Metadata: Groupe GIB - Grand bazar - Innovation - Bon Marché
Collection
- Country:
- Belgium
- Holding institution:
- Archives of the Université Libre de Bruxelles
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archives de l’Université Libre de Bruxelles
- Postal address:
- Campus du Solbosch AX1.222, Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 50 / Franklin Rooseveltlaan 50, 1000 Bruxelles
- Phone number:
- +32 02/650.35.66
- Email:
- archives@ulb.ac.be
- Reference number:
- ArUnLib-Brussels-025Z
- Title:
- Groupe GIB - Grand bazar - Innovation - Bon Marché
- Title (official language):
- Groupe GIB - Grand bazar - Innovation - Bon Marché
- Creator/accumulator:
- À l’Innovation
- Date(s):
- 1934/1976
- Extent:
- ca. 120 linear metres
- Scope and content:
- This fonds contains material such as minutes of the meetings of the board of administrators, reports, balance sheets, bookkeeping records, notes, stocks and shares, memos, biographical notes, personnel files, various documentation files, photographies and publications concerning the retail sector. We notably point out the files no. AAC/001/U/52 (incl. balance sheets and general summaries of the inventory of merchandise of Bon Marché, ca. 1878-1890); no. AAC/002/E/53, AAC/002/U/54, AAC/002/E/55, AAC/002/U/56 and AAC/002/E/57 (balance sheets of Innovation, respectively dated 1959-1963, 1920-1939, 1961-1967, 1940-1952 and 1952-1958); no. AAL/001/E/77 (minutes of the meetings of the steering committee of Bon Marché, 1965-1969); as well as other series and documents such as meetings of the general assemblies of the SA des grands magasins au Bon Marché and SARMA, various bookkeeping records of Bon Marché and Innovation, minutes of the college of commissioners of the SA des grands magasins au Bon Marché, monographs, articles and speeches of Émile Bernheim; publicity catalogues of Bon Marché, etc.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The department store À l’Innovation opened its doors in 1897 in the rue Neuve in Brussels, in a building that would later be expanded by Victor Horta and become one of the masterpieces of Art Nouveau in the city. Julien Bernheim (1853-1925), a merchant from Mulhouse, had created this store specialised in the sale of hosiery, silk, haberdashery and ribbons (rubans). Émile Bernheim (1886-1985) worked with his father in this business which, by 1911, employed almost 2000 people over six branches in Belgium. In the aftermath of the First World War, the Bernheims took over their neighbour and former rival Leonhard Tietz, now placed under sequester. The business was converted into a limited company (société anonyme) in October 1919. The company, inspired by American sales techniques and methods, was highly successful. Émile Bernheim was forced to resign as a director during the Second World War, as well as five other members of the board, who also were of Jewish origin. Bernheim was able to recover his property after the conflict. In 1967 the headquarters of the store was destroyed in a terrible fire. Two years later, the business merged with Le Bon Marché to form the group Inno-BM, headed by Émile Bernheim. In 1974, Inno-BM fused with GB Entreprises, resulting in the Groupe GIB. (J.-P. Schreiber & E. Wulliger, « Bernheim Julien ; Bernheim Emile ", in J.-P. Schreiber, Dictionnaire biographique des Juifs de Belgique. Figures du judaïsme belge, XIXe-XXe siècles, Bruxelles, de Boeck, 2002, pp. 51-52 ; S. Jaumain, « Bernheim Julien ", in G. Kurgan (ed.), Dictionnaire des Patrons du XXè siècle en Belgique, Bruxelles, De Boeck & Larcier, 1996, pp. 47-49 ; M. Jacquemin, C. Six & C. Vancoppenolle, Guide des Archives d’Associations professionnelles et d’entreprises en région bruxelloise, Guides/Gidsen no. 51, vol. 2, Bruxelles, ARA-AGR, 2001, pp. 554-558.)
- Access points: persons/families:
- Bernheim, Émile
- Finding aids:
- There is a typed, unpublished inventory: I. Sirjacobs, G.I.B. Inventaire, Bruxelles, 1998.
- Yerusha Network member:
- State Archives of Belgium
