Gustav Schickedanz

Gustav Schickedanz

Gustav Abraham Schickedanz (1 January 1895 – 28 March 1977) was a German entrepreneur. He had two daughters, Madeleine Schickedanz and Louise Dedi.

Schickedanz came from a modest background. After attending realschule in his hometown of Fürth, he did a commercial apprenticeship.

In 1919 he married Anna Zehnder.

He registered his first enterprise in 1923 and in 1927 registered the mail order company Quelle, later Europe's largest mail-order house.

On July 15, 1929, his wife Anna and only son Leonhard were killed in an automobile accident in which he was also seriously injured. Only his daughter at the time, Louise, was unharmed.

In 1935 Schickedanz acquired the rights to the Tempo brand and the paper company Vereinigte Papierwerke in Nuremberg of former Jewish property for a very low price (arization). In 1939 Quelle achieved sales of 40 million Reichmarks.

Schickedanz was a member of the National Socialist (Nazi) party and after the war was initially prohibited from carrying on his business by the American occupation authorities. He was later rehabilitated and in 1952 was awarded a "citizen's medal" by the city of Fürth; in 1959 he was made an honorary citizen, the equivalent of being given the keys to the city.

After numerous acquisitions, Quelle's group sales reached 5 billion Deutschmarks by 1972.

Gustav Schickedanz and his wife Grete initiated a number of charitable works for which they received much public recognition.