Book launch on December 5, 2023, Jewish Museum Frankfurt "Persecuted, 'aryanized', made good? How the Hermann Tietz department store group became Hertie"

We would like to thank you for the great interest in the upcoming event. Due to the high demand, we would like to inform you that the event is now fully booked. We regret that we are unable to accept any more participants.

Program:

13:30: Guided tour of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt (please register in advance)

15:00: Reception

3:30 p.m.: Welcome
Julia Sabine Falke, Chairwoman of the Board, Gesellschaft für Unternehmensgeschichte / Dr. h. c. Frank-J. Weise, Chairman of the Board, Gemeinnützige Hertie-Stiftung

15:45: Main lecture
"Persecuted, 'aryanized', made good? How the Hermann Tietz department store group became Hertie"

Speakers: Prof. Dr. Johannes Bähr (Goethe University Frankfurt) / Prof. Dr. Ingo Köhler (Hessisches Wirtschaftsarchiv, Darmstadt)

16:30: Panel discussion
Moderation: Carsten Knop, Editor, FAZ
Participants: inside: Prof. Dr. Johannes Bähr / Prof. Dr. Ingo Köhler /
Dr. Orna von Fürstenberg (Community Council, Jewish Community Frankfurt)

17:30: Farewell drink

18:00: End of the event

About the study

The Hermann Tietz family group was one of the pioneers of the German department store industry at the beginning of the 20th century. After the National Socialist takeover, the Jewish owner family was forced out of the company by a banking consortium and Hermann Tietz became Hertie. For a long time, the troubled past of this major department store brand of the West German economic miracle lay in the dark. In their study, Johannes Bähr and Ingo Köhler shed light on the anti-Semitic agitation against the owners of the Hermann Tietz Group, the Tietz/Zwillenberg family, the "Aryanization" of their company assets and the fate of both families after their ousting from the company. They also investigated the development of the Hertie Group up to the disputes over restitution and compensation in the immediate post-war years. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including previously inaccessible documents, a detailed picture emerges of a department store history caught between persecution, loss and responsibility.

GUG was commissioned to carry out this study in 2020 by the non-profit Hertie Foundation, which was also co-financed and supported by the Karg'sche Familienstiftung. From the outset, the Nazi experts Bähr and Köhler had complete academic freedom and independence in their study.

The study will be available in bookstores from December 6, 2023.

Press Release
The joint press release of the Gesellschaft für Unternehmensgeschichte and the Gemeinnützige Hertie-Stiftung can be found

hier

Press Articles
"Das NS-Regime wollte gegen die jüdischen Warenhäuser vorgehen...". Gespräch mit dem Historiker Ingo Köhler, hr2-kultur, 11.12.2023

Karen Allihn, "Erpresst und ausgeplündert". Studie über Kaufhaus Hertie, FAZ, 7.12.2023

Peter Hoeres, "Wirtschaftsbücher. Hertie im Dritten Reich", FAZ, 14.01.2024

Event notice
On February 29, 2024, a presentation of the book in English will take place at the Enderlein Forum at the Hertie School in Berlin from 6 pm. The event is organized by the Hertie School.

Historical conference on November 8, 2023, Maritimes Hotel Hamburg
Cooperation event of Wintershall Dea AG and the GUG e.V. Topic: DEA under National Socialism

Wintershall Dea and GUG hosted a historical conference in Hamburg to present the interim results of a study on Deutsche Erdöl Aktiengesellschaft (DEA). However, the presentations were not limited to DEA alone, but also dealt with the German oil industry in general.

ANDREA SCHNEIDER-BRAUNBERGER (GUG) and MICHAEL SASSE (Wintershall Dea AG) introduced the event. Taking a micro-perspective approach, MANFRED GRIEGER first spoke about the DEA site in Rositz and emphasized that it owed its creation, growth and development primarily to armaments. RAINER KARLSCH reported on DEA's most important production area, the "Ostmark" (Austria), providing information on the conspiratorial Nazi oil strategy before and after the "Anschluss" and the significance of the Austrian oil fields for DEA's development from a coal to an oil-producing company. KARSTEN LINNE then dealt with the German oil industry and the Nazi economic system using the Kontinental Öl-AG (Konti Öl) as an example, through which an attempt was made to establish a German global corporation in the global oil sector. The last lecture was a joint presentation by CHRISTIAN HELLWIG, RITA SEIDEL and JANA STOKLASA on the oldest oil production area in Celle. The focus here was on topics such as the Nazi connection of workforces, the use of forced labor and research and teaching on mineral oil at the Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

The conference was rounded off by a panel discussion chaired by INGO KÖHLER. Grieger, Hellwig, Sasse and Schneider-Braunberger discussed the history of Wintershall Dea, what lessons can be learned from the history of the oil industry under National Socialism, as well as technical questions about the context of the oil industry in the Nazi system.

You will find a detailed conference report here shortly.

Photos Copyright: Wintershall Dea/Guido Rottmann

Buchvorstellung Die LVM Versicherung im 'Dritten Reich'

Anlässlich ihres 125-jährigen Jubiläums beauftragte die LVM-Versicherung die Gesellschaft für Unternehmensgeschichte, die personelle Aufstellung und die Geschäftsentwicklungen des Versicherungsunternehmens zu Zeiten des NS-Regimes in einer Studie zu beleuchten. In einem digitalen Vortrag am 9. März 2022 stellte Apl. Prof. Dr. Johannes Bähr die Kernergebnisse seiner Untersuchungen „Bauernführer, Direktoren und Vertrauensleute. Die LVM Versicherung im 'Dritten Reich'“ vor, die aufgrund der landwirtschaftlichen Ausrichtung des Unternehmens, seiner damit verbundenen Verankerung im Reichsnährstand sowie der ideologischen Zugehörigkeit seiner Leitungsgremien eine Nähe zum NS-Regime aufzeigen. Apl. Prof. Dr. Bähr kommt zu dem Schluss, dass die LVM Versicherung sich selbst nicht an NS-Verbrechen beteiligte, sondern vielmehr von hohen Zuwächsen in der Mitgliederzahl und den Beitragseinnahmen profitierte. Dennoch müsse sich das Unternehmen seiner historischen Verantwortung, insbesondere hinsichtlich der politischen Belastung seiner Führungspersönlichkeiten, bewusst sein. Anschließend fand eine Diskussion zwischen den Teilnehmenden und den Referenten zu den Ergebnissen und ihrer Bedeutung für das heutige Unternehmen statt, mit abschließenden Worten des Vorstandsvorsitzenden der LVM-Versicherung, Dr. Mathias Kleuker, über die Relevanz der Aufarbeitung der eigenen Vergangenheit.

Link:
Buchvorstellung LVM Versicherung im NS

Impressionen der Tagung 2019

© Wintershall Dea/Bernd Schoelzchen

Die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Goldschmiedekunst in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus

Wintershall im Nationalsozialismus