Schocken Department Stores

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Schocken Department Stores (Kaufhaus Schocken) was a chain of department stores in Germany before the Second World War.

The company was found by Simon and Salman Schocken (1877–1959). After Simon had married into the owner family of Warenhaus Ury Gebrüder in Leipzig, the two brothers enlarged the business to a chain by establishing a second department store in Zwickau. In 1930 the company (named I. Schocken Sons since 1907) had become the fourth larges department store company in Germany with 20 stores. After the death of Simon Schoken in 1929 his brother was sole owner.

The most famous stores are the ones in Nuremberg (Aufseßplatz) (built 1925/26), Stuttgart (Schocken Department Store Stuttgart)(1926-28) and Chemnitz (1927-30) built by architect Erich Mendelsohn. All three can be seen as milestones in modern architecture.

After the rise of Nazism Salman Schocken was politically forced to sell his department stores to the Merkur AG (so-called "Aryanisation"). After the war Schocken sold his regained share of the company (51%) to Helmut Horten GmbH, which later became part of Kaufhof and is currently owned by Metro.

Salman Schocken founded his own publishing house (later Schocken Books) in 1931, which later moved to Palestine and the United States. The Schocken family lives in Israel and the U.S.. Schocken Books is now affiliated with Random House Publishing. The family still owns 75% of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz owned by Salman Schocken.

This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding German Wikipedia article as of 3 September 2006.