Kaufhaus Schocken

The Schocken Kaufhaus in Stuttgart belonged to the company of the Schocken Family, founded in Zwickau in 1901. Inspired by the Bauhaus principles, a Schocken Department Store was designed and built in the years 1926-1928 in Stuttgart.The building was designed by architect Erich Mendelsohn and became an icon of modernist architecture.In the 1930s, due to its Jewish origins the Schocken family had to sell more and more of its properties and assets and in 1939 the Schocken company was acquired and re-named Merkur Aktiengesellschaft. In 1949 part of the premises in West Germany were restituted to the family, however in 1960 - amidst important protests - the building was demolished to give way to a new image of the city.