Station: [254] The Schocken Company

The opening of the Ury Bros department store in Zwickau in 1901 is regarded as the beginning of the Schocken Company.  Like many other department store owners the Ury brothers came from the province of Posen and they adhered to a successful business strategy that the Schocken Company was to adopt. The central focal point was customer friendliness. Unrestricted rights to goods exchange, extensive goodwill, a large selection of goods, quality goods, reasonable and set prices, as well as cash sales accompanied this.  Apart from that the Urys put product advertisement announcements in newspapers that were partly based on scientific research. 

Simon Schocken was the first manager of the Ury Bros department store. In the same year he got his younger brother Salman to move to Zwickau.  The success in Zwickau lead to Salman opening his own store in Oelsnitz in 1904 under the name of „Schocken Department Store.“  In 1906 Simon Schocken took over the Zwickau department store and in as early as 1907 the Schocken brothers founded I. Schocken and Sons named after their father, Isaak, with a purchasing centre to deliver goods to the department stores.

In December 1921, the Schocken Company was turned into a limited commercial partnership based on shares. This step was necessary in order to counteract the deteriorating German economy with contingencies and inflation. This was the only way the company could bolster its financial resources.

Further companies such as Schocken Publishing, or Delicatessen and Foodstuffs Ltd were founded. The organization chart to the bottom left shows you the Schocken Corporation business structure in 1934.

On October 24th 1929, when building in Chemnitz was in full swing the company suffered a terrible loss. Simon Schocken, who had not only played an important role as businessman, but also as building contractor and parish leader, died as the result of a car crash.