The history of Munich
At 12 Schützenstraße, opposite Munich's main train station, a department store opened in 1905 as the Hermann Tietz store, was renamed Hertie under Nazi pressure, grew into one of Germany's largest stores by 1971, and closed on 30 June 2023.
Karstadt München Bahnhofplatz, at 12 Schützenstraße in Munich, is a heritage-protected department store opened in 1905 as the Hermann Tietz store opposite the main train station. Renamed Hertie under Nazi pressure in the 1930s, expanded in 1971 into one of Germany's largest stores, and closed for good on 30 June 2023.
A grand Lichthof drew shoppers to Schützenstraße
Karstadt München Bahnhofplatz is a department store now standing empty, its tall windows dark on Schützenstraße. It once drew shoppers from across Munich into a grand indoor courtyard called a Lichthof.
The building began as something else entirely: the Hermann Tietz department store, built between 1904 and 1905 by the Max Littmann, a Munich architect known for theater design. Max Littmann gave it a German Renaissance look, with towers, gables and dormers, built in steel skeleton frame and faced partly in shell limestone. The sculpted decoration on its facade came from three craftsmen: Julius Seidler, Jakob Bradl and Fidel Enderle.
The store opened on March 14, 1905, right across from Munich's main train station. By around 1930, two escalators ran in opposite directions through the Lichthof, a flourish meant to give the building a big-city feel. It was an early sign of how department stores sold not just goods but glamour.
World War II brought damage to the facades. The building was patched up afterward in a plainer style, stripped of some of its original flourish. Then in 1971, the architect Fred Angerer added a long new wing along Schützenstraße, stretching the building's frontage to 720 feet. The complex grew to nearly 40,000 square meters of selling space, with an underground garage for 500 cars. It became one of the largest department stores in all of Germany.
The Tietz name was erased under Nazi rule
The store was built for Hermann Tietz, a Jewish-owned chain. Under Nazi rule, the family's name became politically impossible to display. The business was renamed "Hertie," a shortened form of "Hermann Tietz," stripped of the name that gave it away.
Two blocks northwest at Königsplatz, students burned books on May 10, 1933, including works by Erich Kästner and Kurt Tucholsky. The Nazi campaign against "un-German" writing swept through Munich the same decade the store was forced to rename itself.
After the war, the Hertie warehouse reopened, alongside sister stores in Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. Munich was rebuilding block by block, and the department store returned to its place across from the station.
Postwar expansion made it Germany's largest store
Fred Angerer's 1971 expansion came the year after Munich hosted the 1972 Summer Olympics brought the world's attention to the city. Hertie Bahnhofsplatz became Germany's largest department store in the Olympic afterglow, a symbol of the city's postwar confidence.
Hans-Georg Karg ran Hertie for decades before selling the chain to its rival, Karstadt, in 1993. The Bahnhofplatz store kept the Hertie name on its facade for years afterward, even under new ownership.
The store finally dropped the Hertie name
The name finally changed for good in 2007. A newly formed company revived "Hertie" for a separate chain of stores, so Karstadt had to rename its Munich flagship to avoid confusion. The switch happened gradually, finishing on September 27, 2007, when the building became Karstadt München Bahnhofplatz.
Ownership of the building changed three times
The property changed hands three times in two years. Signature Capital, a German-Irish investment firm, won it in a bidding contest in 2015. The firm sold it to RFR Holding the following year. In November 2017, Signa Holding, the real estate company built by Austrian investor René Benko, became sole owner.
A 118-year run of trade came to an end
Karstadt closed the Bahnhofplatz store on June 30, 2023, ending 118 years of trade on the same spot where Hermann Tietz opened his doors in 1905. The building still stands under heritage protection, its six stories empty behind the historic facade. The old Hertie lettering remains faintly visible as a shadow on the stone, a trace of the name the Nazis once forced the store to erase.
Schützenstraße itself carries an older story than any department store. The street takes its name from a medieval shooting range used by crossbow marksmen from at least 1401, where Munich's citizens trained for centuries before any of these buildings rose.
The former department store stands empty on Schützenstraße, its windows dark and its old Hertie signage still faintly visible on the stone.
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