History
Established in 1836
Everything began with Leopold Jungmann’s establishment of a textile business in 1836. His son Wihelm Jungmann, who was born in St. Georgen near Preßburg (today Bratislava in Slovakia), and Wilhelm Steiner established in 1866 a company selling haberdasheries and accessories called Jungmann & Steiner located at Rudolfsplatz 1 in Vienna. From the year 1869 Wilhelm Jungmann operated alone and switched from trading tailoring goods to selling wool, silk and other luxury fabrics. In 1873 Wilhelm Jungmann and his nephew Wilhelm Dukes founded the company Wilhelm Jungmann & Neffe, as it is still known today.
Albrechtsplatz since 1881
Business went so well that Wilhelm Jungmann & Neffe was able to move to the prestigious Albrechtsplatz 3 in 1881. In the same year Wilhelm Jungmann & Neffe was awarded the title of an Imperial and Royal Purveyor to the Austrian Court. Jungmann and Dukes commissioned Otto Hieser to design their new business premises in the style of historicism. Today Wilhelm Jungmann & Neffe is one of the few originally preserved shops of the 19th century.
The golden years
The location was perfectly chosen - being near to the Court was important in order to react to fashionable trends quickly. At the same time the neighbouring Hotel Sacher evolved into an unofficial meeting place of the aristocracy. The company flourished during the next 30 years. Wilhelm Jungmann & Neffe equipped the entire aristocracy and the upper middle class of the Monarchy from Vienna and Prague to Lemberg and Czernowitz with elegant fashion.
Famous clients
The company's archive holds the records of the glamorous clients in the 19th and 20th century. There you can find for instance the Empress Elisabeth, Marie Countess Larisch-Wallersee, Sophie Countess Chotek, Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria, Baroness Mary Vetsera, Crown Princess Stephanie of Austria, Queen Maria Pia of Portugal, Princess Pauline Metternich and the German Empress Auguste Viktoria. In addition to the aristocracy, many women from the world of finance and industry were among the customers, including the families Ephrussi, Rothschild, Mautner-Markhof and Ringhoffer.
Wartime
As a result of the World War I and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, large parts of the company's clientele was either impoverished or now lived abroad. The broad market that once had to be satisfied no longer existed. Wilhelm Dukes switched from women's to men's fabrics and gave up tailoring, furring and fashioning.
In 1938, Wilhelm Dukes died at the age of 90 having been in business for over 60 years. He was succeeded in the company by his two sons Paul Stephan and Leo. Leo Dukes emigrated to Bogotá in April 1939, Paul Stephan stayed in Vienna and tried to continue the business. He managed to avoid persecution by the Nazi regime through false papers. While looking for a new partner, he came across the fraudster and impostor Hans Sobotka, who joined the company as a partner. The result was devastating, and in less than a year Jungmann & Neffe was in deep debt and insolvent. Paul Stephan Dukes committed suicide on October 23, 1940, leaving his wife and three children with a business without perspective.
Takeover by the Suchy family
Hans Sobotka sold his shares on January 13, 1942 to Walter Suchy, who also purchased the shares of the Dukes family in the same year. He led the faltering company with his wife through the bombing nights of World War II. Although the State Opera and the nearby Philipphof were badly hit, the house on Albertinaplatz was not damaged. Walter Suchy operated the company until his death in 1957 and was followed by his daughter Margit Suchy-Gozdecki. After her death in 1977, her daughter Magda Gaugusch-Neunteufel took over. She included silk accessories such as ties, shawls and scarves in the assortment. Since her death in 2006, Jungmann & Neffe is the hands of her children Georg Gaugusch and Andrea Christoph-Gaugusch.
Present and future
Georg Gaugusch has been running the company since 2005, helping to ensure that the tradition of the oldest Viennese fabric shop is continued as a family business.
The detailed company history can be found in the book "Buy from Jews! History of a Viennese Business Culture" for the exhibition of the same name in the Jewish Museum Vienna in 2017 and is available here.