Berlin
Corsets and controversy: the remains of a historic store
Berlin's Leipziger Strasse was once famously lined with large stores, their ornate facades and sumptuous interiors competing to attract throngs of shoppers.
Little remains of this dynamic centre of commerce, although one particularly impressive relic of the street's heyday still stands at the junction with Charlottenstrasse.
The fashion house Kersten & Tuteur opened here in 1913, its innovatively large plate glass windows showcasing the latest in ladies' apparel (below left).
Controversially, many of these displays included mannequins dressed in corsets or revealing negligees, a risqué novelty that was echoed by the scantily-clad stone figures surmounting the shop's main entrance.
The clamour generated by this eyebrow-raising tactic certainly helped promote the company's fame, and the name Kersten & Tuteur remained synonymous with ladies' fashion until 1938, when the store was seized and 'aryanised' by Nazi authorities.
See also:
Berlin's secret stores
Sights you're missing in Potsdamer Platz
Berlin's largest Ampelmann
Former Kersten & Tuteur fashion store:
Leipziger Straße 36 / Charlottenstraße 24,
10117 Berlin
