Despite his conversion, Wertheim faced persecution during the Nazi era, leading to the forced transfer (“Aryanization”) of his department store chain to non-Jewish ownership.

Wertheim quickly realised the changing demand of the growing city in the period of industrialisation and in 1890 opened the first real department store on Moritzplatz/Oranienstraße in Berlin-Kreuzberg.

However, it increasingly appeared that the limitations, which arose due to the shops' locations within old housing: the rooms were not especially large and made further expansion scarcely possible.

Georg Wertheim furthered his education at the Berlin Art Academy in Sonntagskursen and, with the previously unknown architect Alfred Messel, began to develop the concept of a building designed specifically for the sale of goods.

Wertheim wanted upmarket customers, who until then had held back from patronising his department stores, to have all their needs satisfied under one roof.

It was insinuated that they worked with false weightings, provided inferior goods, exploited employees, and demoralised customers.

The company was declared as German and renamed as the “Allgemeine Warenhandels-Gesellschaft” (General Merchandise Trading Business), or AWAG.

The relatives of the family received some small compensation and relinquished all claims to the shares of the company purchased by Hertie.