Jens Buemann, manufacturer (1851-1913)
Jens Dominicus Buemann was a manufacturer and started his business small, but moved and expanded his business several times, including wholesale sales. He had several branches in Saling and was successful with his business. After his death, the family continued to run the haberdashery business. It later became A&G.
Background
Merchant Jens Dominicus Buemann (August 4, 1851 – October 3, 1913) was the third generation of the Buemann family in Skive. His grandfather, the German tailor Frantz Buemann, came from Aalborg to Skive in 1826, where he established a tailor shop. His father, Hans Buemann, was also a master tailor, but Jens Buemann made the leap to trade. He was trained by haberdasher P.G. Holm in Adelgade 8, where he was employed as a clerk after his apprenticeship. For a couple of years he worked for merchant P. Hjardemål in Viborg, after which he established himself as an independent haberdasher in Skive.
Buemann establishes himself (1876)
On September 5, 1876, Jens Buemann took over Miss Hestbek’s small haberdashery on the corner of Østergade and Nørregade in Skive. “I started in a period in which manufactured goods as a whole were in strong decline; by this fortunate circumstance I immediately became competitive,” wrote Jens Buemann in 1901, “as my entire stock was bought at the lower price, whereas the older shops had considerable stocks from older times, in addition to their new fall goods. My considerable knowledge of the people of the town and the region, as well as the extremely fortunate location of my business, also contributed to the fact that my business very quickly gained ground.”
Relocation and expansion with wholesale (1882)
As early as 1882, Buemann moved his business to the opposite side of the intersection to Olesens Gård on the Østergade/Adelgade corner. He now also started a wholesale department: “Knowing that purchasing goods in large batches directly from manufacturers offers considerable advantages, I began to seek sales to traders as early as 1880, which preparation for a wholesale business was done very cautiously. This branch of the business also progressed steadily and successfully, expanding more and more over the years, so that I now have a considerable clientele among the merchants in a large part of Jutland, which is visited by my traveler 3 times a year,” wrote Jens Buemann in 1901. By 1899, the wholesale department had grown so large that it was given its own premises in Hotel Royal’s building, Østergade 3. From here, en gros customers and the branches that Jens Buemann opened in several places in Salling were served.
Buemann moves to Adelgade and consolidates the business (1906)
In 1906, Jens Buemann bought the Adelgade 6 property from the widow Lundsgaard’s estate. In 1912, he remodeled the property so that he could consolidate his business here. On the ground floor facing Adelgade, a modern shop with large display windows was built, and behind the two-storey front building, a three-storey warehouse was erected.
“Behind the large display windows, whose seasonal novelties in tasteful arrangements provide the city’s women with ideas for the coming season, the large rooms in the living room building extend through the side wings and the large rear building, whose three-storey facade can be seen from the courtyard,” says Skive Avis on November 6, 1917. “If you come in from Adelgade, the ground floor’s mighty area spreads out cozy arranged in separate departments, whether you are looking for something in the crew or small items department or perhaps have an errand in the tableware and linen department. From the mighty fabric racks in the clothing warehouse and in the ladies’ lingerie and knitwear department, ladies can complete their wardrobe with solid, good things, while the men can be supplied from the inside out in the menswear and menswear departments.”
In the basement, there was a carpet and linoleum department and a large bedding store. The entire first floor of the back building was reserved for the ladies’ ready-to-wear department. On the second and third floors there was a grocery store and a modern “electric steam feather cleaner” where “used feathers become like new by being steamed and take up considerably more space” (Advertising booklet 1912).
After Buemann’s death (1913)
After Jens Buemann’s death in 1913, the large business was continued by his son, Aage Buemann, and son-in-law, Holger Worm. In 1959 it was transformed into a limited company called “Magasin Buemann”, and in 1962 it was taken over by his cousins Hans Andersen and Ove Gundtoft, who changed the name to “Magasin A&G”. Hans Andersen’s daughter and son-in-law continue to run the business.
Before his death, Jens Buemann set up a grant of DKK 5,000 to finance the masonry and maintenance of a tomb for the family at Skive Cemetery in 100.
Sources
- Buemann, J.: J. Buemann Skive September 5, 1876-1901 (booklet published on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Buemann’s business).
- J. Buemann, Torvet. Mode-Manufaktur og Herreekviperingsforretning. En gros, en detail, 1912 (advertising booklet).