C & A property (Wijde Burgstraat)

Sneek is the first place of business of clothing group C&A. In 1841 Clemens & August Brenninkmeijer opened their first cloth store in Sneek. In doing so they laid the foundation for a company that would grow into the international clothing group C&A. Their first store was the building on Oosterdijk 7 in Sneek. The building on Wijde Burgstraat was originally built for the firm Stockmand (architect N. Molenaar, 1901) in neo-Renaissance architectural style and was purchased by the Brenninkmeijer family in 1940.

Under the bay window of the C&A awning you can see a Star of David referring to the Jewish synagogue that was located next to the C&A building, but was destroyed in WWII. To the right in front of the adjacent building is also a Star of David monument that also refers to this.

History C&A
In 1841 two textile craftsmen (also called todden or tuötten) from Mettingen in Westphalia, the brothers Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer, opened a textile warehouse in Sneek (the Netherlands) so that they did not have to travel as often to Westphalia (Germany) to collect fabrics. In the same year, 1841, the brothers started a ready-to-wear clothing store in the same town. Success did not take long to come. From 1900 to 1911, numerous C&A stores flourished throughout the Netherlands. Then things moved very quickly: from 1911 the first C&As opened in Germany; in 1922 they were introduced in Great Britain; then European expansion continued, reaching Belgium in 1963, France in 1972, Switzerland in 1977, Luxembourg in 1982, Spain in 1983, Austria in 1984, Portugal in 1991, Ireland and the Czech Republic in 1999, Poland in 2001, Hungary in 2002, Russia in 2005 and Turkey in 2009. (source wikipedia).