Meininghaus Sohn in the Villa Artis, located in the inner city park “Ruhranlage” in Mülheim an der Ruhr.

On January 1, 1847, a 15-year-old named Wilhelm Schmitz began his commercial apprenticeship there, which later led to his professional career.

Due to its tremendous success, an additional 560 branches were established throughout Germany by the onset of World War I.

In 1912, the Wissoll cocoa and chocolate factory (Wilhelm Schmitz-Scholl) was added in Speldorf, where the group’s headquarters were located until the property was sold to the Viennese real estate developer Soravia.

[4] Since 2011, Lutz Niethammer’s team has been analyzing, using biographical, corporate strategy, and cultural studies approaches, whether and to what extent the company was involved in forced labor, Aryanization, occupation rule, and war profits.

[5] Following the company’s reconstruction after World War II, the first Tengelmann self-service store was opened in Munich in 1953.

In its anniversary year of 1967/68, the company operated over 400 stores, with sales exceeding the billion mark for the first time.

In 1984, the company acquired a majority stake in Hermans Groep in the Netherlands and rebranded its supermarkets and hypermarkets as A&P in 1994.

At the end of the 1980s, Tengelmann expanded its portfolio with the textile and consumer goods discounter Rudis Reste Rampe.

[6] In 1997, the decision was made to concentrate on the food business and all 156 stores were sold to the Berlin-based Wand-&-Boden Group.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, the company also expanded into the former Eastern Bloc by opening Plus stores in Hungary and Poland.

van Netten filed for insolvency on October 18, 2012; after an unsuccessful search for an investor, liquidation followed in June 2013.

In the same year, the Hungarian and Slovenian Interfruct Cash & Carry stores and the Canadian subsidiary of the A&P Tea Company were also sold.

The sale of the Tengelmann stores to Edeka initially failed in August 2015 due to antitrust concerns.

In March 2016, the Federal Minister of Economics Sigmar Gabriel finally approved the sale to Edeka with a ministerial authorization.

[3] In July 2022, the Obi business in Russia with 27 stores at the time was sold to the Russian financial and real estate investor MAX for a symbolic purchase price.

In 2005, this campaign was reprised for the then opposition leader, Angela Merkel (CDU), with the slogan “When in doubt, choose a woman”.

Only the school runs were initiated, as large parts of the senior courses were impassable due to fallen trees or falling branches.

[13] In June 2021, Christian Haub became the majority shareholder of the Tengelmann Group with the purchase of additional shares in the company.

[14] The company has four business divisions (Retail, Venture & Growth, Real Estate and Other) to which the Group subsidiaries are subordinated as follows: Tengelmann holds almost 100 percent of the textile discounter with 4047 stores in twelve countries, a total turnover of 1.8 billion euros and 29,000 employees:[15][circular reference] Tengelmann holds a 74 percent stake in Obi.

[22] Gubi (abbreviation for Gut (Good) and Billig (cheap)), a food chain headquartered in Donauwörth, was founded in 1911 by the Proeller family and became part of the Tengelmann Group in 1987.

The meat plant at the headquarters was attached to the subsidiary Birkenhof (now part of Edeka Südwest), and the in-house nursery and bakery were closed.

The Cartel Office did not give its approval; however, the German Federal Minister of Economics, Sigmar Gabriel, indicated a ministerial permit under strict conditions, which was temporarily stopped by the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf in the summer of 2016.