Ein Feentempel der Mode oder Eine vergessene Familie, ein ausgelöschter Ort: Die Familie Freudenberg und das Modehaus “Herrmann Gerson” by Gesa Kessemeier (review)

To several generations of Berliners the fashion house Gerson symbolized a variety of things: elegant ready-made clothes for women, men and children, furniture, textiles, modern interiors; it was a place for charity events and memorable fashion shows. For the several decades of its existence—from the mid-nineteenth century to the early 1930s—the store had a reputation for daring innovation, international competitiveness, and enduring style. In her book on the house Gerson, historian and curator Gesa Kessemeier reaches far beyond the myth and the anecdotes. She undertakes a careful cultural-historical reconstruction of the company’s origins, the various ingredients of its commercial success and aesthetic innovation, the scope of its societal impact, the tragic circumstances of its “Aryanization,” and, finally, the family’s unsuccessful attempts for restitution in the 1950s.

Founded in 1839 by a Jew from East Prussia, Herrmann Gerson, the company had maintained for decades a steady upward trajectory toward economic success and public admiration. At its highest point, in 1929, it had stores for fashion and home furnishings in several premier locations—near the Konfektionsviertel as well as on Kurfürstendamm. Several years later, in 1936, the ownership of the Jewish business would be transferred to the brothers Herbert and Rolf Horn. The members of the Jewish families Freudenberg and Mayer, who had most recently been involved in the running of the company, would leave Germany and go into exile. Gerson designs, however, would still be featured in Nazi-controlled fashion magazines in the years to come, because the label had a distinctive appeal to customers. By 1941, the name “Gerson” was to be replaced everywhere by “Horn.”

Compact, and yet meticulously researched as well as richly illustrated, Gesa Kessemeier’s study outlines a paradigm for the cultural and economic assimilation of Jews in Germany within the textile trade and fashion industry. First, it tells the remarkable story of the founder, who within a short period after his settling in Berlin, managed to become a purveyor for the royal court. Soon after, he had a sensational new building for his store, not far from the Stadtschloss that would feature all the architectural elements of a secular temple of consumption: an atrium, huge glass windows, a spacious display area. “Auf die glänzenden Schaufenster der Gerson’schen Bazar’s, hinter denen die neuen Schätze der Pariser Moden in bunten Gemische prangen, ist das starre Staunen gerichtet,” reported a Berlin newspaper after the festive opening in 1849 (15). Herrmann Gerson is also credited as one of the inventors of the famous Konfektion: exclusive haute couture creations from Paris that were transformed into affordable, mass-produced, off-the-rack garments with French flair; up to 70 simplified copies of each of these designs were manufactured and sold in Gerson’s store.

The bulk of the book is devoted to the “Freudenberg years” from the 1890s to the end of the 1920s when first Philipp Freudenberg and later his sons Herrmann and Julius were in charge of the house Gerson. Philipp Freudenberg, a Jew from the Rhineland with considerable experience in the fashion trade in his home area, became first a partner in “Mode-Bazar Gerson & Co.” and then, owner in 1891. Kessemeier demonstrates that during the subsequent decades the fashion business grew, modernized spectacularly, and became an institution inseparable from the cultural and economic life of the capital. The author presents a convincing account of Gerson’s impressive public presence in Berlin around 1900 and shows how they were first in many things: to introduce the regular fashion show in Germany in the late nineteenth century, to invite revolutionary French designer Paul Poiret and his models to visit Berlin in 1910, and to start using fashion shows as charitable events. Early on, too, Gerson realized the enormous potential of the young...