Store/Shop

The department store was built by the Wertheim Group from 1928 to 1930 according to plans by architect Hermann Dernburg on Schweidnitzer Stra e and on Tauentzienplatz. It had the first escalators in Silesia and was considered the largest department store in the city. In the course of Germany-wide aryanization, the National Socialists broke up the company in 1937. Most members of the Wertheim family fled to the USA. The department store passed into the hands of the Allgemeine Warenhaus Gesellschaft (AWG).

In the address book of the city of Hildesheim from the year 1895 the following entry is found - Katzenstein, Hartwig, Kaufmann, Obere Marktstraße 54

Josef Mayer (* 1865), who lived with his wife Cäcilie née Rothschild (* 1866) in the house Murgtalstraße 5 (today Josefstraße) until 1940, loved his hometown Rastatt.  He ran a tobacco store in his home. The amateur poet has memorialized Rastatt in many poems. He was active in several associations, among other things also as president of the GroKaGe Rastatt, which finances the stumbling block, which is laid before the house, out of solidarity to the former active one. However, the Mayerseppl, as he was called, was not helped by his love for his hometown.