M. Schneider

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M. Schneider department store, Zeil 98 at the corner of Stiftstrasse

M. Schneider was a department store chain . The head office on the Zeil in Frankfurt am Main was one of the most important department stores in Frankfurt. It was one of the targets of the politically motivated department store arson on April 2, 1968 . Today there is only one M. Schneider fashion house in Offenbach am Main .

From the foundation to the department store chain

Hauptstrasse 110 in Miltenberg: Michael Schneider's first shop

On Sunday, November 13th, 1887, Michael Schneider (1849–1904) opened his shop at Große Bockenheimer Strasse 9, where 14 saleswomen offered fashion and manufactured goods. Michael Schneider had already opened stores in Munich , Leipzig and Nuremberg and expected cost advantages from the joint purchase. At that time, the business principle of asking for fixed prices was still unusual - there were no discounts and bargaining .

Michael Schneider did an apprenticeship in Künzelsau , went to Würzburg as a clerk and then worked in a cutlery shop in Miltenberg , Hauptstraße 110 ( ⊙ ). At the age of 24, he took over his principal's business in 1873. Schneider, the son of a wealthy Franconian village mayor, married Schulzen's daughter from Reistenhausen in 1874 . Because of his family, he had a certain amount of capital available. In 1877 he sold his business and opened a larger one in Würzburg. In 1882 he sold this for 100,000 marks ( around 744,000 euros in today's purchasing power ) and began building his chain of stores. First he opened two shops in Munich in 1881, one of them at Stachus . In 1883 he opened the Leipzig branch, later his wife bought the one in Nuremberg. Frankfurt was added in 1887; by the end of the century, the chain had grown to more than 30 stores in two dozen major cities.

The Frankfurt headquarters

Große Bockenheimer Straße 25, the second location of M. Schneider in Frankfurt

In 1894 the Frankfurt branch moved to the newly built house at Große Bockenheimer Straße 25 ( ⊙ ), as the previous business had become too small.

Michael Schneider withdrew from the operative business and lived as a privateer . On July 1, 1899, Gottlob Beilharz (1869–1953) took over the M. Schneider house and was to manage the business for half a century. At the end of the year the shop moved to Zeil 114 ( ⊙ ), the Minerva house . The space gained was used to expand the range. Now laundry and white goods were also offered. After he was able to rent the first floor, the range was expanded to include tricot days, curtains, carpets and bedding. On January 1, 1902, he was able to pay off the co-owners and became sole owner. He continued his expansion course with the establishment of branches in Offenbach and Darmstadt.

The parent company also grew considerably. The newly built department store opened on November 30, 1907 at Zeil 98, at the corner of Stiftstrasse. Beilharz rented the six-story building for 40 years and now ran the city's largest department store. The range was expanded to include furniture that was offered on the third floor. The growth of the city of Frankfurt contributed to the fact that the department store recorded growing sales and profits until the beginning of the First World War .

House Minerva on the Zeil around 1905

War and inflation led to high losses, which Beilharz was able to bear thanks to his wealth. Only after the currency reform in 1923 did M. Schneider pick up again until the global economic crisis brought red numbers again.

In 1936/37 the neighboring houses Stiftstrasse 7 and Zeil 102/104 were acquired and extensions to the M. Schneider department store were built. In 1939 the company employed 500 people.

Destruction and rebuilding

The air raids on Frankfurt am Main on March 18, 22 and 24, 1944 destroyed the old town of Frankfurt. The M.Schneider department store was also completely bombed out. Beilharz rented the Cafe Jäger at Stiftstrasse 7 and continued to sell there on a makeshift basis. The store mainly suffered from a shortage of goods. The goods offered in the M. Schneider department store were only allowed to be sold against purchase coupons, the suppliers themselves were not able to deliver.

The department store itself was cleared of rubble and stalls were set up on the outer walls. In autumn 1947 the ground floor was restored and could be used as a sales room. In 1948 the first floor was added.

With the currency reform in 1948 and the introduction of the social market economy , the economic miracle also began for M. Schneider . When Beilharz died in 1952, son Karl Friedrich Beilharz (1902–1976) and daughter Charlotte Marchner took over management. The department store is fully operational again. In 1945 the company started with 100 employees. In 1948 there were 200 and in 1962 even 800. The advertising slogan M. Schneider - Your destination on the Zeil was known nationwide. After the death of Karl Friedrich Beilharz, his sister Charlotte Marschner and her son Jürgen Marschner (1939–2004) took over the management. After the death of partner Jürgen Marschner in 2004, his then underage son Sascha Marschner holds the majority of the shares.

On April 2, 1968, the parent company on the Zeil was the victim of a politically motivated arson in which the later co-founders of the Red Army faction , Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin , were involved. Together with Thorwald Proll and Horst Söhnlein , they started a total of three fires at night in two department stores and were sentenced to three years in prison for each. People were not injured, the fire damage at the M. Schneider department store was 282,339 DM (today's monetary value 536,497 euros) and at the Kaufhof 390,865 DM (today's monetary value 742,717 euros).

In 1998 the traditional department store on the Zeil was closed. The land was sold, the building complex was completely abandoned and the Douglas Group rebuilt it until 2000.

The house in Offenbach

On November 4, 1905, M. Schneider opened his branch in Offenbach am Main ( ⊙ ). Today  around 100 people are employed in the house at Frankfurter Strasse 7 and three small branch offices in the city area (as of 2010).

literature

  • Franz Lerner: The very entertaining journey with M. Schneider through 75 years of Frankfurt history, 1962

Web links

Commons : M. Schneider  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Automatic calculation according to price index development; annual update; compare overall template: inflation .
  2. ^ Beilharz, Karl Friedrich (1902-1976), son of Gottlob Beilherz. Hessian biography. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
  3. ^ Stefan Aust : The Baader Meinhof Complex . Hoffmann & Campe Verlag , Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-455-50029-5 .