Oscar Tietz (1858-1923) grew up in a Jewish family of merchants and haulage contractors in the Prussian provincial town of Birnbaum near Posen. He spent his apprenticeship with merchants belonging to the extensive Tietz family in Prenzlau, Stralsund, and Berlin. A business idea of his led him to Gera, where he opened his first wholesale and retail business for white and wicker goods in 1882, together with his uncle Hermann Tietz. The product range was quickly expanded, and additional branches were established. In 1884, the first department store of the Hermann Tietz company was founded in Munich at Stachus. Here, goods of all kinds could soon be offered across five floors in eleven departments. Starting in 1900, the visionary and strategist Oscar Tietz built a department store chain in Berlin based on modern sales principles, with well-known locations on Leipziger Strasse, at Alexanderplatz, and on Frankfurter Allee.