Bendix Hallenstein
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use New Zealand English Script error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Template:Main otherScript error: No such module "Check for clobbered parameters".Template:Wikidata image Bendix Hallenstein (Template:Circa 24 January 1835 – 6 January 1905) was a German-born Jewish merchant, statesman, and manufacturer from Dunedin, New Zealand. He is best known for founding the retail clothing store Hallensteins, which still bears his name, and is now part of the Hallensteins Glassons group. He also founded the D.I.C. department store in Dunedin in 1884.
Biography
Template:NZ parlbox header Template:NZ parlbox Template:NZ parlbox footer Hallenstein was born in Bisperode, Duchy of Brunswick, part of the German Confederation, on about 24 January 1835 to Reuben Hallenstein and Helena Michaelis; he was their third and youngest son. His parents owned a wool mill in Lügde. In 1852, at the age of 17, he moved to Manchester, England, where his maternal uncle operated a shipping office.
In 1857 he followed his brothers, Isaac and Michaelis, to Daylesford in the Victorian goldfields, Australia. Each of the three brothers wished to marry their housekeeper, Mary Mountain (1826-1907), but it was ultimately Bendix she chose to marry. They were wed in the Anglican parish church in Alford, Lincolnshire, on 14 February 1861.[1] They had four daughters; Sara (married Willi Fels), Emily (married Isidore de Beer), Henrietta (married James Francis (Frank) Hyams; died 1895 soon after childbirth), and Agnes (married Siegfried Barden). Emily's children, included Esmond and Dora de Beer.
In 1873 he founded the New Zealand Clothing Factory in Dunedin to provide men's clothing for his stores. He opened a store in The Octagon selling clothing at wholesale price; the retail clothing chain Hallensteins still bears his name. He also founded the Drapery and General Importing Company of New Zealand Ltd, later known as the D.I.C., in 1884.[1]
Hallenstein was the mayor of Queenstown Borough from 1869 to 1872.[2] He represented the electorate of Wakatipu in Parliament from Template:By-election link year to 1873, when he resigned.[3] He was appointed German consul for Dunedin in 1892.[4]
Hallenstein's son-in-law (and nephew) Willi Fels was a prominent philanthropist and arts collector in early Dunedin. Hallenstein's great-grandson Charles Brasch was a noted poet, literary editor and arts patron.
In 2010, Hallenstein was posthumously inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame.[5]
References
Template:Sister project Template:Reflist
External links
- Gordon Parry: Hallenstein, Bendix. In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Pages with script errors
- German emigrants to New Zealand
- Jewish mayors
- Jewish New Zealand politicians
- Businesspeople from Dunedin
- Politicians from Dunedin
- People from the Duchy of Brunswick
- Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives
- New Zealand MPs for South Island electorates
- Mayors of Queenstown-Lakes
- New Zealand people of German-Jewish descent
- 1835 births
- 1905 deaths
- Burials at Dunedin Southern Cemetery
- 19th-century New Zealand politicians
- 19th-century New Zealand Jews
- 19th-century New Zealand businesspeople
- 20th-century New Zealand Jews
- Hallenstein family
- People associated with Otago Museum