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Hamburg In Paris the students stand on the barricades, in Berlin the commune I test the free love. "Should the revolution stop?" Title the "star" in Hamburg. It is the year 1968, commonly called the time of the great rebellion.
In Bramfeld in the north-east of Hamburg, a few kilometers from the "Stern" editorial office, the Otto catalog paints a very different picture of this supposedly wild year. "She and she, send the cleaning of the house", is above the double page, on the aprons of the children are rented (for that) and the "Kittelkleid in the insensitive color in the coarse poplin" (for her)
do. "The right clothes, the successful men" is written on the pages of the men's suits. In addition, a blonde leans admirably on her correct and successful man. Or is he supposed to be his boss? After all, #MeToo knew only the hashtag in 1968, and still called it "rhombus"
Almost exactly 50 years later, this week's Monday, the Otto Group announced for the last time on December 4 2018 the main catalog of The trading house should appear. Otto call centers then record a slightly higher volume of calls from worried customers
However, in terms of the business economy, Otto 's catalog with its 52,000 employees and its business turnover of 13.65 billion euros is all at most insignificant. Even the subsidiary Otto GmbH & Co. KG, in which the mail-order business is grouped together in Germany, accounts for significantly less than 5% of its turnover. Most of them come because customers enter the order numbers from the online catalog at Otto.de.
The distribution of the catalog, which at twelve million copies was at weddings, is only a fraction of that. After Michael Otto, founding father, chairman of the supervisory board and today's family's grandfather, declares the catalog announced by his leaders with a terse "you'll know what you're doing", he does not remained nothing for the victory of electronic progress Weg.
Almost as old as the Federal Republic itself
At the same time, a catalog of German parallel historiography ends with the catalog. The Otto catalog is almost as old as the Federal Republic, 1950 was his first expenditure. 300 copies, hand-cut photos, unique product category: 28 pairs of shoes. Since then, the catalog has painted twice a year a pure and simple image of German consumerism. What goes into the Otto badortment and with which images and slogans are advertised obeys the simple rule of the trader: he has to sell himself.
In the mirror of this catalog, the year 1968 no longer looks like to a revolution, but rather to a restoration. Gladly ordered at this time: signet rings, table lighters and the playful miniature stage coach, which contains a whiskey carafe with two glbades and music box.At the request of the Handelsblatt Otto took a trolley with folders with six-decade catalogs of the archives and the Otto. Move the head office to a "social space" called "Berg_Huette". You have to imagine under a flat mix of cafeteria and meeting area. Even the combination of missing umlauts and underscores should bring out that the era of printed paper has left Otto so far behind. Ironically, in this new work environment, there is now a cubic meter of paper-consuming history around as a voluminous relic. 60 years of undisguised vision of what was really important for the citizens, what they wanted to buy and how they wanted to live.
The animals were also for sale in the catalog
In 1972, Willy Brandt became chancellor his way then still in the Otto catalog. Suddenly they are there, T-shirts with Jimi Hendrix or "Make Love, Not War". The men who present them now wear long favorites with broad pines and act as KGB agents in a James Bond movie starring Roger Moore.
On page 520, there are "sweet ponies buzzing" to buy, "undemanding" and very fond of children ", for 745 marks, only advance payment plus shipping costs. Purchase of about 89 centimeters, "completely grown-up, the small animal measures about 120 cm".
Women, who present a few pages of tights, suddenly have nothing more about 1972 – with richly draped hair or slanted arms, the bads cover.The first underpants and bras are now broken at crucial points, which the catalog text describes as "Charmeuse with Spitzenplain on the front" and costs 4.90 DM
At this point, we must address a delicate subject: at the news of the release of the catalog, a small debate on an important secondary function, that the Otto catalog has obviously realized for many teenagers of the baby boom generation , it's developed in social networks "The underwear pages have lit up entire generations," writes author Max Scharnigg on Twitter after the recruitment decision. A small survey of colleagues and acquaintances seems to confirm Scharnigg's thesis:
"Of course, in the country we had nothing else."
"Internet just did not exist."
"I do not know, but my brother, who has …"
Marc Opelt can not resist a smile at this point: "Let's leave in the formulation that the Otto catalog has also fulfilled an enlightening function. "The CEO of Otto GmbH and Co KG, trousers by Carrhart, no tie, began in 1990 after graduating from Otto. It was the marriage of the mail order catalog. Amazon was then nothing but the English word for a river in South America and Jeff Bezos an unknown bank employee in New York. A triumvirate of Otto, Neckermann and Quelle dominates the mail order sector in Germany and faces fierce competition. The informants in the press praised the prices in the new catalogs of the competition, and those who could release their own pressure and adjust the prices quickly.
The Otto's Hochamt at this time: the "Rücktitelmusterung". The board of directors, still under the direction of Michael Otto, was busy designing the catalog's particularly strong sales and deliberated on the fact that the washing machine or stereo offered was not moved a little to the left or to the right. When the new catalog was on the outside, the company's Otto balloon was cataloged during a tour in Germany
The Otto catalog ticked in time
"In the past, the whole business coincided every six months. "And today, I do not even remember the last time I thought of the catalog." In the old catalogs, Opel impresses first and foremost "These endless pages with polyester suits, and every second male model has a cigarette in his hand"
Opelt leaves no doubt that the future is more important to him than the past. USM's buffet in the Opel office, the slogan "Otto – we make the digital future" is displayed all over the wall.Of among them is the book "The Innovator's # 39; s Solution ", in which management guru Clayton Christensen describes how traditional businesses can reinventing itself
Even at Otto's, digitization did not go perfectly well. Some things could have gone faster, maybe Jeff Bezos with Amazon would not have become the new leader in the mail order market, at least in Germany. But at least: from the old triumvirate of Otto, Quelle and Neckermann, only the family group of Hamburg-Bramfeld remained. Otto 's business today is largely digital, growing and profitable. From the original dilemma of the innovator, the fatal trend of companies long established to long-time retain the traditional business model, Otto has actually made an innovative solution, a combination of old and new work.
But even if the mind is already moving in the future, the heart may cling to the past. The car with the catalogs in the "Social Space Berg_Huette" attracts at least a little attention. An elderly employee cautiously looks at the 1982 catalog: "Shortly after, we introduced the sale via BTX, and then I thought, in five years we will not need a catalog anymore. printed, it's all about television. "
In 1982, in Bonn, Helmut Kohl conquered the Chancellery. And in the Otto catalog suddenly all men look like Kohl Intimus Horst Teltschik: hairstyles, aviator sunglbades, epaulettes. In the unfolded briefcase ("Echt Leder", 79 DM) is a decoration of a number of "Capital". Later in the catalog, bearded bearded men, Jürgen Hingsen, wearing naked and tanned bodies, train on the first machines of bodybuilding. Finally, Otto advocates payment in installments: "In any case, the annual rate is only 12%."
The catalog hardly needs to shop
And again, an employee Otto stands next to the documentary: yes the catalog with the boatman at the top. That's exactly what I wanted to look like at that moment. "
The era of the 1980's epaulette was followed by the great era of the models. Otto now has his own photo productions for his catalogs with the big names." Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford, Ellen MacPherson, later Heidi Klum and Toni Garrn ": Marco Schubert still knows the list of Otto title models by heart Even as a child, Schubert preferred to order his first pencils from Otto instead of buying them at the stationery store located at the corner of the street. "Otto, it was a big world," says the graphic designer
Theme: E-Commerce
Schubert, smartwatch for suede shoes, is now responsible for the Otto brand management and has long been responsible for the production of the main catalog: "Each page had to meet strict sales objectives, because the space in the catalog was our rarest resource." As a result, Schubert was always urs the question: "How many products can I put on a page? How accurately can I describe the product? "Considerations become superfluous in the unlimited spaces of the Internet
There are still some thoughts on how to celebrate the end of the catalog with a very special final edition – or if that does not happen more useful. Almost no one needs the catalog for shopping. But who, in 50 years, is looking for a time capsule, which has captivated the will of the Germans to live in 2018, should pull out the latest Otto catalog.
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