Richard Poetzsch

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Portrait of Richard Poetzsch (1861–1913)

Richard Poetzsch (born September 24, 1861 in Mölbis ; † January 20, 1913 in Leipzig ) was a German businessman and owner of the Richard Poetzsch GmbH coffee wholesaler and coffee roastery .

Life

The son of a farmer completed his training in the coffee and tea trade at the Leipzig companies Hentschel & Pinckert, HC Fahrig, Joachim Christian Lücke and at Müller's grocery store on Petersstrasse .

On October 1, 1888, Richard Poetzsch founded his own grocery store in the building of the Hotel Deutsches Haus at Königsplatz 13. During the transition from hand-roasted to machine-roasted coffee , Poetzsch specialized in coffee imports and coffee refinement in his own roastery. He was one of the first producers in Germany to offer a large selection of roasted coffee products of consistently high quality under their own brand .

In 1894 he opened a second shop in Leipzig at Grimmaischer Steinweg 20, which his brother Oskar ran. In 1896 he founded a second roastery and coffee picking facility. In addition to the usual flat roasters, Poetzsch also used two Gothot ball roasters for the first time . The introduction of machine-packed coffee in hygienic and airtight bags with double glassine lining made the company known throughout Germany. Poetzsch was able to increase its sales enormously and was already producing 300 quintals of roasted coffee a day during this time.

In 1898 a third shop was opened in the Hôtel de Pologne , Hainstrasse 16/18 and in 1899 a third roastery. In 1910 Poetzsch succeeded in setting up a large roasting plant and a mail order business in Hamburg to supply northern Germany, as well as a shop in Berlin on Oranienburger Strasse . At that time the company employed 120 people. Richard Poetzsch was thus one of the market leaders in the industry before the First World War . Poetzsch has received numerous awards for its products, including the state award as the highest recognition. The successful businessman was honored by the Saxon King with the title of Royal Saxon Court Supplier .

Further history of the company

Detail grave of the Richard Poetzsch family

After the sudden death of the founder, his widow, Lina Poetzsch, nee Beer (1866–1945) converted the company into a limited partnership . The grave site in Leipzig's southern cemetery, designed by the artist Reinhold Carl and lavishly decorated with Norwegian blue larvikite and a marble sculpture , bears witness to the importance of the entrepreneur at that time.

In the 1920s, Richard Poetzsch KG supplied over 5,000 sales outlets throughout Germany. In 1925 the company relocated its Leipzig headquarters to Bitterfelder Straße 20. On the occasion of the company's 50th anniversary in 1938, a from the then managing director, Dr. Rudolf Unger (1885–1957), published Festschrift.

Affected by war losses and expropriation, the company was unable to build on its old successes after 1945, but still had shops in Leipzig, Hamburg and Berlin. On August 2, 2012, her entry was deleted from the commercial register.

Brands

  • Poetzsch coffee
  • Poetzsch's Kronen coffee
  • Poetzsch malt coffee

Memberships

literature

  • Rudolf Unger: 50 years Richard Poetzsch, large coffee roastery, coffee, tea, colonial goods in wholesale and Retail, Leipzig , Leipzig 1938, DNB 57755610X .
  • Alfred E. Otto Paul: The art in silence. Art treasures in Leipzig cemeteries , Vol. 2, Leipzig 2010.
  • Julia Laura Rischbieter: Micro-economy of globalization. Coffee, merchants and consumers in the Empire 1870–1914 , Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-412-20772-4 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Poetzsch, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German merchant and coffee wholesaler
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Mölbis
DATE OF DEATH January 20, 1913
Place of death Leipzig