Economic Pioneer of the Post-War Period

Helmut Horten, born on 8 January 1909 in Bonn on Rhine, founded the Helmut Horten Foundation. He was one of the entrepreneurs who triggered Germany's post-war economic boom. The Horten department store group was established in the fifties and expansion was achieved by enlarging the Horten group and acquiring other department stores. Encouraged by the example of American consumption, Helmut Horten opened the first supermarket in Germany in the late fifties. The success of this venture was outstanding. When Horten's department store group reached an annual turnover of one billion Euro and had over 25'000 employees, he decided to convert the group into a joint-stock company in 1968. He believed that such a large enterprise should not depend on a single leader. This move provided the conditions needed to maintain the group under joint-leadership.