive job cuts and reduced services. The rulers wanted to integrate the workers into the system and refrain from breaking up the cooperatives, as was demanded by the Nazi grassroots and the middle class organizations. The law on the payment of savings deposits caused the consumption of Lübeck to be triggered at the end of 1935. When it was liquidated on December 31, 1935, the Lübeck consumer association ceased to exist as a cooperative and a company, but not as a de facto food supply company. Since there were no interested parties for a privatization, a rescue company was founded in April 1936 under the name "Lübecker Lebensmittelgesellschaft", which acted as a branch of the Großeinkaufsgesellschaft deutscher Konsumvereine (GEG) . The department store on Klingenberg changed hands in 1937. When the National Socialists dissolved the remaining consumer associations in 1941 and transferred their assets, as well as those of the GEG, to the “joint venture of the German Labor Front”, this also affected the Lübeck food company. Their shops and production facilities now operated as the “Lübeck supply ring”. The department store was also transferred to the “joint venture of DAF”.

New beginning after 1945

On May 9, 1945, immediately after Germany surrendered , former high-ranking members of the cooperative took over the old GEG headquarters at Hamburg's Beserbinderhof. The same thing happened in Lübeck. On January 1, 1947, the military government transferred the business operations of the Lübeck supply ring to the new “Lübeck consumer cooperative” in trust . The return of the department store was made possible through a settlement procedure. The Lübeck consumer cooperative was immediately able to offer a full range of consumer cooperative services because the infrastructure was available through the rescue company. However, the new beginning was associated with far-reaching changes. There was no longer any restriction on sales to members. The reimbursement was limited to three percent and the federal government did not want to lift the ban on the National Socialists' savings institutions. Important elements of the cooperative movement had to be given up and later led to an increasing separation from the workers' movement and social democratic milieu. After Hamburg production had opened the first nationwide self-service shop based on the Swedish model in 1949, the Lübeck consumer cooperative was able to open the first Schleswig-Holstein self- service shop on November 7, 1950. In 1965, the self-service concept had fully established itself. The number of members rose from 8,000 to 32,000 in 1965. Sales also rose from DM 4 million (1947) to DM 66 million (1965). The change “from comrade to consumer” led to a long-term decline in membership. In 1970 the Plaza Center was built with 1,000 parking spaces in the Buntekuh district on a green meadow. The relocation from urban areas began and a new strategy was introduced with the large car-friendly shape.

Mergers and abandonment of retail

In 1969 all consumer cooperatives were merged under the name Coop to form a corporate group. At the same time, there was still pressure to expand from a cost and price perspective, which accelerated the concentration process. On January 1, 1972, Coop Lübeck merged with Coop Kiel to form Coop Schlewig-Holstein . Coop Schleswig-Holstein has not joined Coop AG and has retained its independence. And so after the spectacular collapse of Coop AG under its chairman Bernd Otto in 1989 it survived as one of the few West German consumer cooperatives. In the meantime, it had expanded across several federal states and was mainly present with its Sky markets in Schleswig-Holstein.

After coop eG got into financial difficulties, the operative retail business was gradually sold to the Rewe Group between 2016 and 2019 . The cooperative still owns real estate and some company holdings.

Various buildings from the consumer association and the Lübeck consumer cooperative have been preserved, which are reminiscent of their more than 100-year history: the former headquarters on Hansestrasse with the apartments, several former branches and, above all, the department store on Klingenberg.

literature

  • Hartmut Bickelmann : Consumer association and consumer cooperative Lübeck. From the food supplier of the labor movement to the regional retail chain, Zeitschrift für Lübeckische Geschichte, Volume 98 (2018), Verlag Max Schmidt-Römhild , Lübeck pp. 165–217
  • Hartmut Bickelmann: An outstanding testimony to the labor movement - the department store of the Lübeck consumer association on Klingenberg, Der Wagen 2018, pp. 151–165
  • Ferdinand Vieth 1869-1946. Life and work of a member of the cooperative in personal testimonies and contributions. Selected, edited and commented on as well as supplemented by own contributions by Hartmut Bickelmann, Norderstedt 2018.
  • Festschrift for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Lübeck Genossenschafts-Bäckerei eGmbH on February 24, 1914, Lübeck 1914.
  • 25 years of consumer association in Lübeck and the surrounding area. Festschrift, Lübeck 1929.
  • 40 years of Lübeck Genossenschaftsbäckerei eGmbH 1889–1929, Lübeck 1929.
  • 50 years of Lübeck's cooperative bakery, Lübeck 1939.
  • Jürgen Grabowsky: From consumption to a corporation. A company through the ages 1899–1999, Kiel 1999. (Coop Schleswig-Holstein)
  • Erwin Hasselmann: History of the German Consumer Cooperatives, Frankfurt a. M. 1971.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 25 years of consumer association in Lübeck and the surrounding area. Festschrift, Lübeck, p. 5. 1929
  2. ↑ Commemorative publication on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Lübecker Genossenschafts-Bäckerei eGmbH on February 24, 1914, Lübeck 1914
  3. ↑ 25 years of consumer association in Lübeck and the surrounding area. Festschrift, Lübeck, 1929
  4. ↑ Germany's urban development: Lübeck Travemünde, ed. by the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Lübeck, with the support of the building authorities. by Baudirektor Pieper, Berlin-Halensee 3rd edition 1931
  5. ↑ Hartmut Bickelmann: cooperative and consumer cooperative Lübeck. From the food supplier of the labor movement to the regional retail chain, Zeitschrift für Lübeckische Geschichte, Volume 98 (2018), Verlag Max Schmidt-Römhild , Lübeck, pp. 166–176
  6. ↑ Hartmut Bickelmann: An outstanding testimony to the labor movement - the department store of the Lübeck consumer association on Klingenberg, Der Wagen 2018, pp. 151–165
  7. ^ Annual report of the Lübeck consumer association 1928/29
  8. ^ Erwin Hasselmann , History of the German Consumer Cooperatives, Frankfurt a. M. 1971, pp. 476-482
  9. ↑ Hartmut Bickelmann: cooperative and consumer cooperative Lübeck. From the food supplier of the labor movement to the regional retail chain, Zeitschrift für Lübeckische Geschichte, Volume 98 (2018), Verlag Max Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck, pp. 184-200
  10. ^ Josef Rieger / Max Mendel / Walter Postelt, Die Hamburger Konsumgenossenschaft Produktion 1899–1949, Hamburg 1949, pp. 234–236
  11. ^ Erwin Hasselmann: History of the German Consumer Cooperatives, Frankfurt a. M. 1971, pp. 613-617
  12. ^ Consumer cooperative Lübeck, report on the 5th business year 1950/51, pp. 8-11
  13. ^ Consumer cooperative Lübeck, annual report 1965
  14. ^ Coop Lübeck, 1970 Annual Report
  15. ↑ Jürgen Grabowsky: From consumption to the corporation. A company through the ages 1899–1999, Kiel 1999, pp. 71–72, p. 80
  16. ↑ Hartmut Bickelmann: cooperative and consumer cooperative Lübeck. From the food supplier of the labor movement to the regional retail chain, Zeitschrift für Lübeckische Geschichte, Volume 98 (2018), Verlag Max Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck, pp. 203-213
  17. ↑ Coop surrenders all of its retail to Rewe. In: Kieler Nachrichten of June 22, 2019. Retrieved on March 24, 2020 .
  18. ↑ coop eG. Economic Development and Technology Transfer Schleswig-Holstein GmbH, accessed on March 24, 2020 .