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Wilhelm Schmidt-Ruthenbeck

German entrepreneur (1906-1988)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 12, 2025
Entity authorityQ15854542 ↗
Source-derived summary

Wilhelm Schmidt-Ruthenbeck (1906–1988) was a German entrepreneur, the co-founder of the retail chain Metro AG.

Biography

In 1963, Schmidt-Ruthenbeck founded, together with his brother Ernst Schmidt, the German company Metro AG.

Family

Schmidt-Ruthenbeck was married with Vera Ruthenbeck. His children were Michael Schmidt-Ruthenbeck, Rainer Schmidt-Ruthenbeck, and Viola Schmidt-Ruthenbeck.

His father was Karl Schmidt, who founded in 1923 in Duisburg the company Karl Schmidt OGH. In the 1990s his family founded the Stiftung Mercator, the Mercator Schweiz and the Karl Schmidt Family Foundation.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Wilhelm Schmidt-Ruthenbeck” as german entrepreneur (1906-1988). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1906, 1988, 1963, 1923—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1906-01-01. The account is most persuasive where Wilhelm, Schmidt-Ruthenbeck and German can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as german entrepreneur (1906-1988). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 12, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q15854542. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1906, 1988, 1963 and 1923.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Wilhelm Schmidt-Ruthenbeck”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Wilhelm Schmidt-Ruthenbeck primary sources, Wilhelm Schmidt-Ruthenbeck archive and Wilhelm research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Wilhelm Schmidt-Ruthenbeck” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.