The Handelsorganisation (“Trading Organisation”, or HO) was a national

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...

business owned by the central administration of the

Soviet Zone of occupation in Germany The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...

and from 1949 on by the state of the

German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

. It was created in 1948. The enterprise was arranged into different departments – industrial goods, food, restaurants and department stores – and operated the large “Centrum”

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

s in many cities of the GDR. Its stores stood in competition to those of the Konsum cooperative. Nevertheless, both were established brands in the everyday life in the GDR. The HO also operated hotels. After the political turmoil in the GDR in the years 1989 and 1990 the business was sold by the

Treuhand The (, " Trust agency"), colloquially referred to as , was an agency established by the government of the German Democratic Republic to reprivatise/ privatise East German enterprises, Volkseigene Betriebe (VEBs), prior to German reunification. ...

trust.

References

Organisations based in East Germany Economy of East Germany East Germany–Soviet Union relations Retail companies of the Soviet Union 1948 establishments in Germany Retail companies established in 1948 1990 disestablishments in East Germany Retail companies disestablished in 1990 Companies of East Germany {{Germany-company-stub

See also

References