The Hamburg jeweler and watch dealer Hellmut Wempe is dead. The Hanseatic entrepreneur fell asleep peacefully in his hometown of Hamburg on Sunday at the age of 90, the company announced on Thursday. He was a character in his own right and “created something unique with commercial vision, a lot of empathy and a penchant for perfection”. The “Hamburger Abendblatt” had previously reported.
From 1963 to 2003, Hellmut Wempe managed the family business, which was originally founded in Elsfleth on the Weser in 1878. After Hamburg, he opened numerous branches in Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Stuttgart and Munich. Later, Wempe stores followed abroad, for example in New York, Paris, Vienna, London and Madrid. Since 2003, Wempe’s daughter Kim-Eva Wempe has managed the company, which now has 30 branches. (dpa)