Fulfilling your wishes without even having to leave the house? Mail order has been making this possible for around 150 years. After the first companies were able to establish themselves in the late 19th and early 20th century with the mail order business for all kinds of goods – from everyday to specialty items – the industry began to flourish again after the Second World War: First, Neckermann started mail order catalogs again in March 1950, followed by Otto-Versand in September 1950, whose 14-page catalog was printed in a print run of 300 copies.
Today, the mail order business has reached a whole new dimension, mainly due to digitalization: in 2022, sales in the German mail order business alone amounted to 75.4 billion euros.
In the exhibition, visitors can experience the mail order phenomenon as a complex network of players with different roles and perspectives: they offer products, fill the shopping basket, deliver and receive parcels. This creates a multi-layered network of relationships that is characterized by communication and movement between the individual participants.
The exhibition aims to show the processes behind the scenes, illustrate the value and amount of work involved and place the mail order business in the context of our modern (consumer) society. The exhibition, which is being supported by the Otto Group on the occasion of its 75th anniversary, will be accompanied by extensive educational and mediation activities, changing events and a magazine
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