Warenhaus Rothberger

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The Warenhaus Rothberger was a large textile department store in Vienna’s city center, located at Stephansplatz 9 and 11, long before 1938. It was founded by Jacob Rothberger, who was born on December 9, 1825, in Albertirsa, Hungary. After working as a tailor in Paris, he moved to Vienna, received a tailor’s license in 1856, and from the start kept a stock of finished clothes. In 1861 he opened a small shop on Stephansplatz 9 and added a “clothes bank” where customers could trade in old clothes for reductions on new purchases. A new imperial patent in 1859 liberalized trade rules and helped his business grow.

Rothberger expanded and acquired the building on Stephansplatz. In 1886 the grand “Kleiderpalast,” designed by Fellner & Helmer, opened with modern features such as electric lighting, a hydraulic elevator, and steam heating. New tenants included a confectionery and a lingerie shop. In 1893 Rothberger bought the house at Stephansplatz 11 and connected the two buildings behind the narrow Stephansplatz 10. The project sparked a dispute with the Vienna City Council amid anti-Semitic tensions, especially given the store’s prominent position opposite St. Stephen’s Cathedral; a heated council meeting occurred on May 8, 1894.

Jacob Rothberger died on March 30, 1899, and his sons Heinrich, Alfred, and Moriz ran the company together. On May 20, 1905, to mark the 50th anniversary, every purchaser received an American watch. The business remained successful as a family enterprise into the early 20th century. Heinrich collected art, including a notable porcelain collection, much of which the Nazi-controlled city council confiscated in 1938.

After Austria joined Nazi Germany in 1938 (the Anschluss), the store was Aryanized, transferring to a non-Jewish owner. In summer 1938, Hans Rothberger, the elder son of Heinrich and Ella Rothberger, was arrested and sent to Dachau to pressure the family to sell. The buyer was Wilhelm Bührer of Berlin. Albert and Karl Rothberger, sons of Alfred and Hilda, left Austria before June 30, 1938: Albert fled to Haiti but died there in August 1938 at 21, and Karl went to the United States, dying in 1939 at 24 in New York. Fritz Rothberger moved to England in 1939 and to Canada in 1940.

In 1945, at the end of World War II, both Rothberger houses burned down. Reconstruction began with bank pre-financing, but the heirs eventually sold the property to an insurance company, and post-war rebuilding followed the era’s aesthetic preferences.