With over 60,000 square meters (650,000 sq ft) of retail space and more than 380,000 articles available, it is the second-largest department store in Europe after Harrods in London.

The store is located on Tauentzienstraße, a major shopping street, between Wittenbergplatz and Breitscheidplatz, near the heart of former West Berlin.

It opened on 27 March 1907 with a floor space of 24,000 sq m.[1] In June 1927, ownership changed to Hermann Tietz OHG, which was responsible for modernizing and expanding the store.

The company wanted to add two new floors, but because of the Nazi rise to power in the 1930s these plans came to a sudden halt.

Hermann Tietz OHG was a Jewish-owned partnership and because of the Nazis' anti-Jewish laws the company was aryanized—that is, transferred to non-Jewish owners—and its name changed to Hertie.

On the night of 28/29 January 1944, a Royal Air Force Halifax bomber was downed by the Germans and crashed directly into the store, killing the plane's seven crew members, destroying the building's upper levels and causing a fire that burned out the rest of the building.

By 1996, with a further floor and restaurant added, the sales area had expanded to 60,000 sq m.[1] In 1994, the KarstadtQuelle AG corporation acquired Hertie and with it, KaDeWe.

The KaDeWe Group filed for bankruptcy on 29 January 2024, due to significantly rising rents on the Berlin building.

7th floor: (added in the early 1990s) includes a winter garden with a 1000-seat restaurant surrounded by an all-windowed wall offering a view over Wittenbergplatz.