[1] After completing his compulsory schooling to grade 12, he entered the family business, which was then known as "Fa.

[2] After his father passed, he became the owner of the company together with his older brother Wilhelm Schmitz (1861–1927).

Tengelmann primarily sold coffee, tea, cocoa, spices, pastries and sweets.

Following this product range, a second coffee roasting plant was opened in Heilbronn in 1900, followed by the Rheinische Zuckerfabrik (Rhenish Sugar Refinery) in Düsseldorf in 1906, and in 1912 the Wissoll chocolate factory started operations in Mülheim-Speldorf.

[3][4] In 1895, Schmitz-Scholl married Elisabeth Franziska Josephine Maria (née Weynen; 1873–1936), having two children; They resided in Mülheim an der Ruhr.