The "Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kaufmannserholungsheime" (since 1962 "Europäische Gesellschaft für Kur und Erholung") was founded on December 16, 1910 in the offices of Wiesbaden businessman and owner of the textile company "Nassauische Leinenindustrie Joseph Maier Baum", Joseph Baum (1874-1917) in Friedrichstraße. In addition to the entrepreneur Baum, the first chairman of the Kaufmännischer Verein, Heinrich Glücklich (1877-1971), was also a founding member. The impetus for founding the society came from the entrepreneur Joseph Baum's 1910 paper "A social problem of the merchant class".
In it, he dealt in particular with the consequences of advancing industrialization and the situation of the increasing number of employees and small merchants. Joseph Baum wanted to counter the social and health problems caused by the working conditions in trade and industry by offering affordable vacations for small merchants and employees. Recreation in beautiful surroundings was intended to restore their working capacity, which would also benefit the entrepreneurs. Baum's plans were characterized by his vision of an institution encompassing all commercial and industrial businesses, regardless of religious denomination or political conviction. They were to be open to all commercial and technical employees. In 1912, the economist Dr. Georg Goldstein became director of the company, a position he held with great success for the next 20 years until 1933.

In the following years, Joseph Baum initially wanted to establish 20 homes, which were to be financed with the help of bonds, donations from companies and membership fees. The company received numerous plots of land on favorable terms.

In addition to the new buildings in Traunstein and Bad Salzhausen, the "Kaiser Wilhelm Heim" (renamed Joseph-Baum-Haus in 1965) was built in Wiesbaden, the society's third home. The Gesellschaft für Kaufmannserholungsheime succeeded in continuously expanding the number of homes; before the outbreak of the First World War, it owned five homes, by 1919 there were already nine, although various homes were used as military hospitals during the First World War.

In Wiesbaden, the society had owned the "Kölnischer Hof" spa and bathhouse alongside the "Kaiser Wilhelm Heim" since 1919 and purchased a third home in the city, the "Haus am Kurpark", in 1936.

From 1938, the association used the name "Ferienheime für Handel und Industrie e.V.", which had already been used as an additional name in the 1930s. After the war, the association returned to its original name.

Shortly after the National Socialists came to power, the long-serving director Dr. Georg Goldstein was dismissed in the summer of 1933 due to his Jewish background and murdered in Theresienstadt after his deportation from Wiesbaden in 1943. The company was later assigned to the "Strength through Joy" organization. At the beginning of the Second World War, the homes were once again misappropriated and used as military hospitals and refugee accommodation. By 1944, only ten of the 48 facilities were still in operation.

At the end of the war, the company no longer owned even half of its homes; the rest had been destroyed, confiscated or used for other purposes. Only gradually were the company's homes able to reopen, and by 1960 the number of guests had almost returned to pre-war levels at around 30,000. However, in view of the rapid development of mass tourism, fewer and fewer holidaymakers requested places in the recreation homes from the 1960s onwards. Initially, the company decided to modernize a few houses from the proceeds of the sale of unprofitable facilities and to provide special offers. However, it eventually had to sell almost all of its convalescent homes due to financial difficulties. Some of them, such as the Joseph-Baum-Haus in Wiesbaden, are now used as educational institutions. Only the home in Bad Kissingen remained in the company's possession.