Wertheim, Georg |
| INDUSTRIALIST (GERMANY) |
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BORN 11 Feb 1857, Stralsund, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern - DIED 31 Dec 1939, Berlin CAUSE OF DEATH pneumonia GRAVE LOCATION Berlin: Dreifaltigkeitskirchhof II, Bergmanstrasse 39-41, Kreuzberg (H-HiA-31-33) |
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After growing up in Stralsund in a Jewish family, Georg Wertheim and his brother Hugo took over their parents' shop in 1876. They introduced modern ideas like the right to return goods and strict cash payment. After opening a branch in Rostock they came to Berlin in 1885, opening a shop at the Rosenthaler Strasse. In 1890 they opened their first real department store in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The next step was to design a building that enabled Wertheim to sell goods on a bigger scale. This resulted in a new department store on the Oranienstrasse in 1894. In 1896 the best known Wertheim store at the Leipziger Platz was opened. In 1913 his company was the largest of its kind in Germany. In 1933 the Wertheim family was forced to give their company up to an Aryan. In 1937 Georg Wertheim left the company and transferred part of the ownership to his wife Ursula, who was not a Jew under the rules of the nazis. He had divorced her during the mid 1930s for her own protection and had given her Schloss Saßleben that he had acquired in 1911. The company was renamed to Allgemeine Warenhandels-Gesellschaft. Wertheim died two years later in Berlin. |
| Images |
 The grave of Georg Wertheim at the Dreifaltigkeitskirchhof II, Bergmanstrasse, Berlin. Picture by Androom (15 Jul 2005) |
Sources • Georg Wertheim - Wikipedia (EN) |
