Uhlfelder department store

The broad range of goods, attractive presentation in a modern store, and customer-oriented price policies of the retail business for home goods and fashion accessories established by Heinrich Uhlfelder in 1878 were well-received by residents of Munich and other customers. In the 1920s, the department store, located in the Rosental, expanded its space to approximately 7,000 square meters to become the second-largest department store in Munich, behind Hermann Tietz. In 1928 it employed approximately 500 people; in 1930-31, 1,000 people. The installation of an escalator in 1931 was the talk of the town and drew customers from far and near.

The National Socialists, who had codified the fight against department stores in their 25-point program from 1920, were always a thorn in the side of the Uhlfelder department store and its Jewish owners. Immediately after the seizure of power, Max Uhlfelder, who had led the company since 1928 together with his sister Margaretha Mayer, was arrested and mistreated by a student. In the years that followed, the department store was subjected to numerous repressions, boycotts, and acts of violence. Max Uhlfelder tried in vain to sell the business in 1933, 1935, and summer 1938. During the pogrom in the night of November 9-10, 1938, the department store was ravaged, its goods plundered or destroyed. The escalator was also destroyed with crowbars. Marauding ‘Hitler Youth’ members searched for Max Uhlfelder in his private residence and extorted an ‘atonement tax’ of 5000 RM from him. The next day, he and his son Harry were taken to the Dachau Concentration Camp. The department store was liquidated.

The family of Max Uhlfelder fled via Switzerland to India in July 1939, and later emigrated to the USA. Their citizenship was revoked on May 25, 1940; the family's assets fell to the Reich. Margaretha Mayer, with her husband, was deported on November 20, 1941 with the first deportation train from Munich to Kaunas and murdered there five days later during the mass shootings.

Löwenbräu AG acquired the majority of the Uhlfelder properties in 1943. The house at Jakobsplatz 3 was transferred to the city of Munich and incorporated into the Historic Museum of the city. The buildings in the Rosental were largely destroyed by bomb attacks in April 1944.

After the end of the war, Max Uhlfelder made numerous applications for compensation and damages from the USA, before returning to Munich in 1953. Uhlfelder received various damages and was able to have the land the family once owned returned; however, the planned start-up of the business was not successful.