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Adolf Jandorf
Abraham Adolf Jandorf (7 February 1870 in Hengstfeld – 12 January 1932 in Berlin) was a Jewish German businessman, who owned and operated the department store chain A. Jandorf & Co. Through his use of the most modern sales techniques, he rose from humble beginnings to become one of Germany's major merchants. With the Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) in Berlin in 1907, he founded what is today Germany's best-known department store.
Adolf Jandorf came from a poor Jewish family in a small village on the Hohenlohe plain. He was the second of seven children of the farmer, butcher and cattle dealer Josef Bernhard Jandorf (1840-1913) and his wife Rika, née Ansbacher (1843-1899). After an apprenticeship in a small manufacturing business in Bad Mergentheim from 1884 to 1887, in 1890, he went to the USA, to track down his eldest brother whom he found working as a streetcar conductor in New York City. During his self-financed stay, Adolf Jandorf got to know New York's department stores: Steward, Macy's and Bloomingdale's were the most modern department stores of their time.
At the beginning of the 1890s, Jandorf worked in Bremerhaven for the Hamburg textile trading company M. J. Emden Söhne, a trading group that undertook joint purchasing both on its own account and for numerous independent merchants. His "quick [...] perception and easy [...] adaptability in his business decisions" caught the attention of the management, so that in 1892 he was commissioned by the head of the company Jakob Emden to set up a small business in the capital Berlin with an advance of 500 marks. After six weeks, Jandorf had opened his first store at Spittelmarkt, on the corner of Leipziger Strasse, a store selling inexpensive trimmings, haberdashery and woolen goods. Contrary to the agreement, he identified the store on the company sign and stationery as his supposed property, namely as A. Jandorf & Co., Hamburger Engros Lager. Jandorf was able to turn the inevitable conflict with Jakob Emden in his favor with a threat of termination. However, since a cholera epidemic struck Hamburg in the same year, the addition of the name Hamburg had a devastating effect on sales. Faced with such start-up difficulties, Jandorf shortened the company name.
In 1894, he married Margarete Hirschfeld, and the birth of their only child Harry (1896-1981) followed shortly thereafter.
Rising demand soon made larger storage and sales premises necessary, so that Jandorf, against the reservations of Jakob Emden, had a second, larger department store built at the corner of Belle-Alliance-Strasse (today Blücherplatz 3) and Tempelhofer Ufer by architect Fritz Flatow from 1897 to 1898. It had two stories, a representative neo-baroque facade and initially had now 1,500 m2; in 1899, an extension was built on the neighboring property. Jandorf was always to place his other department stores on a strategically well-located street corner. In 1922, he had a third floor added to the building; the five neo-baroque roof extensions and the roof balustrade fell victim to the conversion.
Further branches followed in 1901 at Große Frankfurter Strasse 113 (today Karl-Marx-Allee 68), at the corner of Andreasstraße, and in 1904 at the corner of Brunnenstrasse and Veteranenstrasse. The building in Karl-Marx-Allee was destroyed during the Second World War, and its remains disappeared with the redevelopment of Stalinallee.
The department store on the Weinberg was a five-story steel skeleton building, faced with a clearly structured natural stone facade, and could be flexibly designed inside. The facade is decorated, among other things, with bees as symbols of diligence and with tracery in the Art Nouveau style. The house survived the Second World War undamaged and served in the GDR from 1953 as the Institute for Fashion Design, later House of Fashion.
Jandorf had his sixth house built from 1905 to 1906 in Charlottenburg at Wilmersdorfer Strasse 115, on the corner of Pestalozzistrasse, by the architect Alfred Lesser. At the end of the Second World War it was partially destroyed, Georg Karg of the department store chain Hertie had the department store rebuilt from 1951 to 1955. Further conversions and extensions followed, and today it is home to a Karstadt store.
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Adolf Jandorf
Abraham Adolf Jandorf (7 February 1870 in Hengstfeld – 12 January 1932 in Berlin) was a Jewish German businessman, who owned and operated the department store chain A. Jandorf & Co. Through his use of the most modern sales techniques, he rose from humble beginnings to become one of Germany's major merchants. With the Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) in Berlin in 1907, he founded what is today Germany's best-known department store.
Adolf Jandorf came from a poor Jewish family in a small village on the Hohenlohe plain. He was the second of seven children of the farmer, butcher and cattle dealer Josef Bernhard Jandorf (1840-1913) and his wife Rika, née Ansbacher (1843-1899). After an apprenticeship in a small manufacturing business in Bad Mergentheim from 1884 to 1887, in 1890, he went to the USA, to track down his eldest brother whom he found working as a streetcar conductor in New York City. During his self-financed stay, Adolf Jandorf got to know New York's department stores: Steward, Macy's and Bloomingdale's were the most modern department stores of their time.
At the beginning of the 1890s, Jandorf worked in Bremerhaven for the Hamburg textile trading company M. J. Emden Söhne, a trading group that undertook joint purchasing both on its own account and for numerous independent merchants. His "quick [...] perception and easy [...] adaptability in his business decisions" caught the attention of the management, so that in 1892 he was commissioned by the head of the company Jakob Emden to set up a small business in the capital Berlin with an advance of 500 marks. After six weeks, Jandorf had opened his first store at Spittelmarkt, on the corner of Leipziger Strasse, a store selling inexpensive trimmings, haberdashery and woolen goods. Contrary to the agreement, he identified the store on the company sign and stationery as his supposed property, namely as A. Jandorf & Co., Hamburger Engros Lager. Jandorf was able to turn the inevitable conflict with Jakob Emden in his favor with a threat of termination. However, since a cholera epidemic struck Hamburg in the same year, the addition of the name Hamburg had a devastating effect on sales. Faced with such start-up difficulties, Jandorf shortened the company name.
In 1894, he married Margarete Hirschfeld, and the birth of their only child Harry (1896-1981) followed shortly thereafter.
Rising demand soon made larger storage and sales premises necessary, so that Jandorf, against the reservations of Jakob Emden, had a second, larger department store built at the corner of Belle-Alliance-Strasse (today Blücherplatz 3) and Tempelhofer Ufer by architect Fritz Flatow from 1897 to 1898. It had two stories, a representative neo-baroque facade and initially had now 1,500 m2; in 1899, an extension was built on the neighboring property. Jandorf was always to place his other department stores on a strategically well-located street corner. In 1922, he had a third floor added to the building; the five neo-baroque roof extensions and the roof balustrade fell victim to the conversion.
Further branches followed in 1901 at Große Frankfurter Strasse 113 (today Karl-Marx-Allee 68), at the corner of Andreasstraße, and in 1904 at the corner of Brunnenstrasse and Veteranenstrasse. The building in Karl-Marx-Allee was destroyed during the Second World War, and its remains disappeared with the redevelopment of Stalinallee.
The department store on the Weinberg was a five-story steel skeleton building, faced with a clearly structured natural stone facade, and could be flexibly designed inside. The facade is decorated, among other things, with bees as symbols of diligence and with tracery in the Art Nouveau style. The house survived the Second World War undamaged and served in the GDR from 1953 as the Institute for Fashion Design, later House of Fashion.
Jandorf had his sixth house built from 1905 to 1906 in Charlottenburg at Wilmersdorfer Strasse 115, on the corner of Pestalozzistrasse, by the architect Alfred Lesser. At the end of the Second World War it was partially destroyed, Georg Karg of the department store chain Hertie had the department store rebuilt from 1951 to 1955. Further conversions and extensions followed, and today it is home to a Karstadt store.