Why it belongs in ORBIS
Historic Berlin department store on Hermannplatz, opened in 1929 as Europe's largest department store with its own U-Bahn entrance and Art Deco twin towers; badly damaged in WWII, rebuilt, and now trades as a Galeria store following the 2019 Karstadt-Kaufhof merger.
The Hermannplatz department store, on the border of Kreuzberg and Neukolln, opened in 1929 to significant fanfare, designed in an Expressionist style by architect Philipp Schaeffer for the Karstadt group. At the time it was the largest department store in Europe, featuring escalators, lifts, a roof terrace, and its own direct entrance from the Hermannplatz U-Bahn station. The building was badly damaged during the Second World War, and only the southwest wing of the original structure survives. The store has continued trading on the same site, and today operates as a Galeria store following the 2019 merger of Karstadt and Kaufhof into Galeria.