999 - Miscellaneous - Judaica - 75th Anniversary of the Siegmund Strauß Jr. Company. Private photo album documenting the history of the Jewish wholesale business "Spitzenstrauß." Contains 132 mounted original photographs (77 rectangular portraits and views, 55 medallion portraits). Bromide prints. Vintage, some based on older originals. Frankfurt am Main, 1921. 28 single-sided cardboard pages, the first containing a handwritten company chronicle from 1846 to 1921. Rectangular formats predominantly 10.5 x 8 cm to 23 x 17 cm; medallions approx. 8 x 6 cm. All mounted on black paper and labeled on the cardboard with black pen in Fraktur script. 52.5 x 41 cm (weight 10.5 kg). Contemporary leather binding; front cover with a wide border and the report period embossed in gold (heavily scuffed and bumped; front joint split; head letters worn off).

Miscellaneous - Judaica - 75th Anniversary of the Siegmund Strauß Jr. Company. Private photo album documenting the history of the Jewish wholesale business "Spitzenstrauß." Contains 132 mounted original photographs (77 rectangular portraits and views, 55 medallion portraits). Bromide prints. Vintage, some based on older originals. Frankfurt am Main, 1921. 28 single-sided cardboard pages, the first containing a handwritten company chronicle from 1846 to 1921. Rectangular formats predominantly 10.5 x 8 cm to 23 x 17 cm; medallions approx. 8 x 6 cm. All mounted on black paper and labeled on the cardboard with black pen in Fraktur script. 52.5 x 41 cm (weight 10.5 kg). Contemporary leather binding; front cover with a wide border and the report period embossed in gold (heavily scuffed and bumped; front joint split; head letters worn off). Presumably a unique record of the lace and tulle department store founded in 1846 by Herz Strauß on Schnurgasse in Frankfurt, which, under its successors and various partners (including Joseph Oppenheimer), developed into a company operating throughout Europe and worldwide. In 1913, the company moved into a monumental neoclassical building at Börsenstraße 2–4. The business was dissolved by the Nazis; the building was repurposed as the “Adolf Hitler House” for the Hessen-Nassau Gau leadership; and the builder, Siegmund Strauß, was murdered in Theresienstadt in 1942. - The album begins with photographs of two founding announcements from 1846, as well as a drawn view of the original store. These are followed by 9 large-format portraits of Herz Strauß (based on a painting) and subsequent owners, 13 smaller portraits of authorized signatories and senior executives in Frankfurt, Berlin, Milan, Plauen, and Calais, then 55 medallions and 6 large group portraits of representatives, sales travelers, and staff in Germany, as well as throughout Europe and the world (two of the supporting documents here are unaccounted for). Next, the company headquarters are documented: in Frankfurt’s Schnurgasse, Roßmarkt, and Töpfergasse based on prints, as well as 3 exterior views of the new building. The new building is also presented in detail through a total of 27 interior views of the offices and workspaces, followed by 6 photographs of the Berlin and Danzig branches. The album concludes with large images of trade show booths in Frankfurt, Leipzig, and Breslau (for the latter, the caption is only sketched in pencil). - The names of those responsible for the album are recorded on the back endpaper: editor L. A. Lowenick, photographer H. A. Franck, graphic designer E. Mühlbach, bookbinder E. Ludwig. - Covers heavily stained with dust and mold spots; photographs are in good condition.