ABSTRACT
Shoplifting today is a mass phenomenon, which in 1994, resulted in 579 274 cases being reported to the German police. By the end of the 1890s, the situation in Germany had changed dramatically. From the 1890s onwards, the department store had gained ground in Germany as a new form of business enterprise. It is impossible to investigate the precise number of department store thefts in Germany around the turn of century, because the data published at that time are not sufficiently consistent. German crime statistics before 1977 were published as undifferentiated data, using only general categories. The significance of the department store as a new and innovative form of retailing is widely accepted. However, Germans were unable to recognise and define the department store in a modern sense. It was quite difficult to distinguish between the former bazaars, large shops and hire purchase companies, between consumer co-operatives for civil servants and mail order houses with salerooms.
