Reich Association of German Tobacco Manufacturers

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Reich Association of German Tobacco Manufacturers, Headquarters Leipzig e. V.
legal form Registered association
Seat Leipzig , Berlin
founding 1908 and 1921

resolution after 1945
Former board members Paul Holländer et al
Website -

The Reich Association of German Tobacco Companies represented the interests of German fur wholesalers. It was founded in 1908 as the local “Association of Leipzig Smoke Goods Companies”. V. “founded. The Leipziger Brühl was at that time one of the main centers of world trade in fur. For some time, the tobacco industry companies located there generated the largest share of Leipzig's tax revenue. In 1921 the association was expanded and renamed "Reichsverband der Deutschen Rauchwarenf Firmen, Sitz Leipzig e. V. "

The office was in Leipzig, Tröndlinring 2 (b) in 1927; around 1936 Ritterstrasse 26; around 1943 together with other associations in the branch in Berlin, Blücherplatz 1. The association was probably dissolved when Germany was split into two after the end of World War II (1939–1945).

The successor association in the Federal Republic of Germany is Der Deutsche Pelzverband eV , since May 2004 it has been renamed the Deutscher Pelz-Groß- und Außenhandelsverband eV The new association was founded on April 4, 1950 after the dissolution of individual regional associations.

Objective and tasks

According to Feistle, the main reasons for the merger were a strengthening and unity with regard to the price demands of the fur trimmers and fur dye works , the demands of the workforce and a common appearance against the retail trade. These basic interests did not change when the Leipzig Association opened up to all German tobacco companies in 1921. In the course of the development, further tasks arose, one operated joint representation and advertising at the Leipzig trade fair, organized fashion demonstrations and the like (the first German community fur fashion show was held on April 4th and 5th, 1921 in the Leipzig Alberthalle ).

Credit Protection Commission of the Reich Association of German Tobacco Companies.
From left: Lawyer v. Kiesenwetter, Siegfried Poser, Dr. Nauen, Otto Gottstein, Reinhard Goldmann, Paul Poser, Harry König, Fritz Leipoldt , Alfred Beißert (1930)

The more detailed objectives of the association emerge from the main points of the statutes, which are summarized here:

  1. The protection of the collective professional and economic interests. Establishing and further developing conditions for dealing with customers and monitoring and implementing these regulations.
  2. The support of the members in the regulation of the employment and wage conditions of the employees and workers, the representation in front of employee associations and authorities.
  3. Settlement of disputes and creation of an arbitration tribunal. Association penalties apply if the wage rates agreed by the association are exceeded openly or secretly.

The credit agency department, the credit protection office (for processing payment settings, etc.) and the “property protection” department (for investigating smokers theft) were particularly well used. In addition, the association had created other institutions, such as a tariff commission, an arbitration tribunal to settle disputes between the members and a court of honor.

history

As Fritz Pabst noted in 1902, in contrast to most other branches of industry in Germany at that time there was no external organization for the independent tobacco merchants to represent their interests. There was no association-like connection, no trade journal and no joint office. At the beginning of 1905, the first efforts to merge the Leipzig tobacco wholesalers made themselves felt.

It was not until November 7, 1908 that the Leipzig tobacco wholesalers, commission agents and brokers formed the Association of Leipzig Tobacco Companies . V. merged. Another 13 years passed before the association opened up in 1921 to all German wholesalers active in the fur industry and became part of the Reichsverband der Deutschen Rauchwarenf Firmen, based in Leipzig e. V. was renamed. This expansion was strongly encouraged by the owner of the important Leipzig tobacco wholesaler Paul Thorer , who, however, had died the year before. His son-in-law Paul Hollender became the first chairman . Another important board member and treasurer at the same time was the tobacco merchant and commercial judge Richard König .

Price fixing was normal back then, unlike today, when anti-competitive measures are prohibited. When, for example, the collective agreement between the Association of the Tobacco Shop and the Tobacco Dressing and Dyeing Works expired in 1922, the tobacco dealers who concluded at the new dressing and dyeing tariffs, even if they only tacitly received corresponding order confirmations, were given a by their association Penalty of up to one million marks threatened. The sum is put into perspective, however, as this fell during the period of extreme inflation.

In November 1926 the meeting of the Reich Association of German Tobacco Manufacturers decided to organize an international exhibition at the suggestion of Paul Hollender. The international fur trade exhibition (IPA) was a large-scale specialist exhibition of the fur industry, which was held in Leipzig over four months in the summer of 1930; associated with it was an international hunting exhibition. This remains the fur industry's most outstanding event to this day. The first and probably also the only remaining World Fur Congress took place there from June 22nd to 29th of that year.

Max Malbin determined in 1927 that an average of five people were needed to run a tobacco shop. Based on this premise, around 400 people worked in this branch of business for Leipzig that year. Measured against the level of sales achieved, the number of people was comparatively very low.

In the founding meeting, 42 companies joined the association, by the end of 1919 there were already 148. In 1926 there were even 688 members for a short period of time (208 of them from outside Germany), however, due to a ticket procedure that made the association a compulsory organization. In 1930 there were 2400 individual members throughout Germany, in 1933 an estimated 2200, of which 215 were based in Leipzig.

Other associations in the fur industry at that time

In 1941, Philipp Manes listed the following German fur industry associations in addition to the Reich Association of German Tobacco Manufacturers:

  • Reichsbund deutscher Kürschner - Leipzig , founded in 1882 (as "Verein deutscher Kürschner") with 14 district associations
  • Association of German tobacco products, finishing and dyeing works - Leipzig , founded in 1899
  • Association of German Fur Manufacturers - Leipzig , founded in 1919
  • Association of Berlin Smoking Companies - Berlin , founded in 1920
  • Association of German Welding Manufacturers - Leipzig , founded in 1921.

All of these associations had come together in 1926 in the "Argem" , the working group of the German smoking and fur associations, based in Leipzig . At the beginning of 1930 the Argem was reorganized into the "Adepe", working group of the German fur industry based in Leipzig . Its purpose was "to safeguard and promote all common interests of the fur industry that go beyond the special affairs of the individual professional associations", as well as establishing and maintaining contacts with fur associations abroad.

In addition to the Adepe associations, the following also existed in 1930:

  • Reich Association of Independent Furriers and Cap Makers Germany Headquarters Berlin e. V. , founded in 1905. It mainly organized the interim masters of skinning and at the time had about 1200 members.
  • Employers' Association of Berliner Pelzfabrikanten e. V. , founded in 1924, around 45 members at the time.
  • Association of tobacco companies for Rhineland and Westphalia e. V. Headquarters in Cologne , founded in 1922, at the time 12 members.
  • Reich Association of the United German Skin and Fur Trade "Hufa" e. V. Berlin , founded in 1915, at the time 283 members. This Reichsverband organized the skin and fur trade, which is closely related to the tobacco goods trade (in the leather trade the skins of some young animal species are called fur ).

In 1930 the main workers' organizations in the fur industry were:

  • Association of employees in the tobacco industry for Leipzig and the surrounding area e. V. , founded in 1923, around 240 members in 1930
  • The fur trade workers (so-called "market helpers") were in 1930 in the general association of the employees of the public enterprises and the persons and goods seat Berlin organized
  • Around 12,000 workers in the fur industry (dressers, dyers, furriers, etc.) were members of the German clothing workers' association based in Berlin .

Web links

Commons : Reichsverband der Deutschen Rauchwaren-Firmen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Articles of Association of the Association of German Tobacco Companies, seat in Leipzig, 1909  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Baltic Sea Trade . No. 4, 1927, p. 15. Also 1930, Erika Rowald: The German smokers finishing a wage industry . Publishing house "Der Rauchwarenmarkt", Leipzig undated dissertation, p. 134 (contract between the Reichsverband and the tobacco goods finishing and dyeing works, valid from February 1, 1930).
  2. ↑ Winckelmann table for the bag. Leipzig with appendix Berlin , 2nd edition 1936, p. 96 (also in edition 1937).
  3. ↑ Address table for the fur industry . In: Der Rauchwarenmarkt , Leipzig January 2, 1943, p. 10; January 15, 1943, p. 12. Thereafter no mention, the last edition appeared for September 1944.
  4. ↑ http://www.deutscherpelzverband.de:/ About us. Last accessed on November 9, 2017.
  5. ↑ Without an author's name: The smoking goods trade in 1921 . In: Der Rauchwarenmarkt No. 226, Berlin November 1, 1922, p. 3.
  6. ^ A b c Otto Feistle: Rauchwarenmarkt and Rauchwarenhandel. Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1931, pp. 69-71. Table of contents .
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g Gottlieb Albrecht: The Pelzmarkt Leipzig with special consideration of its tobacco trade . Inaugural dissertation at the Thuringian State University of Jena, Bottrop 1931, pp. 21–23 ( → table of contents ).
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g Karl Baum (Secretary of the Reichsverband der Deutschen Rauchwaren-Firmen, Headquarters Leipzig e.V.): The professional and economic associations of the smoking and fur industry . In: IPA - international fur exhibition, international hunting exhibition Leipzig 1930 - official catalog. Pp. 400-401.
  9. ^ Feistle, based on Fritz Pabst: Der Rauchwarenhandel , dissertation, Berlin 1902, p. 52.
  10. ↑ a b c Max Malbin: The international fur trade before and after the World War with special reference Leipzig . Inaugural dissertation at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Leipzig, 1927, pp. 37–38.
  11. ↑ www.bundesarchiv.de; available online; Retrieved April 15, 2013.
  12. ^ "Hz.": Reich Association of German Tobacco Manufacturers, Headquarters Leipzig. Ordinary general meeting . In: Der Rauchwarenmarkt , No. 208, September 26, 1922, pp. 1–2.
  13. ↑ Philipp Manes: The German fur industry and their associations 1900-1940 - attempt at a story , Volume 3. Bound copy of the original manuscript, Berlin 1941, pp. 31-70 ( IPA ); Pp. 71-94 ( World Fur Congress ).
  14. ^ Kurt Nestler: Tobacco and fur trade . 1st edition. Max Jänecke Verlagbuchhandlung, Leipzig 1929, p. 9 .
  15. ^ Philipp Manes: The German fur industry and its associations 1900 - 1940 , Volume 4, Berlin 1941, manuscript p. 409.