Store/Shop

In the address book of the trading bodies and factories of the imperial and royal capital and residence city of Vienna, then of several provincial cities for the year 1845, the following entry can be found: Mr. Epstein Lazar, from Prague, under the company name recorded here and in Prague: L. Epstein;  has the defeat of his k. k. privil. The brothers Israel and Ephraim Epstein from Prague laid the foundations for the economic rise of the Epstein family towards the end of the 18th century. They specialized in the printing of cotton fabrics, known as calico printing.

The address book of the city of Munich from 1901 contains the following entry: Degginger & Heß, Holzhandlung, ( owner Benjamin Degginger and Emil Heß ) Comptoir Landsbergerstraße 61, Detail-Lager Landsbergerstraße 82, Engros-Lager Westendstraße 167. - Degginger Benjamin (Degginger & Heß) Merchant, Göthestr.

The following entry can be found in the directory of the committee of Viennese merchants from the year  ???? : 1875 - Schlesinger Heinrich, Commissions- und Agenturgeschäfts - Inhaber, Firma: Schlesinger & Kanitz, VII. Dreilaufergasse 13.

Hirsch Lengel was born in 1873 in the small Galician town of Dąbrowa, which at the time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Around 1897, he married Bertha Lengel, née Lirt, who also came from Dąbrowa. At that time, there was a large Jewish community in the town, but it was very difficult for Jews to earn a living, and after the birth of their fourth child in 1903, the Lengel family decided to leave Dąbrowa.

The Less family's manufactured goods business at Gro en Bäckerstra e 18 was affected by boycott campaigns; in 1941, the family fled into exile in the USA via the USSR   . All of their assets were confiscated by the Gestapo.

In 1906, the family Adolf and Hulda Schickler moved from Nienburg to Lüneburg. They took over the house at Bardowicker Straße 4 from Louis Rosenbaum, who had run a household goods store here. The Schicklers now set up a specialty store for shoes and men's clothing, which soon became a permanent fixture and a very popular place to shop in Lüneburg. The family lived above the store. All the children worked in the shop at times. In 1928, son Harry Schickler took over the business.

In the 1930s, Lüneburg's largest and most modern department store „Gubi“ was located at Markt 6. Henry Jacobson took over the lingerie and trousseau shop from his father and converted it into the small price store Gubi (good and cheap) in 1932. The department store offered all the everyday necessities: from clothing and stationery to food. At the time, it was very unusual for the goods to be displayed freely and for customers to be able to put together their own purchases using rulers. There was a snack bar on the second floor.