Bernhard (Boruch) Schiffmann

Boruch Szifmann was born in Mielnica in Galicia [today in Ukraine] as the legitimate son of the merchant Josef Szifmann and his wife Perl, née Birkenfeld. He is the third of the four sons of the Jewish Szifmann family. He had two older brothers, Mayer and Hersch, and a younger brother, Mechel.

Nothing has survived about Boruch Szifmann's childhood and youth. In 1905, he and his three brothers moved to Vienna. Boruch Szifmann changes his name to Bernhard Schiffmann, Mayer Szifmann to Max Schiffmann, Hersch Szifmann to Hermann Schiffmann and Mechel Szifmann to Michael Schiffmann. They open the men's, women's and children's clothing department store 'Brüder Schiffmann' at Taborstraße 44 in Vienna's 2nd district, with Max Schiffmann taking on the role of senior manager as the eldest brother.

The department store expands steadily using modern US-American management and marketing methods (employee motivation through appreciation and good pay, as well as affordable products). Subsequently, the brothers were able to acquire the property at Taborstraße 44 and further properties in Starhemberggasse in Vienna's 4th district, Neubaugasse in Vienna's 7th district, Hernalser Gürtel in Vienna's 17th district and Wallensteinstraße in Vienna's 20th district. In 1926, the department store was one of the largest department stores in Vienna.

Max Schiffmann became president and later honorary president of the Jewish soccer club 'Hakoah' and was elected to the board of the Jewish Community of Vienna in 1934 as a representative of the Zionist List. While Max Schiffmann and his brothers were initially still social democrats, their political views changed and they moved closer to the Christian Social Party (CSP) under Engelbert Dollfuss. The decisive rejection of National Socialism by the chairman of the Christian Social Party (CSP) probably did the rest to make the Schiffmann brothers definitive supporters of the party. Both during the socialist uprisings in February 1934 and during the National Socialist coup attempt on July 25, 1934, in which Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was murdered, the Schiffmann brothers made the company's own motor vehicles available to the Vienna Home Guard for intelligence services and prisoner transports. The brothers also support the newly founded Vaterländische Front financially. Bernhard Schiffmann joins the Vaterländische Front.