Where is Karstadt rescuer Göbel?

In Frankfurt, fashion retailer Aachener wanted to revive the former Karstadt store. Now Aachener is insolvent - and the former managing director is on the run.

He was seen as the savior of the Frankfurt Karstadt branch: Friedrich-Wilhelm Göbel. With his fashion store Aachener, the managing director took over seven locations of the then insolvent department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof in the summer. Until then, the Frankfurt branch belonged to René Benko and his holding company Signa, which has since filed for insolvency. At the time, many of the employees pinned their hopes on Göbel, as he wanted to make everyone a takeover offer "without exception" - and reopen the department store by October. But at the beginning of December, a large part of the building on the Zeil, Frankfurt's largest shopping street, was still empty. In the meantime, Aachener itself is insolvent - and Goebel is on the run from the authorities.

The window panes of the former Karstadt store are still emblazoned with two large advertising posters reading "Autumn 2023 reopening" and "Frankfurt we look forward to seeing you!". But the only constant in the black and white striped building is an independent supermarket for Asian food in the basement. Instead of the "Aachener Department Store", as the new opening should be called, TEH Textilhandel GmbH sells sporting goods on the first floor. Aachener is the TEH brand. It is the limited company behind the fashion store, which has only been in existence since 2022.

What will happen to the Aachener store in Frankfurt after the insolvency application is completely open. The company's press office did not respond to an inquiry from "Capital". The rental agreement runs until the end of 2025. TEH did not answer the question of what the insolvency of TEH means for the employees at the acquired locations such as Frankfurt, nor did it answer the question of whether the company is aware of the whereabouts of its fugitive former managing director Göbel or is in contact with him. At the beginning of November, he last contacted employees in an email. He told the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" that he was sticking to his plans for the Zeil and wanted to open on November 23.

Did not appear at the court hearing

One thing is clear: Göbel is leaving behind a shambles that his successor Oliver Nobel will now have to sweep up. Aachener hoisted him into office at the end of November. After just a few days, Nobel declared the fashion house insolvent on November 24. He wrote to the more than 360 employees in a letter, from which the Handelsblatt quotes: "As things currently stand, there is no longer any guarantee that we will be able to settle due liabilities on time and in full."

Nobel is a lawyer in Frankfurt and specializes in the restructuring of companies. Together with the provisional insolvency administrator Christoph Schulte-Kaubrügger, he now has to maneuver Aachener through the disaster. Nobel knows his way around difficult cases: With his law firm Görg, he advised the insolvent project developer Gerch, among others, and helped with the sale of the Real supermarkets.

Meanwhile, his predecessor Göbel remains in hiding and is wanted by warrant after he failed to appear at a court hearing in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, at the beginning of November. The 60-year-old manager is accused of making false statements about his assets in 2020 and lying in an affidavit. As reported by the Bild newspaper, he allegedly told a bailiff that his income of €8,300 was €1,000 lower than it actually was. In addition, he is said to have denied having signed over a villa in Kitzbühel to his then wife for 4.7 million euros in 2018.

Sentenced in 2017

This is not the first time that Göbel has had a run-in with the law. Because he repeatedly drove without a license, a court first sentenced him to probation and then, according to Bild, to a prison sentence in November 2022 - which Göbel never served. It is also unclear exactly how Göbel spells his name: In the commercial register, he is listed as Friedrich Wilhelm Goebel, but there is also the spelling Friedrich-Wilhelm Göbel.

On December 14 at 11 a.m., he is now summoned to appear before the Dortmund district court in a further trial. The public prosecutor's office is charging him with violating the GmbH Act. Göbel founded TEH Textilhandel GmbH in mid-November 2021 with share capital of 25,000 euros. When registering the company on October 20, he assured the local court that he had not committed any financial misconduct in the last five years. In July 2017, however, he was sentenced to a fine by the Munich district court for deliberately delaying insolvency. It is unlikely that Göbel will appear in Dortmund courtroom 1.103 in mid-December.

For Göbel's business partners, the court case surrounding the ex-Aachen boss is a hanging game: Torsten Altenscheidt, for example, is the managing director of TEH's sole shareholder, ALA Beteiligungs GmbH. It holds all the shares in TEH and therefore in Modehaus Aachener. According to his LinkedIn profile, the manager himself is part of the leading management team at TEH, where he is responsible for the fashion chain's finances as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). In response to an inquiry from "Capital" about the possible outcome and effects of the TEH/Aachener insolvency, Altenscheidt replied that the provisional insolvency proceedings were "not even two weeks old". Therefore, "any speculation about future developments" is out of the question.

"Origin in the private sector"

"However, I can assure you that the management, the provisional insolvency administrator and all TEH employees are doing everything in their power to do justice to the interests of TEH's creditors and all other interested parties" - including suppliers, landlords and employees - "in the best possible way", said Altenscheidt. He did not want to say whether he was in contact with his fugitive business partner Göbel. "The events that currently determine Mr. Göbel's situation have their origins exclusively in the private sphere and date back several years," writes Altenscheidt.

Altenscheidt and Göbel still know each other from their time at the Sinn fashion chain. According to Altenscheidt, he was Commercial Director there from October 2017 to August 2021. He worked as an authorized signatory at the insolvent predecessor company SinnLeffers between 2011 and 2013. Göbel, in turn, had been with SinnLeffers since 2013 and later even took over the insolvent store with his wife Isabella Göbel. However, the couple separated just a few years later. What followed was a marriage feud on a grand scale, as "Manager Magazin" writes.

According to the magazine, Isabella Göbel fired her ex-husband and former CEO Friedrich-Wilhelm in August 2021. CFO Altenscheidt also had to leave. He found out about his dismissal while on vacation. After the Göbels' personal and professional separation, they both claimed the company for themselves. However, it belonged to Isabella Göbel by contract. It was at this time that Friedrich-Wilhelm Göbel and Aachener made plans to set up their own retail chain. According to "Manager Magazin", he poached employees and landlords from Sinn and unsettled business partners. A total of around 2000 employees of the two companies Sinn and Aachener were in danger of becoming "victims of a brutal feud". This could soon include the Frankfurt branch and its employees.

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Rene Benko, the previous owner of the Frankfurt Karstadt branch, is now facing insolvency with his holding company Signa. During the summer, Friedrich-Wilhelm Göbel, who was seen as the savior of the Frankfurt Karstadt branch, took over seven locations of the then insolvent department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof with his fashion store Aachener.

Despite his initial plans to reopen the department store by October, a large part of the building on the Zeil, Frankfurt's largest shopping street, remains empty at the beginning of December. Göbel, who was wanted by the authorities due to his insolvency-related actions, was last heard from in an email in early November, promising to open the department store on November 23.

Source: www.ntv.de