
Hermann Tietz (born 29 April 1837, in Birnbaum an der Warthe near
Posen (today
Międzychód
Międzychód (, ) is a town in Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland, the administrative seat of Międzychód County. It is located on the southern shore of the Warta river, about west of Poznań. Population is 10,844 (2010).
History
The town w ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
), died on 3 May 1907 in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
) was a German-Jewish merchant, co-founder of the Tietz Department Store. He was buried in the
Weißensee Cemetery.
Life
Tietz, co-founder of the
Tietz Department Store, was the first to carry out the idea of the
department store
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...
in
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
.
In 1882, the first department store of Tietz was opened in
Gera
Gera () is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of ...
(
Thuringia
Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area.
Er ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
) by his nephew Oskar Tietz. Oskar's brother
Leonhard Tietz later founded his own chain store ("Kaufhof"). After stores in smaller towns like
Bamberg
Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia district in Bavaria, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main (river), Main. Bamberg had 79,000 inhabitants in ...
,
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Central Germany (cultural area), Central German state of Thuringia, with a population of around 216,000. It lies in the wide valley of the Gera (river), River Gera, in the so ...
,
Rostock
Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...
,
Stralsund
Stralsund (; Swedish language, Swedish: ''Strålsund''), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Stralsund (German language, German: ''Hansestadt Stralsund''), is the fifth-largest city in the northeastern German federal state of Mecklen ...
and
Wismar
Wismar (; ), officially the Hanseatic City of Wismar () is, with around 43,000 inhabitants, the sixth-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the fourth-largest city of Mecklenburg after Rostock, Schwerin and ...
had been successful, Tietz established his first department store in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. In 1900, Herrmann Tietz opened a store in Leipziger Straße, where it was located close to the department store
Wertheim, the biggest store in Europe at the time. In 1904, Tietz opened another luxurious store at
Alexanderplatz
(, ''Alexander Square'') is a large public square and transport hub in the central Mitte district of Berlin. The square is named after the Russian Tsar Alexander I, which also denotes the larger neighbourhood stretching from in the north-ea ...
. The impressive and palace-like stores were designed to offer the customers a unique shopping experience. Another example is the Alsterhaus in
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
(established in 1912). With ten department stores Tietz was the largest chain in Berlin. In 1927 some 13,000 employees worked in the Tietz department stores.
The Tietz family divided the German market into two spheres of interest. Herrmann and Oscar Tietz concentrated on the South and East, while
Leonhard Tietz ("Kaufhof") was active in the West and in
Belgium
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
.
When Hermann Tietz died in 1907, the firm was the "largest concern of the kind in Germany".
Oscar Tietz further developed the manufacturing side of the firm, establishing factories, organised in 22 subsidiary companies. During the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Tietz Department Store in 1932, The Jewish Telegraph Agency noted that "the Tietz firm is still a family enterprise, and is conducted at present by Georg and Martin Tietz, the sons of Oscar Tietz, and by his son-in-law,
Dr. Hugo Zwillenberg.
Nazi-era persecution of the Tietz family
In the
Third Reich
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...
, all businesses of the Tietz family were
Aryanized
Aryanization () was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. It entailed the tra ...
(i.e., seized from Jews and transferred to non-Jewish owners) and the family members emigrated. The Tietz department store was Aryanised in 1934.
Oscar's son Martin Tietz migrated with his wife to Liechtenstein in 1939 and his assets were seized by the Gestapo.
In 1933,
Georg Karg, the new non-Jewish owner, changed the company’s name to "Hertie Department Stores" as an abbreviation of ''Her''mann ''Tie''tz.
Hertie was acquired by its competitor
Karstadt
Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH was a German department store chain whose headquarters were in Essen.
Until 30 September 2010 the company was a subsidiary of Arcandor, Arcandor AG (which was known until 30 June 2007 as KarstadtQuelle AG) and was respo ...
in 1994, and the Hertie stores were gradually converted to Karstadt outlets. In 2007, Hertie made a brief comeback. Due to a crisis of the Karstadt department store group, Karstadt dissolved 74 of their stores. These stores were the smallest ones and had been unprofitable at least. The "new" relaunched Hertie department store group re-opened them under the name "Hertie". Today, all former business relations to Karstadt have been severed and Hertie is independent. Hertie had planned to expand, but on 20 May 2009 it was decided that all 54 Hertie department stores were to close.
In 2020, the Hertie Foundation, one of the largest charitable foundations in Germany, was criticised for refusing to publicly address the Nazi past of its founder.
See also
*
Aryanization
Aryanization () was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis powers, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. It enta ...
*
Arcandor
*
Hertie School
The Hertie School (until 2019 Hertie School of Governance) is a German private, independent graduate school for governance (public policy, international affairs and data science) located in Berlin. Hertie School is accredited to confer master's ...
*
The Holocaust
The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
*
KaDeWe
The , abbreviated to KaDeWe, is a Thai owned department store in Berlin, Germany. With over of retail space and more than 380,000 articles available, it is the second-largest department store in Europe after Harrods in London. It attracts 40,000 ...
*
Tietz family
*
Leonhard Tietz
References
External links
Guide to the Hermann Tietz Collectionat the
Leo Baeck Institute, New York
The Leo Baeck Institute New York (LBI) is a research institute in New York City dedicated to the study of German-Jewish history and culture, founded in 1955. It is one of three independent research centers founded by a group of German-speaking J ...
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tietz, Hermann
1837 births
1907 deaths
People from Międzychód
19th-century German Jews
German company founders
German businesspeople in retailing
Merchants from the Kingdom of Prussia
19th-century German businesspeople
20th-century German businesspeople
Department stores of Germany
People from the Grand Duchy of Posen