Josef Neckermann

Who was Josef Neckermann?

Josef Carl Peter Neckermann was a German equestrian and Olympic champion. He won Olympic medals at four different Olympics, in 1960, 1964, 1968 and 1972.

He was also the founder and owner of the German mail order company Neckermann AG in 1938.

He benefited greatly from the Nazi forced hostile takeover of Jewish merchants including the 1938 acquisition of Karl Amson Joel's retail business in Berlin. Joel founded a Nuremberg based mail order textile and clothing company in 1928. The following year he also started manufacturing. Joel's company soon became one of the leading mail order sellers in Germany. As discrimination further increased, and Jewish firms became "Aryanized," Joel was forced to sell his company to Neckermann for an unrealistic purchase price in 1938. The original agreement of 2.3 million marks was further reduced by Neckermann to 1.1 million marks. In 1957 Joel got a compensation of 2 million German marks for his former company from Neckermann who ran the most successful German mail order selling company at the time.