Rudolf Leiner

This article deals with the Austrian entrepreneur; on the furniture store see Rudolf Leiner (company) .

Rudolf Leiner junior (born March 22, 1913 in St. Pölten ; † September 8, 2008 there ) was an Austrian entrepreneur and co-owner of the furniture store chains Rudolf Leiner GmbH and kika .

biography

Leiner's parents, Rudolf senior and Therese, had acquired a bedding shop on St. Pölten's Rathausplatz in 1910 and soon led the family business to economic prosperity through clever marketing and other services.

Rudolf Leiner junior attended secondary school in St. Pölten and received training at the commercial academy in Linz, where he met his future wife Frieda. At the beginning of the 1930s he was a volunteer in Salzburg and also worked at department stores in Graz and Innsbruck . In 1935 he returned to his father's company, but was drafted into the Wehrmacht during World War II , where he fought on the front lines with the 2nd Panzer Division in almost all campaigns. During the war, parts of the parent company were destroyed by bombing raids on St. Pölten.

After his release from American captivity, he worked with his family to rebuild the company and in 1948 took over as managing partner. The first delivery van was purchased in the early 1950s . The range was expanded during this time: mattresses and couches were added to the main program. Like his father, Leiner did pioneering work in the field of advertising : in the early 1950s, the first Leiner brochure with a colored title page came out. Gradually, the production could be increased to 15 employees. The reconstruction was completed in the mid-1950s: “Der Leiner” had 40 employees, more than before the war, and a total of 2,500 square meters of sales rooms and storage areas were available. Even then, customers were offered partial payment systems and interest-free loans .

The expansion began in 1954. The parent company has been massively expanded and remodeled over the years. In 1960 the first branches were built in Wiener Neustadt and in 1962 in Bruck an der Mur . The purchase of the Esders clothing store on Vienna's Mariahilfer Strasse turned out to be a good decision. The next wave of expansion began in 1970: Wels , then Linz in 1971 , then Graz and Judenburg .

In 1973 he founded the Kika trading company together with Herbert Koch (* 1941) as an additional pillar.

Honors

Rudolf Leiner remained loyal to his hometown St. Pölten and supported various local projects and initiatives. The city of St. Pölten awarded Rudolf Leiner the ring of honor in 1975 and honorary citizenship in 2001 . The state of Lower Austria and the Republic of Austria also paid tribute to the entrepreneur's services. He carried the professional title of commercial councilor .

In March 2010, at the company's 100th anniversary, it was announced that a square in St. Pölten would be named after Rudolf Leiner.

On October 3, 2018, in the presence of St. Pölten's Mayor Matthias Stadler , two daughters of Leiner (including Friederike and her husband Herbert Koch ), the future CEO of the kika / Leiner group Reinhold Gütebier and numerous other people, one of Irene E. Beckmann 's bust of Leiner is solemnly unveiled. This took place through an initiative of the Leiner central works council, above all by its chairman Karl Vogl.

family

Rudolf Leiner married his wife Frieda († 2006) in 1940. The Leiners have three daughters; one of them, Friederike, is married to Herbert Koch , the co-founder of the Kika group.

Web links

• derstandard.at : Rudolf Leiner is dead. (September 10, 2008)

Individual evidence

1. ^ City of St. Pölten on the 100th anniversary of the Leiner company
2. ↑ ^{a b} Honoring the successful Austrian entrepreneur Rudolf Leiner , accessed on November 23, 2018
3. ↑ MONUMENT TO RUDOLF LEINER UNVEILED , accessed on November 23, 2018