<translation>Schocken Department Store</translation>

The chain of German department stores Schocken was founded by the brothers Simon and Salman Schocken. Simon married into the family that owned the department store Warenhaus Ury Gebrüder, which was established in March 1901 in Leipzig by the brothers Moritz and Julius Ury. Simon Schocken became the manager of the Leipzig store and invited his brother Salman to establish another branch in Oelsnitz/Erzgeb. In 1907, they founded the first Schocken branch in Cvikov. Since then, other department stores followed, initially in Saxony, and by 1933 the Schocken brand, with a total of thirty branches, ranked fourth among German department stores.
In 1926, a Schocken department store opened in Nuremberg, designed by Erich Mendelsohn, and it immediately became a model for other branches across Germany (except Berlin). In 1928, Mendelsohn completed the Stuttgart branch and was subsequently commissioned to build one in Saxon Kamenz, which was to be the largest store in the entire chain.
All of Mendelsohn's department store designs featured an maximally open layout to utilize the sales areas efficiently, and a dynamically shaped facade. For some branches, the characteristic feature became the rounded glass corner. In the case of Saxon Kamenz, it was a set of five horizontal band windows interspersed with stone sills on the convex facade facing the busy street leading to the main railway station.
With the rise of the National Socialists, the Schocken department store was expropriated. During World War II, it was severely damaged by bombing, but it was successfully reconstructed. During the period of the communist GDR, it served as a HO-Kaufhaus department store. After the reunification of Germany, it was assigned to the Kaufhof chain, which subsequently sold it, so that there could now be a State Archaeological Museum here.
Today, the square in front of Mendelsohn's building is named after the local native and famous writer Stefan Heym (originally Helmut Flieg).