Central consumption
| Central consumption
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | registered cooperative |
| founding | 1946 |
| Seat |
Berlin , Germany Neue Gruenstrasse 18 |
| management | Chairman of the supervisory board: Sigrid Hebestreit (consumer cooperative Weimar ) Management board: Martin Bergner (spokesman), Andreas Bosse (as of 2020) |
| Number of employees | 540 (as of end of 2014) |
| Branch | Industry, real estate development and management, hotel operations, services |
| Website | Zentralkonsum.de/ |
The Zentralkonsum eG is the headquarters of the regional consumer cooperatives in eastern Germany that have emerged from the consumer cooperatives in the GDR . It emerged from the Association of German Consumer Cooperatives, which was re-established in 1949 , and is in the tradition of the Central Association of German Consumer Cooperatives founded in Dresden in 1903 . It is a commercial enterprise and at the same time represents interests.
Corporate purpose and members
The registered cooperative (eG) Zentralkonsum is a lobbyist and commercial enterprise. It is based in Berlin . Its aim is to promote the economy of its members. These members can be registered cooperatives or companies in another legal form whose membership is in the interests of the cooperative. The organs of the cooperative are the general assembly , the supervisory board and the executive board . Zentralkonsum eG finances itself from its own economic activity. In addition to promoting its member companies, it is committed to social and cultural issues.
In 2015, 32 cooperative companies with a total of 220,000 members were part of central consumption. These are the consumer cooperatives Altenburg and the surrounding area, Burg-Genthin-Zerbst, Döbeln, Dresden , Erfurt, Hagenow, Haldensleben, Leipzig , Seehausen (Altmark) and Weimar, three Volks- and Raiffeisenbanken, professional associations, agricultural and winegrowers' cooperatives and several GmbHs .
Central consumption is operated by the two industrial companies Röstfein Kaffee GmbH and Bürstenmann GmbH . It also maintains commercial properties, two hotels ( Berghotel Oberhof GmbH and Romantik Hotel Dorotheenhof Weimar GmbH ) and service companies.
history
Origin and development
The basic idea of the cooperative, "to take account of the material benefit and the improvement of the social and economic conditions of its members", goes back to the merger of 28 weavers in the small English town of Rochdale in 1844. The principle of cheap shopping and sales initially only to members (“pure, unadulterated goods at a real price”) ( consumption ) by merging and distributing the surpluses to members has spread from here all over the world. In Germany, the first such consumer cooperatives emerged in Saxony, the first in 1850 as the Food Association Eilenburg , which quickly merged to form umbrella organizations such as the Central Association of German Consumvereine eG, which was founded in 1903 and based in Dresden .
Consumer associations between 1933 and 1945
In the time of National Socialism, the new rulers pronounced a ban on such concepts based on basic solidarity ideas. In 1934 there was an amendment to the Cooperative Act, which regulated the compulsory membership of all cooperatives (compulsory affiliation) in a cooperative auditing association. The executive boards of the respective associations (which in turn had to be members of umbrella associations) and umbrella associations were or were staffed with people loyal to the line , which ultimately served to enforce the leadership principle. During this time there were around 53,000 cooperatives in Germany with around eight million members. The commentators on this cooperative law, Lang and Weidmüller, who were active well into the 21st century, stated in 1938: “A new chapter in the history of the German cooperative law began with the national uprising of the German people under its leader and Chancellor Adolf Hitler in 1933. National Socialist ideas found their expression in several extensive amendments to the Cooperative Law, which testify to the will of the National Socialist state for an intensive further development of the German Cooperative Law. ”This led to the incorporation of the consumer cooperatives into the German Labor Front , the cooperative principles had perished , the complete dissolution of all consumer cooperatives and their umbrella organizations. This law is still in force (as of 2015).
Consumer associations from 1945 to 1990
After the Second World War , the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) issued Order No. 176 on December 18, 1945 on the Restoration of Consumer Cooperatives in the Soviet Occupation Zone . For example , the former consumer associations were re-established within the sphere of activity of the SMAD, later the GDR . In the other zones of occupation, too, consumer cooperatives were again allowed to be founded, including the coop eG cooperative . In 1949 the East German consumer cooperatives merged in Berlin under the name Association of German Consumer Cooperatives, which was renamed the Association of Consumer Cooperatives of the GDR (VdK) in 1972 . The 15 district associations of the consumer cooperatives maintained a total of around 30,000 retail stores, 15 department stores and 28 industrial operations, which accounted for around a third of retail sales and were therefore also a major employer in the country.
From October 3, 1990
During reunification , the handling of the GDR consumer cooperatives was not regulated in the unification agreement , not least because of the passive role of the GDR umbrella association of consumer cooperatives. The individual consumer cooperatives were essentially left to their own devices and looked for ways to adapt to the new political and economic situation in the country. The consumer cooperative wholesaling was integrated into the state wholesaling in the 1970s, so that the consumer cooperatives did not have their own distribution channel after the fall of the Wall , a return application failed both politically and legally. Inevitably, partnerships with various West German suppliers were created in order to get goods into the shops, which was mostly uneconomical.
After the fall of the Wall in 1990, the former GDR residents hardly bought any East German products. This led to economic problems for the consumer cooperatives and their association at the time.
Existential problems and how to overcome them
Another critical situation arose from the fact that the cooperatives did not own the land for the real estate and thus had no basis for lending bank loans. On the other hand, real estate was assigned to the state-owned companies under the trust. A third problem was posed by the foreign exchange loans from the time of the planned economy: Earlier loan purchases in German marks were given a directional coefficient of 4.1 in the GDR , converted 1: 2 according to the economic and monetary union and now had to be repaid in this amount . The repayment rate thus doubled compared to the previous purchase price. Attempts by the VdK to clarify this on a political or legal level failed. It was not until the Property Law Adjustment Act of 1996 that the cooperatives were able to acquire the land for their real estate at half the market value, which came too late for some cooperatives.
The VdK renamed itself in 1999 in Konsumverband eG . Another change of name in 2008 resulted in Zentralkonsum eG .
Directly maintained establishments
In 1948 the Magdeburg plant of Kathreiner 's Malzkaffeefabriken , which had been producing under the Röstfein brand since 1954 , was transferred to the Central Consumer Association. The productive department of the Schönheider Konsumverein, which had existed since 1906, mainly produced brushes and paint brushes. After the takeover in 1919 by the Großeinkaufs-Gesellschaft Deutscher Consumvereine mb H. (GEG) , the department relocated its production site to Stützengrün in 1924 . The National Socialists smashed this part of the consumer cooperative.
With the above-mentioned SMAD order, the members or the former workers and employees got the workshops back. They were in 1952 the Association of German consumer cooperatives subordinated and 1956 under the trademark Bürstenmann entered.
The business consultancy Roland Berger initially certified neither the Röstfein Kaffee GmbH nor the Bürstenmann company to be viable . In the 2010s, Röstfein Kaffee GmbH and Bürstenmann GmbH were lighthouses of the economic activity of the Zentralkonsum eG.
Web links
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Founding year 1946 according to the cooperative register GenR No. 441 Nz.
- ↑ Brief information about Andreas Bosse as a board member of Central Consumption , accessed on November 27, 2018.
- ↑ Supervisory and Executive Zek
- ↑ a b c d e Martin Hardt: And Röstfein is still there . In: Neues Deutschland , February 25, 2015.
- ↑ a b Wilhelm Kaltenborn: Appearance and Reality
- ↑ Lang / Weidmüller: Genossenschaftsgesetz: Law concerning the acquisition and economic cooperatives. With explanations on the Transformation Act. Commentary (de Gruyter Commentary) Hardcover - July 20, 2011 , published by de Gruyter Verlag, 2011; ISBN 978-3-11-025061-9 .
- ↑ a b Wilhelm Kaltenborn: Repressed Past
- ↑ witho Holland: The consumer cooperatives in the GDR . In: Marburg Contributions to Cooperatives No. 49
- ↑ Under one roof , economy & market: The 735 million thing .
- ^ Economy & Market: Roland Berger's report: Ad acta