The Kaufhuas Feidt opens in Steglitz in 1907
The family was still living at the Nachodstrasse 7 address in June 1906, awating the completion of the construction of the five story block in the main street of Steglitz, on the corner of Schlossstrasse 97/Kelerstrasse 1, being built for Moritz. It would be his third large department store in Berlin; the previous one had been in the affluent suburb of Charlottenburg close by.
Kaufhaus Feidt was a department store, dealing in clothes and hats, linens and fabrics, household goods and furnishings and much else besides.
The new building, with its Art Nouveau interior and located in the wide, tree-lined Schlossstrasse was finally completed in 1907. The site had previously been occupied by the Burermeisterei or Moly’s office; which was puled down to make way for Kaufhaus Feidt.
As we know, a friend, Julius Aris, who also later had a hand in smoothing the path of the family’s emigration to England, loaned some of the cost of construction; just as another friend, Fritz Flatow, later lent Moritz the funds to extend the store.
The new building was to house the department store on its ground and first floors. Above the business, the vast second floor apartment with al the latest Art Nouveau touches was where the family would now live.
On the third floor was a similarly spacious flat later to be occupied by Gerhard and Ilse’s sailing friend, Kurt Lange, very tall and nicknamed der Lange Kurt. The same accommodation on the fourth floor served Gerhard’s loyal and devoted chauffeur, Friederich Konen, and his wife.
