{{Short description|New Zealand merchant and politician (1835–1905)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=August 2014}} {{Infobox person |name = Bendix Hallenstein |image = File:Bendix Hallenstein.jpg |caption = |birth_date = c. 24 January 1835 |birth_place = Bisperode, Duchy of Brunswick, Germany |death_date = {{death date and age |1905|01|06|1835|01|df=yes}} |death_place = Dunedin, New Zealand |known_for = Founding Hallenstein Brothers<br> Founding D.I.C. |spouse = {{marriage |Mary Mountain|1861}} |relatives = {{plainlist| *Willi Fels (nephew and son-in-law) *Dora de Beer (grandchild) *Charles Brasch (great-grandson) }} }} '''Bendix Hallenstein''' ({{circa}} 24 January 1835 – 6 January 1905) was a German-born merchant, statesman, and manufacturer from Dunedin, New Zealand. He is best known for founding the retail clothing store Hallensteins, which still bears his name, and is now part of the Hallensteins Glassons group. He also founded the D.I.C. department store in Dunedin in 1884.
==Biography== Hallenstein was born in Bisperode, Duchy of Brunswick, part of the German Confederation, on about 24 January 1835 to Jewish parents Reuben Hallenstein and Helena Michaelis; he was their third and youngest son. His parents owned a wool mill in Lügde. In 1852, at the age of 17, he moved to Manchester, England, where his maternal uncle operated a shipping office.
In 1857 he followed his brothers, Isaac and Michaelis, to Daylesford in the Victorian goldfields, Australia. Each of the three brothers wished to marry their housekeeper, Mary Mountain (1826-1907), but it was ultimately Bendix she chose to marry. They were wed in the Anglican parish church in Alford, Lincolnshire, on 14 February 1861.<ref name="DNZB Hallenstein">{{DNZB |Parry |Gordon |2h6|Hallenstein, Bendix |16 March 2012}}</ref> They had four daughters; Sara (married Willi Fels), Emily (married Isidore de Beer), Henrietta (married James Francis (Frank) Hyams; died 1895 soon after childbirth), and Agnes (married Siegfried Barden). Emily's children, included Esmond and Dora de Beer.
In 1873 he founded the New Zealand Clothing Factory in Dunedin to provide men's clothing for his stores. He opened a store in The Octagon selling clothing at wholesale price; the retail clothing chain Hallensteins still bears his name. He also founded the Drapery and General Importing Company of New Zealand Ltd, later known as the D.I.C., in 1884.<ref name="DNZB Hallenstein"/>
Hallenstein was the mayor of Queenstown Borough from 1869 to 1872.<ref>{{cite web|title=Past Mayors of the QLDC|url=http://www.qldc.govt.nz/past_mayors_of_the_qldc|publisher=Queenstown Lakes District Council|accessdate=22 October 2012|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102032400/http://www.qldc.govt.nz/past_mayors_of_the_qldc|archivedate=2 November 2012|df=dmy-all}}</ref> He represented the electorate of Wakatipu in Parliament from {{By-election link year|Wakatipu|1872}} to 1873, when he resigned.<ref name="Scholefield 1950">{{cite book |last= Scholefield |first= Guy |title= New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1949 |author-link=Guy Scholefield |edition=3rd |orig-date= First ed. published 1913 |year= 1950 |publisher=Govt. Printer |location= Wellington |page=111}}</ref> He was appointed German consul for Dunedin in 1892.<ref name="Star German Consul">{{cite news |title=German Consul |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS18921102.2.21 |accessdate=17 June 2020 |agency=Star |issue=7409 |date=2 November 1892}}</ref>
{{NZ parlbox header|nolist=true|align=center}} {{NZ parlbox |start = {{By-election link year|Wakatipu|1872}} |end = 1873 |term = 5th |electorate = {{NZ electorate link|Wakatipu}} |party = Independent politician }} {{NZ parlbox footer}}
Hallenstein's son-in-law (and nephew) Willi Fels was a prominent philanthropist and arts collector in early Dunedin. Hallenstein's great-grandson Charles Brasch was a noted poet, literary editor and arts patron.
In 2010, Hallenstein was posthumously inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.businesshalloffame.co.nz/past-laureates/ |title=Past laureates |website=Business Hall of Fame |access-date=19 February 2023}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Bendix Hallenstein}} *Gordon Parry, [http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2h6/hallenstein-bendix ''Hallenstein, Bendix'']. In ''Dictionary of New Zealand Biography''. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage
{{s-start}} {{s-par | nz}} {{s-bef | before = Charles Edward Haughton}} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Wakatipu | years=1872–1873}} {{s-aft | after = Vincent Pyke}} {{end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hallenstein, Bendix}} Category:German emigrants to New Zealand Category:Jewish mayors of places in New Zealand Category:Jewish New Zealand politicians Category:Businesspeople from Dunedin Category:Politicians from Dunedin Category:People from the Duchy of Brunswick Category:Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Category:New Zealand MPs for South Island electorates Category:Mayors of Queenstown-Lakes Category:New Zealand people of German-Jewish descent Category:1835 births Category:1905 deaths Category:Burials at Dunedin Southern Cemetery Category:19th-century New Zealand politicians Category:19th-century New Zealand Jews Category:19th-century New Zealand businesspeople Category:20th-century New Zealand Jews Category:Hallenstein family Category:People associated with Otago Museum