The Schocken Department Store (Kaufhaus Schocken, later Merkur Department Store) was a department store

Department store

A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...

 in the south German town of Stuttgart

Stuttgart

Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

.

It was built by the Schocken department store chain owned by Salman Schocken

Salman Schocken

Salman Schocken was a German Jewish publisher and businessman.Salman Schocken was the son of Jewish shopkeeper in Posen....

. The architect was Erich Mendelsohn

Erich Mendelsohn

Erich Mendelsohn was a Jewish German architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic functionalism in his projects for department stores and cinemas.-Early life:...

, who also built the Kaufhaus Schocken in Nuremberg

Nuremberg

Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...

 (1925/26) and Chemnitz

Chemnitz

Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle...

). The Stuttgart store was the most significant of the latter's projects in the sphere of retail store construction. The inspiration for the design came to Mendelsohn while he was attending a concert of music by Bach.

The building was a department store with a modern style in an urban context. It was constructed of brick and concrete. The shopping area within the building had mainly wooden furnishings and, in the absence of air conditioning, had a large number of windows. Again owing to the absence of air conditioning, the food hall was situated in the basement. The name of the store was displayed in lettering some 7.5' in height and illuminated after dark. The booklet which he designed for the opening features Mendelsohn's coloured sketch. He also created a logo and branding style based on the lettering on the façade of the store.

The department store, together with the Tagblatt-Turm

Tagblatt-Turm

The Tagblatt-Turm was one of the earliest German high-rises. This landmark is located in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg; its address is Eberhardstraße 61....

 of Ernst-Otto Oßwald across the way, constituted an impressive ensemble of modern architecture, and was damaged only slightly in World War II. In 1960, the local authority demolished the store, despite international protest. In its place today stands Egon Eiermann

Egon Eiermann

Egon Eiermann was one of Germany's most prominent architects in the second half of the 20th century....

's unremarkable department store building (Galeria Kaufhof, previously Horten). The building was re-leased in 1960.