Gloria Dodenhof has died at the age of 84.
The entrepreneur, who worked in the family business of the same name for more than 50 years, died last week after a short, serious illness, Dodenhof announced on Monday.
Dodenhof joined the company in 1966, a year after her marriage to Hermann Dodenhof, and took over the women’s clothing department alongside her mother-in-law Betty Dodenhof. In particular, she expanded the company’s fashion division and, together with her husband, developed the first center strategies for the headquarters in Posthausen, according to the statement. At the end of the 1970s, the couple finally took responsibility for the entire company.
Over time, the vision of turning the furniture and department store into a comprehensive shopping center matured. In the coming years, Dodenhof’s offering expanded beyond furniture and fashion to also include technology and food. The 1980s were characterized by rapid growth, with successive new buildings, and in 1983 Dodenhof finally became known as the “shopping town that has everything,” according to the statement.
In 1994, Dodenhof attracted attention when “The Fashion House of Superlatives” was realized in Posthausen. This fashion house spanned 20,000 square meters and was one of the largest and most architecturally advanced fashion houses in the country. Within four decades under the Dodenhofs’ leadership, the number of employees rose from 400 to 2,500.
In 2004, after Hermann Dodenhof’s serious illness, Gloria Dodenhof took over management of the company and was appointed chairwoman of both Dodenhof Foundations. Five years later, she handed over responsibility to the fourth generation to devote herself entirely to caring for her husband. Hermann Dodenhof died in 2017.
Two years after her husband’s death and almost two decades after he was honored by the Federal President, Gloria Dodenhof herself received an award in 2019. The district administrator of the Verden district, Peter Bohlmann, awarded her the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon. She was honored for her more than 50 years of entrepreneurial creativity and foresight, for her courage, but also for her social, cultural and church commitment in the Verden district, in the Ottersberg area and especially in the town of Posthausen, but also beyond the region. said the company.
Today Dodenhof is managed by its son Ralph Dodenhof, born in 1973, as the sole managing partner. Gloria and Hermann Dodenhof’s second son, Kai, is also part of the management.