The great firm of Hermann Tietz, which owns the largest network of department stores in Germany and in Central Europe, with branches in all cities and big towns, celebrated its 50th. anniversary yesterday. The first store was opened in Gera on March 1st., 1882, by Hermann and Oscar Tietz. It was a small shop, which grew rapidly, however, and before long Oscar Tietz moved to Munich where he established the first German department store. Then the firm transferred its headquarters to Berlin, and on September 26th., 1900 the first Berlin department store was opened by the Tietz firm in the Leipzigerstrasse. In 1906 it opened its second store in the Alexanderplatz in Berlin, and soon after the third and fourth in the Frankfurter-Allee, and the Chaussee Strasse. When Hermann Tietz died in 1907, the firm was already the largest concern of the kind in Germany. Oscar Tietz then developed the manufacturing side of the firm, establishing factories in which it produced its own goods, organised in 22 subsidiary companies.
Unlike most department stores in Germany, 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.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
