The Handelsorganisation (“Trading Organisation”, or HO) was a national retail

Retail

Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...

 business owned by the central administration of the Soviet Zone of occupation in Germany and from 1949 on by the state of the German Democratic Republic

German Democratic Republic

The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...

. It was created in 1948. The enterprise was arranged into the different departments – industrial goods, food, restaurants and department stores – and operated the large “Centrum” department store

Department store

A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...

s in many cities of the GDR. Its stores stood in competition to those of the konsum cooperative. Nevertheless both were established brands in the everyday life in the GDR. The HO also operated hotels. After the political turmoil in the GDR in the years 1989 and 1990 the business was sold by the Treuhand

Treuhand

The Treuhandanstalt was the agency that privatized the East German enterprises, Volkseigener Betrieb , owned as public property. Created by the Volkskammer on June 17, 1990, it oversaw the restructuring and selling of about 8,500 firms with initially over 4 million employees...

trust.