Karstadt (Hanover)

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Rounded glass facade in the pedestrian zone on Georgstraße and Schillerstraße, 2012

Karstadt in Hanover is the generic term for various branches of the retail and service houses belonging to the Karstadt department store chain in the capital of Lower Saxony . In particular, the main building on the corner of Georgstraße and Schillerstraße in what is now the Mitte district looks back on an eventful history.

history

The predecessor building of the Hannoversche Bank around 1898

After Rudolph Karstadt founded his first company location in Wismar in 1881 , the company bought the former building of the Hannoversche Bank in 1903 , which had recently moved to a new building on Georgsplatz. Karstadt had the old bank building on Georgstrasse and Schillerstrasse torn down and the 25th Karstadt branch built in its place by the architects Schröder and Friedrichs . When the department store opened in 1906, the Hanoverians expected “a department store in which (almost) everything was to buy”, in addition to clothing and household items , furniture and luxury items of all kinds. In addition, a “refreshment corner” offered customers the opportunity to relax wide range of products . In 1913, the management advertised the house as "one of the largest and most beautiful business palaces in the residence ".

The department store opened in 1906

After the First World War and the end of German hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic , increased customer demand and the desire for a larger and more differentiated range of goods led to the takeover of the business premises of the Eduard Bor Maß department store on Große Packhofstraße and Heiligerstraße. 1929 merged there the Rudolf Karstadt AG and of the Jewish family to Paul Lindemann justified Berlin Aktiengesellschaft Lindemann & Co. AG (Lico). While the main Hanover store on Georgstrasse now concentrated on offers for the "higher" class of buyers, the range in the store on Grosse Packhofstrasse now appealed to the broader public.

Paul Lindemann, who became a member of the board of the larger AG after the merger of the two stock corporations (AG) Karstadt and Lindemann, was forced out of his position as a Jew soon after the start of the Nazi era and emigrated from Germany in 1934. The Berlin family escaped the terror and the pillaging of the in Hanover by the SS carried out " Kristallnacht " in 1938 and the middle of the Second World War after by the NSDAP carried out action Lauterbacher - the ghettoization of the Hanoverian Jews only in the so-called Jewish houses and the subsequent Deportations to the extermination camps .

Both Karstadt stores were destroyed in the air raids on Hanover in 1943.

After the war, the department store on Georgstrasse was gradually rebuilt. The building, designed from 1953 to 1954 according to a design by the architect Christian Engler , officially reopened in 1954 under the motto “Everything under one roof”.

From the mid-1970s , the Hanoverian house expanded due to a lack of expansion options on the property of the main building by building various specialty department stores at other locations. These houses, which in some cases fundamentally changed their offers and in some cases were also closed again, had different focuses:

  • since 1978: “Heim & Technik” in the house at Große Packhofstraße on the corner of Osterstraße;
  • since 1979: “Sport & Hobby” in the house at Große Packhofstraße on the corner of Heiligerstraße;
  • 1995 to 2008: Karstadt bed house on Schillerstraße.

After the main building had also been rebuilt in 1995 and the “ chic ” of the 1950s facade had given way to a more modern, largely transparent glass facade , the Karstadt department store donated the colored bronze sculpture “Man with Deer” by the artist Stephan Balkenhol on the newly designed so-called Andreaeplatz at the corner of Schillerstraße.

Due to the economic crisis in 2020, Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof has announced that it will close the branch.

View through the glass elevator shaft of the Karstadt main building, end of 2008
The man with the deer by Stephan Balkenhol on Andreaeplatz, donated by the Karstadt department store in 2002

Media coverage (selection)

  • Gunnar Menkens: surprise bag department store / Karstadt residents already believe that the location will survive. But what does renovation mean? A visit to the department store. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung (HAZ) of August 22, 2014;
    • under the title Trade / What will happen to Hanover's Karstadt house? ... also online for subscribers , last accessed on 23 August 2014

literature

Web links

Commons : Karstadt (Hannover)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Waldemar R. Röhrbein: Karstadt ... (see literature )
  2. ^ Ludwig Hoerner : The building of the Hannoversche Bank, Georgstraße, corner Schillerstraße, 1859. In: Ludwig Hoerner: Hannover in early photographs. 1848-1910 . Schirmer-Mosel, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-921375-44-4 (With a contribution by Franz Rudolf Zankl ), pp. 160f.
  3. ^ Waldemar R. Röhrbein: Bor Maß, Eduard B. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 75
  4. ↑ Note: The Stadtlexikon Hannover (see literature) names the year 1929 as the year of the merger, the page gedenkenafeln-in-berlin.de the year 1928
  5. ↑ a b Holger Hübner, Petra Behrens, Johannes Tuchel (ed.): Lindemann (family). In: Memorial plaques in Berlin , ed. from the German Resistance Memorial Center , last accessed online on August 22, 2014
  6. ↑ Peter Schulze : Reichskristallnacht. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 520
  7. ^ Peter Schulze: Action Lauterbacher. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 17
  8. ↑ Conrad von Meding: Old houses in the city “It has to be an end to demolitions” / Two historic buildings are being demolished again in the city of Hanover. In view of the destruction in the Second World War and the disappearance of many other old houses to this day, Hanover's Monument Foundation demands that this must finally come to an end in the city center. In: HAZ of September 16, 2013, last accessed online on August 15, 2014
  9. ↑ a b Helmut Knocke, Hugo Thielen: Keyword Karstadt (see literature)
  10. ↑ Compare the documentation at Commons (see under the section Weblinks )
  11. ↑ tagesschau.de: These Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof branches are closing. Retrieved June 19, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Karstadt an der Georgstraße in Hanover closes - branch at Marktkirche remains. Retrieved June 19, 2020 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 22 ′ 30.7 "  N , 9 ° 44 ′ 11.7"  E