A WOMAN'S WORK.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13394, 30 May 1914, Page 9

A WOMAN'S WORK.

ROMANCE OF A GREAT BUSINESS

FAILURE,

BERLIN, April 16. Behind the bankruptcy of the Wolf Wertheim Department Stores, Limited, with liabilities of £1,250,000, and estimated assets of ' less' . than £500,000, js the story of the attempted revenge of v a once wealthy and brilliantly ambitious woman/ »Siie is Frau Gertrud PinkusWertheim. wife of Herr Wolf Wertheim, founder of the firm. ' Before her marriage she was a novelist and satirist under the name of "Truth."

Herr Wolf Wertheim is one of four brothers .who introduced great shops on American lines' into Germany 15 years ago. The parent establishment, ( the A. Wertheim Company, in 'the Leipzigerstrasse in Berlin, is one of the greatest shops in the world. The brothers Wertheim worked together harmoniously until 1909, when Wolf, in the face of bitter opposition on the part of his brothers, married "Truth,," a, widow. Quarrels ensued. Frau- Pirifcus- Wertheim, whoj aspired to be a merchant princess, want, ed her husband to become general manager of the business. The brothers opposed this. Litigation was started, hnl a private settlement was mnde by which Herr Wolf WerHwim - withdrey from tho firm, receiving £250,000 as payment for his partnership interest. Frau Pinkus-Wertheim now determined to revenge herself on her brothers-in-law. She induced her husband to invest tho £250,000 in a rival enterprise, to be conducted, in the name of Wertheim.. He* bought ar gigantic new emporium in the Friedrichstraj?se, and, with his wife in personal charge of the "publicity department," began operations with an advertising, campaign. Mr Hubert Latham was. then the most, famous airman in Europe, and Frau Pinkus-Wer-theim engaged him to .fly 'at Tempelhof Field, and invitfed- Berliners to be the guests of her firm. As I well recall, she was the soul of. the arrangements, and was assisted by Her vivacious Augh. ter Dolly, soon herself to play a conspicuous tolo in a cause celebre. WIFE'S ADVERTISING PLANS.

A few months later, to carry the war against her brothers-in-law into their own field, Frau Pinkus-Wertheim persuaded her husband to open a second great shop . in the Potsdamerstrasse. Novel advertising methods, for which 9he was mainly responsible, drew public, attention to the new stores.. Then Herr Wolf Wertheim bought a third shbp, this time in the Leipzigerstrasse, near the stores of his brothers. But things did not go well. Before long dwindling business, heavy rents, and expensive advertising begaii to make serious inroads on the firm's revenue.

Herr Wertheim effected an alliance with the '"Princes' Trust" — Prince Furstenbertr and Prince Hohenlohe^ —^which had an ambitious scheme to dominate the German money market. The advent of the Princes did not improve a bad situation, and presently the ahops found themselves face to face with disaster. '

Frau Pinkus-Wertheim had meantime become involved in the Count WolffMatternich trial, in which there were allegations as to the matrimonial machinations of herself and her daughter Dolly with noblemen and military officers. After this the family abandoned their residence in Berlin. The management of the shops Herr Wertheim founded was now transferred to the "Princes' Trust." Since then Herr Wolf Wertheim has been mainly dependent on the goodwill of his brothers, who settled an annuity of £5000 a year on him. "Truth," as Frau Pinkus-Wertheim is best known, is still under 50.' _ She is considered an uncommonly beautiful and clever woman. Her daughter Dolly "was married two years ago to an hotel pro^ prietor. .'