Hermann Tietz (born 29 April 1837, in Birnbaum an der Warthe near Posen (today Międzychód, Poland), died on 3 May 1907 in Berlin) was a German-Jewish merchant, co-founder of the Tietz Department Store. He was buried in the Weißensee Cemetery.
Life
Tietz, co-founder of the Tietz Department Store, was the first to carry out the idea of the department store in Germany.
In 1882, the first department store of Tietz was opened in Gera (Thuringia, Germany) by his nephew Oskar Tietz. Oskar's brother Leonhard Tietz later founded his own chain store ("Kaufhof"). After stores in smaller towns like Bamberg, Erfurt, Rostock, Stralsund and Wismar had been successful, Tietz established his first department store in Berlin. In 1900, Herrmann Tietz opened a store in Leipziger Straße, where it was located close to the department store Wertheim, the biggest store in Europe at the time. In 1904, Tietz opened another luxurious store at Alexanderplatz. The impressive and palace-like stores were designed to offer the customers a unique shopping experience. Another example is the Alsterhaus in Hamburg (established in 1912). With ten department stores Tietz was the largest chain in Berlin.