Wilhelm Schmitz (businessman)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tomb in the old town cemetery Mülheim

Wilhelm Schmitz (later: Schmitz-Scholl) (born November 11, 1831 in Mülheim an der Ruhr ; † December 5, 1887 there ) was a German businessman and is considered the founder of the Tengelmann Group .

Live and act

Wilhelm Schmitz - also known as Wilhelm Schmitz-Scholl - was born in 1831 as the son of the Mülheim cloth merchant Wilhelmus Schmitz (1773–1849) and his wife Gertraud from the Hesseln (1803–1874). At the age of fifteen he completed an apprenticeship in a grocery store, the owner of which Johann Wilhelm Meininghaus (1790–1869) later appointed him one of his successors. From 1856 he ran the business with Ludwig Lindgens as a financial partner under the company “Wilh. Schmitz & Lindgens ”. Wilhelm Schmitz lived with his family and Ludwig Lindgens under one roof in Ruhrstrasse. 3, right next to the Ruhr plant in Mülheim. At the end of 1866 his co-partner withdrew and from January 1, 1867 he ran the company under the company name “Wilh. Schmitz-Scholl ”continues alone. To make it easier to distinguish, he had his own name, the maiden name of his wife Louise b. Scholl added. Schmitz-Scholl was to become a family name from the next generation.

Villa Schmitz-Scholl , at Ruhrstrasse 3 in Mülheim

Wilhelm Schmitz mainly traded in coffee, tea and cocoa. After Josef Kaiser (see Kaiser's Tengelmann ) began to roast coffee industrially in 1880 instead of selling green coffee as was customary at the time, Wilhelm Schmitz also followed in 1882.

His wife was seriously injured in a carriage accident in 1886, which hit the merchant with heart disease. In 1887 he died a few months before his wife.

From then on, his son Karl Schmitz-Scholl continued to run the company, which now under the name "Tengelmann's Coffee Shop" - the name came from the authorized signatory of the company Emil Tengelmann - set up a network of branches across Germany. Today, the Tengelmann Group is in the fifth generation of Schmitz's descendants, Karl-Erivan Haub , and has been managed by Christian WE Haub since April 2018 .

Marriage and offspring

The marriage to Caroline Wilhelmine Luise Scholl (1834–1888) had five children:

  • Bertha (1856-1922)
  • Wilhelmine (1858–1912)
  • Wilhelm (1861–1927)
  • Hermann (1862–1942)
  • Karl Friedrich (1868–1933)

literature

  • Thomas Urban: The founders of the Tengelmann Group - The Schmitz-Scholl Family in: Horst A. Wessel (Hrsg.): Mülheim entrepreneurs: pioneers of the economy. Business history in the city on the river since the end of the 18th century . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2006, pp. 219–231.
  • Historically significant personalities in the city of Mülheim ad Ruhr. Edited by the working group of local history associations in Mülheim an der Ruhr. Mülheim an der Ruhr, 1983, pp. 59-62.
  • 125 years of Wissoll 1867-1992 . Mülheim an der Ruhr, 1992.
  • Mülheimer Jahrbuch 1952, pp. 116–119.
  • A century of Tengelmann. Past, present and future . Mülheim an der Ruhr, 1993.

Other sources

  • New Ruhr newspaper v. February 8, 1992
  • City archive Mülheim an der Ruhr, holdings 1550

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schmitz, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schmitz, Hermann Wilhelm; Schmitz-Scholl, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German businessman
DATE OF BIRTH November 11, 1831
PLACE OF BIRTH Mülheim an der Ruhr
DATE OF DEATH December 5, 1887
Place of death Mülheim an der Ruhr