Karstadt am Hermannplatz — Berlinfographics

01Hermannplatz, 21 June 1929

Europe’s largest department store went up in 15 months

Building began in 1927 on the Hermannplatz, where Kreuzberg meets Neukölln. When Philipp Schaefer’s store opened, the Neue Deutsche Biographie records, it was the largest and most modern department store in Europe: nine levels, two towers, and a roof garden open to anyone. Below, every square is drawn to one rule — equal area, equal floor — so the floor the block was given and the floor its shop actually got can be set side by side.

70,000m²of floor, every storey counted

37,000m²of it selling floor

4,000staff, about

21escalators (another count says 24)

20lifts

15monthsto build

70,000m² of floor21 June 1929
Schaefer’s store opens

floor area, every storeyselling flooran earlier figure, for comparison

A steep upward view of a stone-clad façade with long bands of windows, with timber scaffolding, a crane gantry and a builder's sign in front of it. — The store going up, May 1929.Willy Pragher, 1929. Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Staatsarchiv Freiburg W 134 Nr. 001579. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.

1927–29

70,000 m² of floor, built in 15 months

Construction began in 1927; on 21 June 1929 the store opened with about 70,000 m² of floor — every square metre of every storey, selling or not. It employed about 4,000 people and ran 21 escalators and 20 lifts.

Source: Landesdenkmalamt Berlin · de.wikipedia · berlin-hermannplatz.de

A bird's-eye view of a cobbled square: a crowd climbs into a tram, a kiosk stands nearby, and a covered stairway marked Hermannplatz leads underground. — The Hermannplatz from above, 1934.Willy Pragher, 1934. Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Staatsarchiv Freiburg W 134 Nr. 006472. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.

4,000 m²

On the roof, a 4,000 m² restaurant anyone could walk into

Between the towers sat a roof-garden restaurant of 4,000 m². Free to enter, open to anyone, seating about 500. Its observation platform stood 32 m above the street.

Source: de.wikipedia · berlin-hermannplatz.de

A black-and-white photograph of a vast department store with a tall stepped tower and a smaller second tower, seen across an open square. — The store in its opening year.Waldemar Titzenthaler, 1929. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

37,000 m²

37,000 m² of selling floor: the largest store in Europe

Selling floor counts only the part a customer walks on. At the opening Schaefer’s store had 37,000 m² of it, which made it, in the words of the Neue Deutsche Biographie, the largest and most modern department store in Europe.

Source: Neue Deutsche Biographie

Gutted concrete shells of a large building stand over a field of rubble; people walk and cycle along the street in front. — The ruin on the Hermannplatz, May 1945.Abraham Pisarek, May 1945. SLUB / Deutsche Fotothek. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0 de.

25 April 1945

16 years after it opened, the SS destroyed it

On 25 April 1945 the SS set about destroying the store. The purpose recorded is that the stores in the basement should not fall to the Red Army. Goods and food worth nearly 30 million Reichsmark were held there. The building was largely destroyed; a small part at the Hasenheide was left standing, and selling resumed in it the same year.

Source: de.wikipedia · Stadtmuseum Berlin · Berliner Zeitung · Landesdenkmalamt Berlin

A black-and-white street photograph: a cyclist crosses a wide square towards a modern glass-fronted building, with a large U-Bahn sign and apartment houses behind. — The Hermannplatz in 1961.Willy Pragher, 1961. Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Staatsarchiv Freiburg W 134 Nr. 009573. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.

7 May 1951

Start again: 5,000 m² of selling floor

Alfred Busse's annex, opened 7 May 1951, with 5,000 m² of selling floor. The rebuild went only as far as the third upper floor.

Source: de.wikipedia · berlin-hermannplatz.de · Landesdenkmalamt Berlin

A tall pale stone section of façade with vertical window strips rises between a pre-war apartment house and a lower post-war store front. — Schaefer’s three bays, with Busse’s building beside them.Gunnar Klack, 2019. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

27 October 1976

21,000 m²: the shop pushed out to the whole footprint

The shop pushed out to the full footprint, car decks above: the selling floor reached 21,000 m², a little over four times the shop of 1951.

Source: de.wikipedia · berlin-hermannplatz.de

A wide photograph of a long post-war department store with large banners and a glass corner, a stone tower stump at the far left, and traffic in the square. — The store from the Hasenheide corner, 2011.Jörg Zägel, 2011. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.

1998–2000

31,500 m² — still 5,500 m² short of the first store

The car decks removed, the upper floors made selling floor, and the selling floor reached 31,500 m². It had taken 49 years to get there, and it was still 5,500 m² smaller than the 37,000 m² Schaefer’s store opened with. No later figure has been published.

Source: de.wikipedia · berlin-hermannplatz.de · Neue Deutsche Biographie

Portrait of a smiling grey-haired man in a black T-shirt with his arms folded. — David Chipperfield, the architect named for the plan.Bruno Cordioli, 2012-08-27. Via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

January 2019

The plan: rebuild the towers, and put 80 % more floor on the block

The owner, Signa Holding, announced an interpreted reconstruction of the destroyed façades and their towers, by the architect David Chipperfield: concrete rather than stone, the towers at 60 m, a 3,200 m² roof terrace, a possible opening in 2027. The floor would rise from about 70,000 m² to 126,000 m².

Source: de.wikipedia · entwicklungsstadt.de

A department store seen across a broad empty junction under a grey sky, with a stone tower section on the left. — The building as it stood in 2019.Gunnar Klack, 2019. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

18.6 %

Less than a fifth of it selling floor

Offices were to take 45,000 m², community use 4,500 m² and affordable housing 4,100 m². The shop got 23,400 m² of selling floor — 18.6 % of the whole, and 8,100 m² less than the shop already there. The remaining at most 49,000 m² were never assigned to a named use in the published figures.

Source: entwicklungsstadt.de · de.wikipedia · Berlinfographics fact-check

A four-storey stone-clad department store with KARSTADT signs on a street corner, a taller ribbed stone block on the left and roadworks barriers in front. — The store in October 2024.Roy Zuo, 2024. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

November 2023

Refused, then bankrupt — and the building is still waiting

At the end of August 2019 the planning offices of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg and Neukölln both rejected the plan. In November 2023 Signa Holding became the largest corporate bankruptcy in Austrian history, and the Senate halted the planning. In 2024 Lidl announced it would open inside the building.

Source: de.wikipedia · entwicklungsstadt.de

02How high it stood

Its light columns stood 71 metres high — above the Siegessäule

The store itself rose 32 m to the roof garden and its observation platform. The two towers climbed to 56 m, and the lit columns on top of them to 71 m — higher than the 67 m Siegessäule and well over twice the Brandenburger Tor. The towers of the 2019 plan would have stopped at 60 m.

the store, to the roofthe towersthe light columnsthe towers in the planfor comparison

The Brandenburg Gate, a sandstone gateway of Doric columns topped by a chariot sculpture, with people in front. — The Brandenburger Tor. 26 m.Norbert Nagel, 2014. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.

A black-and-white photograph of the stepped towers of a large department store, an Olympic banner hanging on the front and people crossing the square. — 1936: the building complete, with Olympic banners on its front — seven years into its sixteen.Fortepan — ID 17420, 1936. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.

A tall column crowned by a gilded winged figure against a blue sky with clouds. — The Siegessäule, the victory column in the Tiergarten. 67 m.acediscovery, 2018. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.

How many floors did it have?

The sources disagree, because they count different things. One counts the storeys above the street; the others count every level, the two basements included. Both counts are shown.

0321–25 April 1945

Five days in April: the shell that hit the queue, and the store’s destruction

On 21 April 1945, one of the first Soviet shells to land in the city area strikes the queue outside the store. Four days later the store itself was destroyed.

A line of field guns and their crews on open, flat ground, ammunition boxes stacked beside them. — Soviet artillery before Berlin, April 1945.Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-E0406-0022-012 / Unknown / CC BY-SA 3.0 de

What every account agrees on

On 25 April 1945 the SS set about destroying the store.

The purpose recorded is that the stores in the basement should not fall to the Red Army.

Goods and food worth nearly 30 million Reichsmark were held there.

The building was largely destroyed; a small part at the Hasenheide was left standing, and selling resumed in it the same year.

The Berliner Zeitung dates the reopening of the surviving part to July.

Source: de.wikipedia · Stadtmuseum Berlin · Berliner Zeitung · Landesdenkmalamt Berlin

Sprengung — “demolition charges”

Most of the literature carries this account: on 25 April the SS laid explosive charges in the building so that the stores in the basement would not fall to the Red Army. It is held to be the more likely of the two.

Source: de.wikipedia · Stadtmuseum Berlin

Brandstiftung — “arson”

The Stadtmuseum Berlin and the Berliner Zeitung both record that it was never established whether the building was burned down or blown up.

Source: Stadtmuseum Berlin · Berliner Zeitung

The accounts name only 'the SS'. No unit is identified in any of them.

04The record, 1927–2024

The shop never grew back to the size it opened at

Schaefer’s store opened with 37,000 m² of selling floor. After the war the shop took 55 years to reach 31,500 m², growing each time the building was rebuilt around it — and never got back to where it began. Each square below is drawn to the same rule, with the shop of the plan beside them.

1927Construction begins

21 June 1929The store opens

21 April 1945One of the first Soviet shells to land in the city area strikes the queue outside the store

25 April 1945The SS destroy the store

1945Selling resumes in the surviving fragment at the Hasenheide

7 May 1951Alfred Busse's annex opens — 5,000 m²

1954–55A shopfront on the Hermannplatz, extended to the Urbanstraße

1960sThe projecting glazed front is clad in concrete panels

27 October 1976The shop is pushed out to the whole footprint; car decks above — 21,000 m²

1998–2000The car decks come off and the upper floors become selling floor — 31,500 m²

January 2019Signa announces the reconstruction

29 August 2019Both borough planning offices reject it

November 2023Signa Holding becomes insolvent, and the Senate halts the planning

2024Lidl announces it will open inside the building

05What is left of it

Of Schaefer’s building, three window axes survive — and the door to the U-Bahn

Of about 70,000 m², three window axes on the Hasenheide are all that survives of Schaefer’s building. The monument listing covers the surviving travertine section of the old building and the postwar-modern design of what replaced it. Alfred Busse’s annex opened on 7 May 1951, and the rebuild went only as far as the third upper floor. One of Schaefer’s ideas is still in daily use: the direct underground connection from the U-Bahn station into the store.

A narrow tall stone façade with vertical bands of windows, an entrance at street level and a flag on top. — The surviving façade at the Hasenheide corner — all that is left of Schaefer’s building above ground.TillF, 2011. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.

An underground platform with yellow-tiled pillars; blue signs reading KARSTADT with arrows hang above a stairway with wooden handrails. — On the U-Bahn platform at Hermannplatz, the signs still point straight up into the store.Bildarbeiter, 2026. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Glass doors under a sign for the U8 line, set into a stone-clad wall inside a shop, a potted tree beside them. — The door to the U-Bahn, inside the shop.Sludge G, 2008. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0.

Men in coats and hats ride and stand beside a pair of wooden escalators in a timber-lined tunnel. — Wooden escalators in the Hermannplatz U-Bahn station before it was finished.Unknown author, 1925. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

06The record

What the record settles, and what it leaves open

Floor, and usable floor

The floor area — every storey — is given as about 70,000 m²; the usable floor on its nine levels as 72,000 m². They are different measures, not a dispute. The plot cleared for the store was 12,500 m², its façade 256 m long.

Source: de.wikipedia · berlin-hermannplatz.de

Escalators

de.wikipedia counts 21 escalators and 20 lifts; the dimensioned building sheet at berlin-hermannplatz.de counts 24 escalators.

Source: de.wikipedia · berlin-hermannplatz.de

The opening day

21 June 1929 is the date the building sheet and zwanziger-jahre-berlin.de give. The Berliner Zeitung’s 29 April stands alone.

Source: berlin-hermannplatz.de · zwanziger-jahre-berlin.de · Berliner Zeitung

Selling floor and floor area

Floor area counts every square metre of every storey, selling or not. Selling floor counts only the part a customer walks on. The plan’s shop figure is selling floor; its share of the plan’s floor area was never published, so the unassigned balance is an upper bound.

Source: entwicklungsstadt.de · de.wikipedia

The stone

The Landesdenkmalamt describes the surviving section of the original as travertine; other accounts name a different stone. The plan would have rebuilt the towers in concrete.

Source: Landesdenkmalamt Berlin · de.wikipedia · Berliner Zeitung

Who destroyed it

The accounts name only 'the SS'. No unit is identified in any of them. Whether the building was blown up or burned was never established.

Source: de.wikipedia · Stadtmuseum Berlin · Berliner Zeitung

Karstadt am Hermannplatz · 1929–1945

On the last published figures, the shop on the Hermannplatz is still 5,500 m² smaller than the one Schaefer opened — and the plan to rebuild his towers would have cut it by 8,100 m² more.

The plan to rebuild Europe’s largest department store put 80 % more floor on the block — and less than a fifth of it selling floor

Europe’s largest department store went up in 15 months

70,000 m² of floor, built in 15 months

On the roof, a 4,000 m² restaurant anyone could walk into

37,000 m² of selling floor: the largest store in Europe

16 years after it opened, the SS destroyed it

Start again: 5,000 m² of selling floor

21,000 m²: the shop pushed out to the whole footprint

31,500 m² — still 5,500 m² short of the first store

The plan: rebuild the towers, and put 80 % more floor on the block

Less than a fifth of it selling floor

Refused, then bankrupt — and the building is still waiting

Its light columns stood 71 metres high — above the Siegessäule

How many floors did it have?

Five days in April: the shell that hit the queue, and the store’s destruction

Sprengung — “demolition charges”

Brandstiftung — “arson”

The shop never grew back to the size it opened at

Of Schaefer’s building, three window axes survive — and the door to the U-Bahn

What the record settles, and what it leaves open

Floor, and usable floor

Escalators

The opening day

Selling floor and floor area

The stone

Who destroyed it

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