Mey & Edlich
| Mey & Edlich GmbH
|
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1870 |
| Seat | Leipzig |
| management | Christian Busch, Marcus Leber, Ute Wethmar |
| Branch | Mail order |
| Website | www.mey-edlich.de |
Mey & Edlich is the oldest still active German mail order company. The company, which was founded in 1870 as a linen factory, is now based in Ernst-Mey-Strasse in Leipzig .
history
The Saxon entrepreneur Ernst Mey went to a comprehensive business education in Germany in 1866 to Paris , there to delve into an American bank his knowledge and skills. During this time he discovered the successful button- off paper collar . In 1867, he took over the business for paper collars and cuffs in Paris from the American company Gray's American Molded Paper Collar Co. Mey also acquired the relevant patents and founded the company E. Mey & Co.
His childhood friend Franz Emil Bernhard Edlich († 1885 ) became a partner as early as 1868 . In 1869 Ernst Mey bought the property of the former Dr. Sellnick's carpet weaving mill at Nonnenstrasse 5 and shortly afterwards moved from Paris to Plagwitz near Leipzig. There he founded the company Mey & Edlich in 1870 and started production a little later with 20 employees. He also opened a shop to sell the products on the Neumarkt in Leipzig. In December 1872, Mey demonstrated the paper collar he had developed at the Plagwitz-Lindenau trade association. In 1876 Mey & Edlich entered the mail order business with fabric laundry (paper with a linen-like fabric cover). The first illustrated mail-order catalog in Germany soon followed. That was something new at the time and established the continued success of the company. Thus Ernst Mey and his company are considered to be the founders of the German mail order business.
The Saxon king appointed Mey & Edlich purveyor to the court in 1881 .
At the end of the 1870s, Mey & Edlich expanded their range to include colonial goods, soaps and perfumes. Watches, jewelry, leather goods, travel items, furnishings, etc. followed later. Ä.
After Edlich died in 1885, Mey continued to run the company on his own. He expanded production from 1884–1886 and set up a “ celluloid factory” in the former municipality of Schleußig at Seumestrasse 29 (now Holbein and Stieglitzstrasse) , which in 1887 worked with the Germans Celluloid factory in Eilenburg another production facility followed. Both companies later merged into an independent stock corporation , the Deutsche Celluloidfabrik Actiengesellschaft in Leipzig, founded on January 10, 1890 .
The company Mey & Edlich built a new factory building for the production of paper laundry in 1887 at Elsterstrasse 1-5 (since 1888 Ernst-Mey-Strasse). Another production building was built at Nonnenstrasse 12-18.
This was followed by the opening of further branches in Hamburg , Munich , Berlin , Zurich and London, so that in 1903, the year Meys died, with 2,000 employees in the mail order business, the company took first place in the world. Ernst Mey's successor was Curt Berger, who was married to Mey's eldest daughter Helene.
In 1907, a new production building was built directly on the Weißen Elster at Nonnenstrasse 5 (architects Handel & Franke). After the First World War, production was expanded to include letter folders, stationery and metal goods. Because of the rapidly changing prices during the inflation in the 1920s , the mail order business had to be stopped. As an alternative, the company set up a branch network with branches in Copenhagen , Stockholm , Rotterdam , Vienna , Brussels and Oslo . The Second World War ruined this new concept. On February 20, 1944, the buildings at Nonnenstrasse 12-18 were completely destroyed in a bomb attack. In the 1950s, this property was given to the energy supply, which built a substation there. After a new replacement building for the substation was built in 2005 on the sub-plot of Nonnenstraße 12 , the Käferhaus daycare facility , designed by architect Hans Wittig, opened on April 27, 2009 at Gleisstraße 1 and was built on a 4,600 m² part of the former Mey property.
After the Second World War, the production of paper collars and cardboard boxes was resumed in 1946 at Nonnenstrasse 5. In the GDR , the company was taken over by state administration in 1953: Mey & Edlich under administration , and in 1955/56 the company was on par with the state- owned industry . Therefore, Mey & Edlich relocated its headquarters to Munich under the management of Curt Berger's son-in-law Gerhard Silbermann . The company now concentrated on setting up shops in the major West German cities and building new production facilities in Baden-Württemberg. In the 1950s, women's fashion was also added to the range. Later, the company specialized in fashion branches in the high-quality brand segment, which were operated in the franchise system and presented brands of international top designers.
In Leipzig, on the other hand, paper collar production was initially continued. After a decline in sales of collars, shirt production was also started. In 1960 paper collar production was finally stopped. From 1961 to 1968 the company also produced men's pajamas and, from 1968, also work clothing.
The company in Nonnenstrasse came to VEB Plastex Delitzsch in 1972 and was first assigned to the Lößnitz Combine in 1980 , then to the Karl-Marx-Stadt Cotton Combine in 1981 . In October 1981 the district heating was connected to the boiler house of the VEB Buntgarnwerke . In 1984 about 100 employees were still working in Nonnenstrasse 5. The company in Holbeinstrasse came to the VEB Elguwa rubber goods factory in 1980 .
- Mey & Edlich factory building
Celluloid factory in today's Holbeinstraße, in the foreground the connecting railway Connewitz – Plagwitz
Factory on Nonnenstrasse, on the right the later Ernst-Mey-Strasse (around 1881)
Factory and department store, on the left the bridge over the Weisse Elster in the course of the later Ernst-Mey-Strasse (around 1883)
Production building at Nonnenstrasse 12-18 at the corner of Ernst-Mey-Strasse (around 1900)
Factory site on the White Elster (around 1910)
Headquarters, since 2007 in the Ernst-Mey-Straße in Plagwitz
present
Production in Leipzig ceased after the political change . The production building in Nonnenstrasse was renovated in 1998 and converted into apartments and commercial premises.
The Munich fashion retail company, which last had 20 stores in addition to its parent company, including in Berlin, Hamburg, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt am Main and Dresden, had to file for bankruptcy in 2004.
Some time later, the brand and catalog were revived. At the end of 2004, the Walbusch Walter Busch mail order company in Solingen acquired the textile company's trademark rights in order to rebuild it as a pure mail order business for men's outerwear in Leipzig. After the relaunch of the brand, Walbusch has been presenting high-quality business and leisure clothing under the name Mey & Edlich since 2007, especially for younger buyers. The headquarters of the new mail order company is again in the building acquired by Ernst Mey in 1885 - but not used by the company itself from 1953 to 2006 - in Ernst-Mey-Strasse 1a, which was named after Mey in October 1888. However, the business operations with purchasing, sales, call center and administration are completely managed from Solingen. The family company Walbusch also has its shipping center here.
literature
- Julia Susann Buhl: Study on industrial architecture in Leipzig Plagwitz 1870–1914 using the example of selected buildings. Dissertation Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin 2003, pp. 199–205, urn : nbn: de: kobv: 83-opus-5847
- Otto Werner Förster: Carl Ernst Mey and the Deutsche Celluloid-Fabrik Actiengesellschaft. A man of the world in Plagwitz and Schleußig. Taurus-Verlag, Leipzig 1999, ISBN 3-9805669-8-6
- Ursula Herrmann; Hannes Bachmann: Plagwitz. From the history of the suburb and its industry. Council of the City District Leipzig-Southwest, Leipzig 1986, p. 51 f.
- Horst Riedel: Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z. Pro Leipzig, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-936508-03-8 , p. 399
- A German mail order business. In: Die Hausfrau , No. 7 of March 10, 1884, p. 4
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Uwe Spiekermann: Basis of the consumer society: Origin and development of modern retail trade in Germany 1850-1914. Series of publications on the journal for corporate history, Volume 3, Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1999, ISBN 978-3-406-44874-4 , p. 304
- ↑ Fashion chain Mey & Edlich closes branch on Kudamm. In: Berliner Morgenpost from August 31, 2004
- ↑ Mey & Edlich files for bankruptcy. In: Münchner Merkur from February 20, 2004
- ↑ Gina Klank; Gernot Griebsch: Lexicon of Leipzig street names. Verlag im Wissenschaftszentrum Leipzig, Leipzig 1995, ISBN 3-930433-09-5 , p. 66
Coordinates: 51 ° 19 ′ 46.8 ″ N , 12 ° 20 ′ 45.3 ″ E