Gustav Schickedanz

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gustav Abraham Schickedanz
Born 1 January 1895(1895-01-01)
Fürth
Died 28 March 1977 (aged 82)
Fürth
Occupation entrepreneur
Spouse second wife Grete Schickedanz, née Lachner (first wife Anna Schickedanz, née Zehnder)

Gustav Abraham Schickedanz (1 January 189528 March 1977) was a German entrepreneur. He had two daughters, Madeleine Schickedanz and Louise Dedi.

Schickedanz came from a modest background. After attending realschule in his hometown of Fürth, he did a commercial apprenticeship.

In 1919 he married Anna Zehnder.

He registered his first enterprise in 1923 and in 1927 registered the mail order company Quelle, later Europe's largest mail-order house.

On July 15, 1929, his wife Anna and only son Leonhard were killed in an automobile accident in which he was also seriously injured. Only his daughter at the time, Louise, was unharmed.

In 1935 Schickedanz acquired the rights to the Tempo brand and the paper company Vereinigte Papierwerke in Nuremberg. In 1939 Quelle achieved sales of 40 million Reichmarks.

Schickedanz was a member of the National Socialist (Nazi) party and after the war was initially prohibited from carrying on his business by the American occupation authorities. He was later rehabilitated and in 1952 was awarded a "citizen's medal" by the city of Fürth; in 1959 he was made an honorary citizen, the equivalent of being given the keys to the city.

After numerous acquisitions, Quelle's group sales reached 5 billion Deutschmarks by 1972.

Gustav Schickedanz and his wife Grete initiated a number of charitable works for which they received much public recognition.

[edit] Sources

This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding German Wikipedia article as of 2007-01-24.

  • Kewes, Tanja. "Wollen! Wägen! Wagen!", Handelsblatt Nr.65, Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt GmbH, March 31, 2006, p. 10. Retrieved on 2007-01-26. (German) 
  • "Die Zeit" Nr. 24, 5. Juni 2003 Autor: Georg Etscheit (German)
  • "Das kleine Buch vom Taschentuch" von Eugen Roth (German)
  • Artikel in CICERO "Die Weihnachtsfrau" von Thomas Schuler) (German)

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Schickedanz, Gustav Abraham
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH 1895-01-01
PLACE OF BIRTH Fürth
DATE OF DEATH 1977-03-27
PLACE OF DEATH Fürth
Languages