Consumer cooperative Saxony North
| Consumer cooperative Sachsen Nord eG
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|---|---|
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| legal form | cooperative |
| founding | Founded in 1850 as a food association. 1991 |
| Seat | Eilenburg , Germany |
| management | Gabriele Grismajer André Grohmann |
| Number of employees | 230 (2008) |
| sales | EUR 30.4 million (2008) |
| Branch |
Real estate business formerly retail |
| Website | www.konsum-sachsen-nord.de |
The consumer cooperative Sachsen Nord eG is a German property manager based in Eilenburg, Saxony . It is the successor to Germany's first consumer cooperative and was a major food retailer in the region until the last 27 supermarkets were sold on November 1, 2010 due to bankruptcy.
history
Due to the inflation riots in 1848, there was strong social tension in Eilenburg. Numerous factory workers in the city's large industrial plants got into trouble because of the extremely high cost of living. Under this impression, Eilenburg craftsmen and workers founded a trade organization on a cooperative basis. When it was founded on July 12, 1850, the "Eilenburger Lebensmittelassociation" is Germany's first consumer cooperative . Literature lists the bookbinder August Fritzsche as its leading head . With his commitment, Fritzsche is considered to be an important person in the history of the German cooperative system .
The new organization was not for profit and was able to sell the goods purchased from wholesalers to its members for less than the retailers could. The outlet of the Association was in Fritzsche's living and working in today's House August Fritzsche Street. The innkeeper August Brade was chairman of the association. The Lebensmittelassociation however, came from the beginning disapproval both local businessmen, which broke away revenue, as well as the district government in Merseburg , saw the politically extreme dangers. This declared in a decree of August 3, 1850:
- In particular, the workers' brotherhood there arouses [...] concerns because it has the most exact connection with the communist Central Committee of the German workers in Leipzig. [...] In consideration of the strict measures recently recommended by the royal ministries against the imaginary workers' associations, we therefore cause the magistrate to determine without delay how the imaginary association in Eilenburg is organized, who its chiefs and members are, where it gathers what means he commands, what connections he maintains and to what extent he or the magistrate has complied with the provisions of the Association Act of March 11th cr.
The organization could not be banned, but from then on it was under police surveillance. Members and the Board of Directors of the Association were repeatedly interrogated. In the opinion of the members, the self-set goals of the institutions could no longer be achieved. At the general meeting on August 25, 1851, the members decided to dissolve themselves. The formal dissolution followed shortly thereafter.
At the time of the GDR, the cooperative principle was adopted in the food trade. (See Konsum (retail chain) ) In the 1950s and 1960s a dense network of grocery stores and restaurants was built up, which existed until 1990. After the political change in 1991, the consumer cooperatives of the Eilenburg , Torgau and Wurzen districts formed the Sachsen-Nord consumer cooperative, based in Eilenburg. From then on, food retailing was again the cooperative's only field of activity. Numerous branches - especially in the districts of the cities and rural communities - were nevertheless not profitable and were given up.
In 2000 the 150th anniversary of the founding of the first German consumer cooperative was celebrated in Eilenburg. Ten years later, a special exhibition was opened in the Eilenburg City Museum to mark the 160th anniversary of the founding.
On April 23, 2010, the consumer cooperative Sachsen Nord filed for bankruptcy . A very unprofitable branch in a Dessau shopping center was closed immediately. In the course of the insolvency proceedings, the branch network was further thinned out through sale or closure in order to further reorganize the company. Of the 40 branches still in existence at the beginning of the insolvency proceedings, two were handed over to other dealers and eleven were closed, so that at the end of the day there were still 27 fully-fledged branches. 77 terminations were made and a social plan was drawn up together with the works council . Resistance to the closure of branches was sometimes raised in the affected areas.
In October 2010, the creditors' meeting approved the sale of the remaining 27 sales outlets to Markant nah & frisch GmbH from Zittau, which was founded especially for the takeover . 190 former Konsum employees were taken on and ten administrative employees from Konsum were fired. The new operator of the stores has rented a space in the administration of the cooperative. The consumer cooperative now limits its activities to managing its own real estate . The name Konsum and the 160-year tradition of cooperative retailing in the region are history.
Branch network
When the insolvency proceedings opened, the consumer cooperative Sachsen Nord eG had 41 branches in Eilenburg , Torgau and Wurzen and the region as well as in the Leipzig and Altenburger Land and in Dessau. As a result of the insolvency proceedings, the branches in Dessau and those in Großtreben , Sitzenroda , Welsau , Trossin , Döbrichau , Langenreichenbach , Wurzen (Albert-Kuntz-Straße), Trebsen , Söllichau and Burkartshain were closed. This was often the only such sales point in the respective place. The branch close to the center in Eilenburg (Breite Straße) was also closed after a short period as a residual stock market. The stores in Treben and Dobitschen were given to other operators. On November 1, 2010 the remaining 27 branches were sold to Markant nah & frisch GmbH , so that the consumer cooperative no longer operates any stores itself. The locations of the current Markant branches are still mainly in rural areas, despite multiple network thinning; only four of the branches are located in the three urban centers. Thus Markant still takes over the supply of space in the retail trade based on the cooperative retail trade in GDR times.
In the Eilenburg city center, a street was named "Konsumgasse" after the consumer cooperative in 2000. There was a consumer branch there until October 2010. Most recently the cooperative had 16,000 members, but the payment of the cooperative shares held by the members appears unlikely.
literature
- History of the development of the German cooperative system ; Otto Ruhmer - Hamburg 1937
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dr. Otto Ruhmer: History of the origins of the German cooperative system P. 87ff.
- ↑ Konsum Sachsen Nord eG files for bankruptcy on April 27, 2010 in the Torgauer Zeitung (accessed on September 4, 2010)
- ↑ dpa announcement : Insolvency proceedings against Konsum Nordsachsen opened ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on July 16, 2010 on LVZ-Online (accessed on September 4, 2010)
- ↑ Uwe Gutzeit: No consumer clearance sale on April 28, 2010 in the Torgauer Zeitung (accessed on September 4, 2010)
- ↑ Kai Kollenberg: Consumption closes branches - Eilenburg affected ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2010 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. on July 16, 2010 on LVZ-Online (accessed on September 4, 2010)
- ↑ Nico Wendt: A village wants to help its consumption on July 22, 2010 in the Torgauer Zeitung (accessed on September 4)
- ↑ General information on insolvency proceedings , October 12, 2010 (accessed on November 8, 2010)
- ↑ Christian Wendt: 26 consumer markets are saved , October 15, 2010 in Torgauer Zeitung (accessed on November 8, 2010)
