Salamander (shoes)

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Salamander GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 1885
Seat Langenfeld , GermanyGermanyGermany 
management Managing Director :
  • Jochen Haag
  • Jens Keller
Number of employees 1700
Branch Clothing industry
Website salamander.de

Salamander Germany GmbH & Co. KG
legal form GmbH & Co. KG
founding 2009
Seat Wuppertal , GermanyGermanyGermany 
management Executive Director:
  • Uwe Gradias
  • Heinrich Traude
Branch Shoe retailing
Website salamander-online.de

The name Salamander and the logo with the fire salamander is a trademark that the Bad Buchau- born Berlin leather merchant Rudolf Moos , a relative of Albert Einstein , registered as a trademark with the Imperial Patent Office in Berlin on December 5, 1899. Inspired by an illustration of a brooch in an English newspaper, a lizard became the entrepreneur's trademark; initially for the shoe polish he made . For the planned international business, the lizard became a salamander. On May 8, 1904, he had the modified logo protected as a registered trademark.

Salamander GmbH , based in Langenfeld (production of Salamander and Lurchi shoes, foreign branch business through local companies, global trademark rights) and Salamander Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG , based in Wuppertal (German branch store, online shop), have continued the brand since 2009 . Both companies have been wholly owned subsidiaries of Ara AG since 2016 .

history

Founding of the Salamander shoe sales company

Letterhead from shoe factories J. Sigle & Cie., Around 1917
Salamander building Kornwestheim

At the beginning of the 20th century, Moos, now a shoe retailer in Berlin, announced a competition. He was looking for a manufacturer who could produce men's shoes for 12.50 instead of the usual 20.00 marks . The Kornwestheim company J. Sigle und Cie., Originally founded in 1891 by the master shoemaker Jakob Sigle and the Stuttgart leather traveler Max Levi and expanded in 1898 by the other financiers Ernst Sigle and Isidor Rothschild , won the bid, and Moos presented its men's shoe brand Salamander.

Salamander-Schuhverkaufsgesellschaft mbH was founded in 1905 by Rudolf Moos and the company J. Sigle und Cie. Both contract partners held a 50% share. Now it was possible for Moos to increase the number of sales outlets. Initially there were five branches in major German cities. As early as 1908, Moos was able to realize his dream of international business: the first branches were opened abroad. In the same year, licenses were also issued to shoe retailers in smaller towns with less than 80,000 inhabitants. These dealers have been granted exclusive sales rights.

Separation of the company founders

In 1909 the branded animal salamander appeared for the first time in advertising. The first 26 sales branches were opened as retail stores. 2,880 employees produced over two million pairs of shoes. In the same year there were disagreements. Rudolf Moos sold his shares and the trademark rights to J. Sigle und Cie.

In addition to its own shops, there was a network of 832 license sellers in Germany and 26 abroad in 1913. 3,500 employees produced 2.1 million pairs of shoes annually on 2,000 machines on an area of ​​30,000 m².

Foundation of the stock corporation

Poster “Salamander Shoes / New Models”;
Design: Kurt Libesny , print: F. Adametz, Vienna, around 1928
Old salamander logo on a shoe store

In 1916 the OHK was converted into an AG and the branch network was expanded to 50 branches. In the interwar period , extensive production facilities were built at the headquarters in Kornwestheim , which is now the Salamander area . In 1930 Jakob Sigle und Cie AG, Salamander Schuhvertriebsgesellschaft mbH and A. Lehne GmbH merged to form Salamander AG, which owned 32 million Reichsmark share capital. As a large corporation, Salamander managed to produce a full range of shoes. When, after the Great Depression, women began demanding more fashionable, cheaper shoes, the company followed this change in the market.

Emigration and death of the founders

Max Levi died in 1925, Jakob Sigle in 1935 at the age of 73. Rudolf Moos initially lived in Potsdam. As persecuted by the Nazi regime, he emigrated to England. He survived Levi and Sigle and died in Birmingham on October 9, 1951.

Great Depression and Salamander in National Socialism

Memorial plaque for forced labor at Salamander, Berlin-Kreuzberg

In contrast to other shoe manufacturers, Salamander was even able to increase the number of employees by 1,100 during the Great Depression from 1927 to 1933. In 1934, however, the number was almost halved by almost 500. However, this was not justified by a decrease in production, but rather served to keep the group competitive through increasing productivity after rationalization measures. At the same time, the proportion of women in the workforce shifted and reached the 50 percent mark in 1932; The proportion of skilled workers also fell sharply in favor of unskilled, cheap workers. From 1933 the Levi and Rothschild families sold their shares to the Sigle family. During the National Socialist era, Salamander was one of the German shoe companies that had their shoes tested by concentration camp inmates in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . The prisoners in the so-called shoe runner detachment had to cover a 700-meter-long test route with different surfaces several times up to 40 kilometers. The endurance runs were de facto death marches , as the runners were shot when they collapsed due to fatigue .

Vera Friedländer : “In our time, decades later, you can buy salamander shoes if you want. In any case, I am sure that I will not wear shoes with that name. When I hear this name, I have to think of the shoes without owners. It is not true that time heals all wounds. "Vera Friedländer worked as a forced laborer in the repair shop of Salamander AG" together with 50 to 60 people ", Polish shoemakers, French, Serbians and Jewish women, until March 18, 1945, a bomb hit Building partially destroyed. The Berlin address book from 1937 shows that Salamander AG is the operator of a repair shop at Köpenicker Straße 6a. Vera Friedländer's work book clearly shows the address on the Salamander stamp.

During the Second World War , Salamander lost 26% of its factory equipment and half of its sales outlets between 1939 and 1945.

Lurchi notebooks

The comic figure Lurchi was developed to keep the children of adult customers busy while shopping . From 1937 until the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, five episodes of the colorful booklet appeared, in which Lurchi and five animal friends had to go on adventures around the world. These were able to be mastered because Lurchi and his friends successfully used the salamander shoes they wore.

From 1951 to 1972 the graphic artist and illustrator Heinz Schubel was a draftsman of 52 episodes of the booklets, from 1964 also their copywriter, whose troches until then Erwin Kühlewein had rhymed without salary, until 1964 Salamander authorized representative and advertising manager. The Lurchi booklet had a circulation of up to three million copies.

post war period

Shoe manufacture at Salamander around 1954

From 1949, the group also produced children's shoes and soon 9,900 employees were producing 7.9 million pairs of shoes. In addition to the main factory in Kornwestheim, further factories were established in Türkheim , Pirmasens and the surrounding area ( Vinningen , Trulben ). In 1952 the Lurchi booklet series was reissued after the economy had picked up again.

After the securities settlement and negotiations on the restitution of the Jewish share of the property in 1957, the Salamander AG shares were listed on the stock exchange again. In the 1960s, Salamander expanded worldwide, for example to France in 1960 and to Austria in 1969 . In 1967 17,800 people were employed, producing 13.5 million pairs of shoes. The company with its own branch network developed into Europe 's largest shoe manufacturer. From 1971, however, the sale of shoes fell sharply, as foreign cheap manufacturers pushed into the European market. In 1981 the number of employees was only 7,566, the annual shoe production only eight million pairs of shoes.

Development into a conglomerate

In the 1980s the company expanded into the retail and service sectors. Business initially developed positively again, with sales exceeding the billion mark in 1983. The chain of stores was given a new, uniform design and expansion penetrated into Eastern Europe ( Poland , Hungary , Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union ) as well as the United Arab Emirates through investments and subsidiaries. Gradually, the shoe retail chain with its own production became a conglomerate with the other business areas of real estate , industrial products and services (such as the building cleaner Gegenbauer-Bosse or, for a short time, the parking space manager APCOA ).

Decline

The presence in Eastern Europe, especially in the Soviet Union, brought the company losses of around 100 million D-Marks between 1991 and 1996, as a result of which plants in Germany and the Czech Republic had to be closed. Shoe production was reduced from 9.1 million pairs of shoes in 1994 to 7.1 million pairs in 1995.

Takeover and bankruptcy

Salamander shoes

From 1997 onwards, there were several changes among the major shareholders. In 2000, Energie Baden-Württemberg AG ( EnBW for short ) increased its stake to almost 84% and acquired all the other shares in the two following years. At that time the shoe company had 230 branches in nine European countries. In 2002, the Salamander Group with around 20,000 employees generated sales of 1.29 billion euros and a profit of 52.5 million euros; however, the shoe sector was in the red with a loss of 18.8 million euros. In 2003, Salamander's shoe store was sold to the Garant Schuh + Mode AG association. A restructuring concept that was started at the same time led to the loss of 1,330 of the 4,760 jobs in the shoe segment and the closure of all remaining plants in Germany and one plant in Hungary .

In 2004 the industrial products division was sold . The real estate division still belongs to EnBW and was renamed EnBW Beteiligungen AG in 2005 .

Salamander filed for bankruptcy on September 8, 2004 , after the parent company Garant Schuh + Mode AG had taken the same step the day before . Their financial problems resulted from the takeover of the loss-making Salamander from EnBW.

On April 1, 2005, the Salamander Group was taken over by EganaGoldpfeil . Salamander again operated around 260 stores in Germany, France, Austria, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Russia and, in addition to shoes, also sold shirts, ties, bags and leather accessories . In 2007, the Salamander company employed around 1,800 people and achieved sales of around 190 million euros.

On July 1, 2008 the headquarters were relocated from Kornwestheim to Offenbach am Main, where the parent company EganaGoldpfeil is based. Only the sales business remained in Kornwestheim.

Todays situation

Salamander shop in Mainz
Salamander ballerinas

In February 2009, following the bankruptcy of the handbag manufacturer EganaGoldpfeil, the company with around 1,800 employees worldwide and around 190 million euros in annual sales, including foreign subsidiaries and trademark rights, was taken over by the shoe manufacturer and retailer Ara AG from Langenfeld .

The German Salamander branches have been run as an independent shoe store chain, Salamander Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG , as part of Schuhhaus Klauser GmbH & Co. KG from Wuppertal since 2009 .

On September 23, 2010 it was announced that a joint venture between shoe manufacturers Ara and Wortmann (Tamaris) wanted to bring a new Lurchi collection for children onto the market.

In April 2016, Ara AG announced the takeover of Schuhhaus Klauser and its subsidiary Salamander Germany from the Prange family, with retroactive effect from January 1, 2016. Thus, Salamander has been part of Ara since 2016.

Special features and range

The special thing about the historic Salamander company was that it not only manufactured shoes, but also sold them through its own branch network. The conglomerate of the 1960s to 2000 split its product range in several different brands ( Salamander , Lurchi , Betty Barclay , Sioux , Apollo , Yello Miles , Camel Active Footwear ) that produced in all price segments for different audiences and partly in license were led . The own brand Yellomiles was discontinued in 2003, the license for Camel shoes went to Gabor Shoes in 2000 , the Sioux company with its men's brand Apollo was bought by EganaGoldpfeil in 2003 and is now owned by a Frankfurt holding company , and the license for Betty Barclay shoes After Salamander held the Dutch Intermedium BV from 2004. Salamander generally occupies the middle price segment with more fashionable than classic products. In mid-2007 Salamander added welted shoes to its range under its own name.

literature

Web links

Commons : Salamander GmbH  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Imprint | Salamander. Retrieved February 20, 2020 .
  2. ^ Rudolf Moos. on judeninbuchau.de
  3. ↑ 60 years of German economic history: Salamander: Lurchi's adventure. In: www.handelsblatt.com. Retrieved April 26, 2016 .
  4. ↑ The “Salamander” brand appears in Germany in the form of two companies . salamander.de, accessed on February 5, 2017.
  5. ↑ Petra Bräutigam: Medium-sized entrepreneurs under National Socialism. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1997, ISBN 978-3-486-56256-9 , p. 52 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  6. ↑ a b c Salamander AG. In: wabw.uni-hohenheim.de , accessed on September 2, 2016.
  7. ↑ Rolf Hofmann: Salamander - Levi Family of Stuttgart Version 03. (PDF, 25 kB) In: alemannia-judaica.de . Retrieved on September 2, 2016 (English): "Isidor Rothschild lived from 1860 to 1929. He was married to Hedwig Levi, after her untimely death in 1892 to Berta Levi."
  8. ↑ Bavaria 2 : Calendar sheet of December 5, 2006: Berlin shoe retailer has the word "salamander" protected . ( Memento of September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
  9. ↑ Moments - Contributions to regional studies of Baden-Württemberg, issue 2/2005: The art of attractively marketing a pair of shoes - Salamander's historical advertising strategies . ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
  10. ↑ a b c Salamander learns to walk. In: salamander.de , accessed on September 2, 2016.
  11. ↑ Petra Bräutigam: Medium-sized entrepreneurs under National Socialism. 1997, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, ISBN 3-486-56256-8 .
  12. ^ Susanne Mathes: As the prisoner die. (No longer available online.) In: stuttgarter-nachrichten.de . February 26, 2011, archived from the original on August 30, 2016 ; accessed on September 2, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stuttgarter-nachrichten.de
  13. ^ Anne-Sophie Lang: Experiments in the concentration camp: blood in the shoe. November 13, 2014, accessed August 27, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Quote from the chapter: Salamander. In: Late Notes. Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1982 - published in 1998 by Agimos-Verlag Kiel and in 2008 by Trafo-Verlag Berlin under the title You can't be half a Jew.
  15. ↑ a b c Salamander conquers the world. In: salamander.de , accessed on September 2, 2016.
  16. ^ Badische Zeitung: Draftsman of the legendary Lurchi booklet comes from Freiburg - Computer & Medien - Badische Zeitung . ( badische-zeitung.de [accessed on April 22, 2018]).
  17. ↑ Scene-Watcher: The long way home of the salamander Lurchi (PDF; 342 kB)
  18. ↑ Lurchi, Lurchi, you have to hike… . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . January 15, 2009.
  19. ↑ a b Salamander in motion. In: salamander.de , accessed on September 2, 2016.
  20. ↑ Claudia Wadowski: Salamander: After Russia-flop on rehabilitation course. In : wirtschaftsblatt.at . August 1, 1996, archived from the original on September 2, 2016 ; accessed on September 2, 2016 .
  21. ↑ Salamander's shoe pinches. In: tagesspiegel.de . March 4, 2002, accessed September 2, 2016 .
  22. ↑ Garant is interested in taking over Salamander. In: Abendblatt.de . February 10, 2003, accessed September 2, 2016 .
  23. ↑ Garant takes over the loss-making salamander shoe division. In: welt.de . February 10, 2003, accessed September 2, 2016 .
  24. ^ Ulrich Viehöver: cobbler at work. How the traditional Salamander brand is being run down . In: Die Zeit , No. 15/2002, from April 4, 2002, accessed on September 2, 2016.
  25. ↑ a b Anke Prokasky: Company: Ara buys salamander. In: textilwirtschaft.de . January 16, 2009, accessed on September 2, 2016 (available to subscribers only).
  26. ↑ Ara buys shoe retailer Salamander. In: welt.de . January 15, 2009, accessed September 2, 2016 .
  27. ↑ Birgit Fink: Cartel Office gives the green light for the sale of salamanders. Press release. In: salamander.de. February 27, 2009, archived from the original on December 13, 2010 ; accessed on September 2, 2016 .
  28. ↑ Frank Zimmer: Lurchi: The Comeback of the Cult Salamander. In: wuv.de . September 23, 2010, accessed September 2, 2016 .
  29. ↑ Peter Skop: Ara swallows Klauser . In: Schuhmarkt , April 15, 2016, accessed on February 4, 2017.

Coordinates: 48 ° 51 '39.8 "  N , 9 ° 10' 43.2"  E