Butcher store of the Friedmann family

In September 1892, Hermann Friedmann and his wife Clara opened a store for butcher's supplies in Jena's Grietgasse with an associated wholesale gut and fur business. Subsequently, the family business developed into a successful company that was also active internationally. The Friedmanns were strongly involved in the "Israelite Religious Community" of Jena. The premises of their store also functioned as a place of Jewish life. After Jewish athletes were increasingly excluded from public sports activities in Jena during the first years of National Socialist rule, Arthur Friedmann, the son of the couple and a partner in the company since 1915, founded a group of the Sportbund Schild.  Due to the lack of accessible premises for the self-managed Jewish sports group, Arthur made the rear premises of the family business available for sports activities such as table tennis and events.

Like all businesses run by Jewish Germans, the Friedmann family business was threatened with "Aryanization." Attempts to prevent this failed. So the Friedmanns had to forcibly sell their business in December 1938 to a Jena family for less than half of its actual value.