Sunday, July 18, 2010

QUESTION 291

Massive!!



What is this building?
What distinction can it claim??

7 comments:

pranav said...

it reads Kaufhaus des Westens on it and it looks like a mall to me

pranav said...

as to what distinction it has my guess would be the first wifi enabled mall in the world

Admin said...

This is Germany's largest department store and has been there for over 100 years. The Nazis forced its Jewish owners to sell their shares in the business in the 1930s, then it was damaged in World War II, but it was reclaimed and rebuilt after the war, to become a symbol of West German prosperity. It apparently recorded its greatest sales figures ever in 1989, with many East Berliners making it one of their first stops on their quest to sample a slice of western life.
The name of Kaufhaus des Westens is normally shortened to Ka De We (cunningly, not only just the first two letters of each word, but also the way the letters KDW are pronounced in German), but the banner hanging from it in the picture is calling it Ka De Be - Kaufhaus der Berliner (department store of the berliners), asking passers by where they were when the wall fell with the question "Wo waren Sie am 9. November 1989?"
Prem'slog

Shravan said...

It's KaDeWe, the second largest department store in Europe, attracting 40,000 to 50,000 visitors every day.
Just after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, KaDeWe recorded a record-breaking number of people going through the store.
Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaufhaus_des_Westens

Siddarth Pai said...

KaDeWe

dept sore in Berlin

2nd largest in eurpoe after Harrods, London

Gaurav Radhakrishnan said...

Kaufhaus des Westens, second largest departmental store in Europe, located in Berlin.

Anonymous said...

kaufhaus des westens departmental store