Althoff department store

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The Althoff department store was a department store opened in 1914 in downtown Leipzig . The building at Petersstrasse 31-35 was later continued as a free department store , as a Centrum Warenhaus Leipzig and from 1990 as Karstadt Leipzig .

Althoff Leipzig department store, around 1920

History until 1945

Logo of the Leipzig Althoff department store, 1914

The Düsseldorf- based Gebr. Schöndorff AG acquired under the name 3 Rosen GmbH an area of ​​around 8,300 square meters located in downtown Leipzig between Petersstrasse, Preußergäßchen and Neumarkt in order to create a large department store for Theodor Althoff in a third major German city after Dortmund and Essen to build.

Original architectural jewelry on the Neumarkt side (2018)

Significant predecessor buildings on the site, some of which had already been demolished, included the renowned Hôtel de Bavière (first named in 1768, Hotel Central from 1887 ) at Petersstrasse 25 and the Gasthof Drei Rosen at Petersstrasse 27, which houses numerous personalities like Jean Paul , Friedrich Schiller , Robert Schumann , Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy , Ferdinand David or Friedrich List stayed overnight or got together. The house where Clara Schumann was born , the Hohe Lilie building on the corner of Preussergäßchen and Neumarkt , could not be acquired at the time. The property was only integrated into the overall ensemble in 2006.

After the existing buildings were demolished, the department store was built between 1912 and 1914. As architect is recorded Philipp Schaefer in collaboration with Gustav plum for which bauplastischen elements on the objective of Main sandstone -designed and now listed façade of Düsseldorf was sculptor John Knubel responsible. The asymmetrically cut building had five usable floors , an originally planned open staircase could not be implemented. Inside the house there were three large atriums with vaulted glass roofs , the central one being equipped with heavy chandeliers . Inside different timber and were representative for each floor exotic wood species , the ground and the first floor were with: installed mahogany with inlays from Birnbaum dominated in the second and third floors designed oak and rosewood . Individual fitting - as well as other rooms consisted of other different woods. When it opened, the department store had a total of 54 departments, with the fourth floor, lined with marble , tiles and majolica, being reserved for groceries ; The administration and the in-house print shop were also to be found here. At the time of opening, the house had around 1,500 employees.

  • Interior views of the department store, 1914

  • medium large atrium

  • first floor

  • Glass and Crystal Department

  • Gallantry department

  • Women's clothing

  • Refreshment room

  • Floor plans of the storeys, 1914

  • ground floor

  • first floor

  • second story

  • third floor

  • fourth floor

The end of 1919 merged Theodor Althoff with Karstadt, the Althoff department stores were transferred to Karstadt. The name Althoff department store was retained from 1920. During the heavy air raids on Leipzig between December 1943 and February 1944, the department store was badly damaged, and Karstadt resumed limited sales.

Successor institutions

1946-1990

Crowds in front of the Free Department Store, Deutsche Fotothek, 1949

In 1946, after the nationalization of companies in the GDR , the department store, which was still badly damaged, first became the property of the consumer cooperative , before it was provisionally reopened in November 1948 as a so-called free department store of the state GDR trade organization HO . Higher-priced products were offered regardless of rationing . From 1951 the reconstruction and redesign of the house began in several steps. The atria were closed, and an Art Deco style staircase with two entrances per floor was installed on the south side of the building . After the renovation work was completed in 1956 with built-in colonnades on the outside, the house called Centrum Warenhaus comprised around 9,600 square meters of retail space. In 1967, centrally located escalators were inaugurated to complement the elevators .

In 1974 the department store was reconstructed. In April 1982 the first floor was badly damaged by a fire, which resulted in a one-month closure period before at least the upper floors could be reopened. At the end of the 1980s, the department store center maintained an exchange with around 60 other department stores and trade organizations from socialist countries .

1990 to the present

Karstadt Leipzig 2018, formerly Althoff department store
The fountain

After negotiations that had already begun the year before, Karstadt moved into the building again in 1990 , and between 2004 and 2006 the department store was completely redesigned with the exception of listed facade parts. Further plots in the Karree were awarded to Karstadt. A water fountain was installed in a new, centrally located large atrium, the height of which extends through all floors of the house. Escalators were installed around the atrium and the staircase built in GDR times was removed. After the renovation, the department store had around 31,000 square meters of retail space on six floors, around a third of which was for third-party tenants on the ground floor and basement.

In April 2018 it was announced that the operator Karstadt had been terminated as of March 31, 2019. This was preceded by a demand for a rent increase of 68 percent by the new owner of the property, a subsidiary of the Swiss real estate group Even Capital, which Karstadt was unable to do. About 400 employees of the department store, which has meanwhile grown to 33,000 square meters of sales area, were affected by the termination.

literature

  • Heinz Hermann: Department store Theodor Althoff Leipzig . Oscar Brandstetter, Leipzig [1914].
  • Philipp Schäfer: The Theodor Althoff department store in Leipzig . In: Modern designs. Monthly booklets for architecture and spatial art 20 (1921), ISSN  0931-4806 , pp. 93–96.
  • Katharina Junghans: Karstadt. The large department store on Petersstrasse . In: Leipziger Blätter 69 (2016), ISSN  0232-7244 , pp. 28–31.

Web links

Commons : Althoff (Leipzig)  - Collection of images
Commons : Centrum Warenhaus (Leipzig)  - Collection of images
Commons : Karstadt Leipzig  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Katharina Junghans 2016, p. 28 f.
  2. ↑ Ernst Müller: The house names of old Leipzig. From the 15th to the 20th century with references to sources and historical explanations (= writings of the Association for the History of Leipzig 15), Association for the History of Leipzig, Leipzig 1931, p. 57.
  3. ^ Rudolf Franz: Jean Paul in Leipzig . In: Leipziger Calendar (1947), March / April.
  4. ^ Edgar H. Niemann: The elector had to decide . In: Sächsisches Tageblatt of December 19, 1965.
  5. ↑ Philipp Schäfer 1921, p. 93 ff.
  6. ↑ a b Katharina Junghans 2016, p. 29.
  7. ↑ a b Heinz Hermann 1914, pp. 8-10.
  8. ↑ Heinz Hermann 1914, pp. 10-12.
  9. ↑ Heinz Hermann 1914, p. 14.
  10. ↑ Heinz Hermann 1914, p. 16.
  11. ↑ a b c Katharina Junghans 2016, p. 30.
  12. ↑ Photo of the opening of the 1st Leipzig HO department store. In: Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, inventory number: F / 2408/1979. Retrieved January 10, 2019 .
  13. ↑ a b c Katharina Junghans 2016, p. 31.
  14. ↑ Interior view of the Centrum department store, after installing escalators in 1967. In: Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, inventory number: F / 4586/1980. Retrieved January 15, 2019 .
  15. ↑ This is what the department store on Petersstrasse, destroyed by Anglo-American bombers, looked like in 1945 ... In: Sächsisches Tageblatt of September 12, 1974.
  16. ^ Fire in the CENTRUM department store in Leipzig . In: Leipziger Volkszeitung from April 5, 1982.
  17. ↑ CENTRUM department store is open again . In: Leipziger Volkszeitung from May 4, 1982.
  18. ↑ Heinz-Jürgen Böhme : Between show scenes and parcel death. Notes on three construction sites in the city center . In: Leipziger Blätter 46 (2005), ISSN  0232-7244 , p. 14 f.
  19. ↑ A bang in the city. Karstadt Leipzig announces new owner. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung. April 5, 2018, accessed January 11, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Björn Meine, Frank Johannsen: Karstadt Leipzig is planning to close. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung. August 21, 2018, accessed January 11, 2019 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 17 ″  N , 12 ° 22 ′ 31 ″  E