The Barasch Brothers' Department Store (german: Warenhaus Gebrüder Barasch) is the original name of a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appe ...

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, r ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

(then Breslau,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

), located between the eastern side of the

market square The market square (or sometimes, the market place) is a square meant for trading, in which a market is held. It is an important feature of many towns and cities around the world.art nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

facade facing the market square was given a simpler, modernist look; the huge glazing above the main entrance was replaced with more conventional window rows. The large glass globe on the main tower at the corner of Ulica Szewska and Kurzy Targ (german: Hintermarkt), which had been damaged by lightning, was also removed. After the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

party came into power, the Jewish Barasch family came under pressure, and at the turn of 1934 and 1935 decided to sell its chain of department stores and leave the country, even before the official

Aryanization Aryanization (german: Arisierung) was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. I ...

of Jewish businesses began. Like all of the historical center of Breslau, the building was heavily damaged in the final phase of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. However, immediately after the Polish administration was set up in 1945, reconstruction began and the building was reassigned to its original purpose on 7 August 1946. Initially, only the ground floor was restored and used for business. From 1961, the building was completely renovated and modernized; the second and third floors were added to the retail space. In 1965, the business reopened under the name ''Spółdzielczy Dom Handlowy "Feniks"'' ("Co-operative Department Store 'Phoenix'), which is still used today. The building itself remained municipal property until 1995, when the company finally purchased it from the local administration.

Literature

*Krystyna Kirschke/Paweł Kirschke: ''Sto lat domu handlowego "Feniks". (Warenhaus Gebrüder Barasch)'', Wrocław: "Społem" Powszechna Spółdzielnia Spożywców Feniks, 2004

External links

A brief history on the official website of the Feniks Department Store
(Polish)

("Like Phoenix from the ashes") (Polish) {{Coord, 51, 6, 34, N, 17, 1, 59, E, source:plwiki_region:PL_type:landmark, display=title Buildings and structures in Wrocław Art Nouveau architecture in Wrocław Art Nouveau retail buildings Commercial buildings completed in 1904 Department stores of Poland