Kaufhaus Huth (Department Store)

Along with Lewin Department Store and the Ratshof, Huth Department Store played a crucial part in the comprehensive modernist redesign of the centre of Halle in the 1920s. The cuboid steel frame construction was built in 1928 at the behest of textile merchant Adolf Huth. Architects Wilhelm Ulrich and Gustav Wolff achieved a clear and functional look by avoiding embellishment and designing the building with bands of windows and a flat roof. Of the six storeys, the two top ones are set back. The façade is faced with shell limestone. The bottom three storeys of the textile department store were used as salesrooms. On the third floor was a restaurant seating 300, whose terrace ran the length and width of the building and offered impressive views over the market square. The store survived the GDR years as a children’s department store, but was demolished in 1993 and replaced by a not uncontroversial new building.