Ferkai András: Shopfronts - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1996)

The Gütmann department store in a newspaper advertisement of the Haas & Somogyi Co. 12 Rákóczi üt, VII

When a shop opened in a newly erected building, there were truly large-scale possibilities. A spectacular example of a frontage designed together with the building is the former J. Gutmann & Partners Department Store (12 Rákóczi út. District VII). The block housing the department store as well as flats - a standard characteristic of many buildings in big cities - still stands on the corner of Rákóczi út and Síp utca. It was built in 1936-37 to plans by Gyula Wälder, the eminent professor of architecture of the inter-war period. In the 1920s Wälder was renowned for his neo-Ba- roque style and in spite of striking a more modern note in the 1930s, he retained his basically conservative attitude attested to by the faqades and Rococo bars on this building. Compared to the upper part of the building, the architectural composition of the shopping areas is surprisingly modern. The architect seems to have resigned himself to the fact that trade demanded a new, different and louder tone and thus allowed the needs of commerce to dominate the ground floor and the mezzanine, which were separated from the other storeys of flats with a cornice jutting out noticeably from the fagade.

Thus the Gutmann Department Store became one of the most modern stores of the period and was a spectacle in the busy Rákóczi út. It sold menswear and children’s clothing as well as working clothes and protective gar33