Richard Gloeck
| Richard Gloeck
|
|
|---|---|
.jpg) |
|
| legal form | one-man business |
| founding | 1889 |
| resolution | Approx. 1938/1939 |
| Seat | Leipzig |
| management | Richard Gloeck |
| Branch | Tobacco shop |
Richard Gloeck founded the Richard Gloeck tobacco shop on January 1, 1889 together with his brother Peter . The specialty of the company was wholesale with precious skins . The office building in Leipzig , called Gloecks Haus , Brühl 52 / Nikolaistraße, built on behalf of Richard Gloeck, still reminds of him and his company.
Company history
Richard Gloeck (born April 22, 1864, † 1946) was a Leipzig tobacco merchant and commercial judge . In the early days of his company he was known in the fur industry and in Leipzig especially as a specialist in chinchilla fur . The commercial building stood in the middle of the Leipziger Brühl, which was temporarily the most important trading center for fur skins worldwide - even before the other two major centers, London and New York.
If you follow the explanations of the smokers commissioner and historian of the fur industry, Philipp Manes , who was murdered by the National Socialists , you can already see from the exterior of the office building, which was built between 1909 and 1910, what type and noble reluctance the client was:
“Not the usual advertising and company signs, not the smooth, cold, sober facade of the purely utility house. A certain feeling of personality can be seen in the building, and anyone who has ever made the acquaintance of the client cannot imagine their house any differently from how it looks today. "
The otherwise sober specialist Manes was also impressed by the warehouse and went into raptures:
“No other house has such space, and no shop on the Brühl offers such an insight into the treasures. Anyone who walks past here and only takes a look through the panes has to stay tied up, because spread out he sees the most wonderful furs of all continents in wonderful beauty. The most wonderful minks are piling up in front of one window , next door the most beautiful silver foxes , then further assortments of ermine , which in their snowy white shame the snow of the street. So one could go through the treasures kind by kind. A look inside always reveals new beauties. Also on the first floor, to which you can comfortably climb the winding stairs, you can see a picture that has never been shown. Otherwise such a floor is called a 'fur warehouse', but here the word ' parlor ' applies , because this is the only way to describe the refinement and beauty of this room. The types of fur for which there was no space downstairs hang on the ceiling and on the walls , there is an enormous safe built on the left, which in the evening stores the enormous values that are revealed to the customers during the day. No disorder is ever noticeable. The stacks lying on the floor are aligned, and the tables and floors are clean and tidy. The basement, which is tiled in white and extends over the entire floor area, is the most beautiful storage room, airy, dry and scrupulously clean. This is what the field of work that Richard Gloeck has mastered looks like. "
Bookplate for Richard Gloeck by Bruno Héroux : Viking couple with a captured bearskin
Ex-libris for Peter Gloeck by Franz von Bayros : Lady and Pierrot , ermine fur and polar bear fur
.jpg)
When people talk about the Gloeck fur shop, the namesake Richard Gloeck is almost always mentioned; his brother Peter apparently worked more in the background. Richard Gloeck had a legendary reputation as the "Chinchilla King". When the company was founded, the fur of this South American rodent, with the finest hair of all fur animals, was highly valued. European trade took place via London, further imports came initially exclusively through the French company Felix Fauvre & Cie. in Le Havre . Most of them were then implemented via Leipzig; the Gloecks sold the skins almost like a monopoly . In 1899, just ten years after it was founded, it had 18,500 skins, its highest annual turnover.
As early as 1910, however, the supply of chinchilla skins had shrunk significantly, and the extinction of the animals that were hunted in excess had to be expected. Richard Gloeck therefore traveled to South America "to find ways and means to control the complete extinction of the chinchillas ". In order to save the tiny stocks, he finally recommended an absolute ban on hunting and a strict export ban on animals and furs, which was also issued.
At the same time he had the idea of keeping the fur for the fur industry by breeding chinchillas. He learned about a household in which three chinchillas were kept. The large family liked the animals very much, however, and it was only with difficulty that he managed to acquire at least one male. At that time hardly anything was known about the living and eating habits of the actually frugal, but above all very sensitive animal to improper nutrition. With a bit of luck and a lot of effort, he managed to bring the animal home healthy on the long rail and ship journeys, first in great tropical heat and then eight degrees below zero in New York, at ten degrees below zero in Leipzig. The chinchilla lived there for over 11 years until it died of old age. It was not easy to keep it here either, the wooden cage gnawed through and in the dense wire enclosure it made a lot of noise at night. “But Gloeck said he couldn't part with his souvenir, otherwise Brühl would run out of things to talk about.” In the meantime, he managed to acquire a female from Chile who, thanks to precise instructions, also survived the long journey well. Unfortunately, it died after a while, which was a pity, as the two animals had become friends after initial difficulties and a zoological finding said that it had probably had one or more young, but would have eaten them. Since chinchillas are herbivores, this thesis seems questionable.
Walter Fellmann wrote that Richard Gloeck surprisingly liquidated his company in 1930 and then worked as a valuer and author for the specialist press. In 1938 the company is still listed in a specialist directory, as well as in the Leipzig address book from 1939. In 1940, six years before Richard Gloeck's death, according to the Leipzig address book, various other fur traders resided in Gloeck's house instead.
Fonts
Few smaller contributions by Gloeck in specialist journals can be proven.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Philipp Manes : The German fur industry and its associations 1900-1940. Attempt a story. Volume 3, Berlin 1941, p. 181. ( Table of contents )
- ^ A b "M." [Philipp Manes]: Richard Gloeck, Leipzig. An anniversary. In: The tobacco market. No. 28, Berlin, Leipzig, March 7, 1929.
- ↑ Christian Franke, Johanna Kroll: Jury Fränkel ’s Rauchwaren-Handbuch 1988/89 . 10th, revised and supplemented new edition. Rifra-Verlag, Murrhardt 1988, p. 206 .
- ↑ a b Richard Gloeck: Chinchilla memories. In: The German fur breeder. No. 1, Munich 1934, pp. 12-15.
- ^ Walter Fellmann: The Leipziger Brühl . VEB Fachbuchverlag, Leipzig 1989, p. 124.
- ^ Walter Fellmann: The Leipziger Brühl . VEB Fachbuchverlag, Leipzig 1989, p. 10, p. 209.
- ↑ Guide through the Brühl and the Berlin fur industry . Werner Kuhwald Verlag, Leipzig 1938, p. 44, p. 147.
- ↑ digital.slub-dresden.de digital.slub-dresden.de, address book of the Reichsmessestadt Leipzig with Markkleeberg, Böhlitz Ehrenberg, En ... p. 71. Accessed March 26, 2017.