Leather industry - Adler & Oppenheimer A.-G.

Isaak Adler, born in 1837 in Obergimpern (Baden) and his brother-in-law Ferdinand Oppenheimer from Kleinhausen (Bergstraße) founded Adler & Oppenheimer OHG Ledergroßhandlung in Straßburg on May 6, 1872. As early as June 10, 1872, they built a leather factory in the Montagne-Vertedie district of Strasbourg. In 1889, two of the founders' children, Friedrich Léon Adler and Julius Oppenheimer, built a new tannery in Lingolsheim, Strasbourg i. Els., in which four of the founders' sons formed the board of directors - Otto and Carl Adler (1872–1957) as well as Clemens and Julius Oppenheimer (1874–1939).The company mainly produced shoe leather and other high-quality leather goods of international renown.In 1910/1911, a new factory for the production of cattle leather („Lederwerke Neustadt in Mecklenburg“) was built in Neustadt-Glewe, and before the end of the First World War, Adler & Oppenheimer acquired a majority shareholding in the Emil Köster AG leather factory in Neumünster.In January 1919, the entire Alsatian property of Adler & Oppenheimer was confiscated by the French military administration. On March 17, 1920, the founding families were deported to Germany. They had to leave France. On March 31, 1920, the company's headquarters were moved to Berlin. Sales branches were established in Frankfurt am Main, Cologne and Pirmasens and leather factories were purchased in the Netherlands and Luxembourg. In the mid-1930s, the first anti-Jewish riots took place against the administration building at the Neustadt plant.Paul Oppenheimer, another son of company founder Ferdinand Oppenheimer, set up a tannery in Littleborough, England, in 1936/1937. In 1946, Paul Oppenheimer himself lived in Littleborough and his brother Clemens Oppenheimer emigrated to Switzerland with his family and lived there until after the war.