Magasin du Nord

Facts

Parisian shopping at Kongens Nytorv

By Jens Toftgaard, Ph.d.-stipendiat (12 stories)

In 1868, the future founders of the Magasin du Nord department store, Theodor Wessel and Emil Vett, opened a draper's shop in Aarhus. A few years later they expanded with a branch at Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The business in the capital was such a success that, by 1894, they opened the doors to a new, ostentatious building laid out as a French-style department store. Magasin du Nord had its own factories and in 1908 had as many as 98 branches. In the post-war era, the Magasin chain concentrated on department stores in the cities and large towns, and extended the complex on Kongens Nytorv in numerous stages.

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Temple to shopping

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Story written by Jens Toftgaard

Time / Periode 1868

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In 1896, a reporter from a conservative weekly visited the new Magasin du Nord department store on Kongens Nytorv. He was bowled over as he stepped inside the store: For an instant I was dazzled and overwhelmed. The hall stretched before me, high and wide, with its galleries and broad staircases, its carpets and draperies along the balustrades and columns, its counters, tables, cabinets and refined displays of the most heterogeneous objects and in the midst of it all, above and below, a throng of people, eagerly swarming around the sales counters to satisfy their shopping whims". With its diverse assortment, Magasin sought to attract both "millionairesses" and "those of modest means". The poor could but dream, as they window gazed. "