Bendix Hallenstein (c. 24 January 1835 – 6 January 1905) was a German-born

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as indust ...

, statesman, and

manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a ran ...

from

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

, New Zealand. He is best known for founding the retail clothing store

Hallensteins Hallensteins Glassons is a New Zealand fashion company based in Auckland, with stores in New Zealand and Australia. Brands Hallensteins Brothers Hallenstein Brothers (often shortened to Hallensteins) is a men's fashion, street and lifestyle ret ...

, 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

Hallenstein was born in Bisperode,

Duchy of Brunswick The Duchy of Brunswick (german: Herzogtum Braunschweig) was a historical German state. Its capital city, capital was the city of Braunschweig, Brunswick (). It was established as the successor state of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel ...

, part of the

German Confederation The German Confederation (german: Deutscher Bund, ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, w ...

, 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 Lügde is a town in the Lippe district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with c. 9,800 inhabitants (2013). The first written issue of Lügde appears in 784, in the annals of the Frankish Empire, when Charlemagne visited the village during the S ...

. In 1852, at the age of 17, he moved to

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, 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 Alford (pronounced ) is a town in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, at the foot of the Lincolnshire Wolds, which form an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The population was recorded as 3,459 in the 2011 Census and estimat ...

, on 14 February 1861. 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). 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 The Octagon may refer to: *The Octagon, Christchurch, a former church in the central city of Christchurch, New Zealand *The Octagon, Dunedin, the city centre of Dunedin, New Zealand *The Octagon (Egypt), the headquarters of the Egyptian Ministry of ...

selling clothing at wholesale price; the retail clothing chain

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. Hallenstein was the

mayor of Queenstown Borough This is a list of mayors of Queenstown Borough in New Zealand. The mayor was the head of the Queenstown Borough Council. The borough existed from 1866 until 1986, when it merged with the Lake County to form Queenstown-Lakes District Queenstow ...

from 1869 to 1872. He represented the electorate of Wakatipu in Parliament from to 1873, when he resigned. He was appointed German consul for Dunedin in 1892. 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 Charles Orwell Brasch (27 July 1909 – 20 May 1973) was a New Zealand poet, literary editor and arts patron. He was the founding editor of the literary journal ''Landfall'', and through his 20 years of editing the journal, had a significant im ...

was a noted poet, literary editor and arts patron. In 2010, Hallenstein was posthumously inducted into the

New Zealand Business Hall of Fame The New Zealand Business Hall of Fame is a figurative hall of fame dedicated to New Zealanders who have made a significant contribution to the economic and social development of New Zealand. The hall was established in 1994 by the Young Enterpri ...

References

External links

*Gordon Parry
''Hallenstein, Bendix''
In: ''Dictionary of New Zealand Biography''. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage {{DEFAULTSORT:Hallenstein, Bendix 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 Hallenstein family People associated with Otago Museum