
AI-generated summary
Galeria has gone bankrupt for the fourth time. The department store group has been struggling for years with competitive pressure from e-commerce and changing consumer habits.
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Retail expert Kortum on another department store bankruptcy “Galeria is neither attractive in terms of prices nor in terms of product range”
The Galeria department store group has gone bankrupt for the fourth time. Retail expert Carsten Kortum about too many owners, too little profile - and why he still believes in the department store concept.
An interview by Alexander Preker
October 3, 2026, 8:16 a.m
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
Galeria will scale down structurally and concentrate on profitable locations.
Likely · Within months

BASF wants to take over Evonik for around ten billion euros after previously focusing on downsizing. Evonik rejected the first offer. The RAG Foundation, with a 44 percent stake, and political actors from North Rhine-Westphalia, the federal government and IG BCE are influencing the process, while CEO Kullmann is unwell.

An unpublished study by the German Economic Institute shows that the East German economy has not caught up with the West German economy for five years and is falling behind in key indicators such as labor force participation, investment and research. The population is shrinking more than in the West, while political decisions such as maintaining the pension at 63 and declining willingness to immigrate are clouding the outlook.
In Petzow near Werder (Havel), Christine Berger runs one of the largest sea buckthorn plantations in Germany on 150 hectares. The harvest is currently underway, the berries are shock-frozen and processed into products such as juice, liqueur and cosmetics. Although sea buckthorn tastes sour and tart when fresh, it is marketed as a vitamin C-rich 'lemon of the north', with experts critical of the superfruit label. Climate change with heat waves threatens the harvest, so the company is adapting its cultivation method.
36 years after German reunification, households in the five new federal states and Berlin have an average of 7,247 euros less net disposable income than in the West. According to a BSW request from the Federal Statistical Office, the values in 2023 were 42,259 euros in the east and 49,506 euros in the west. Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony have the lowest incomes, while Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse are at the top.
According to a YouGov survey, more than one in two adults in Germany were unable to make cashless payments at least once this year. Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil is planning a legal obligation to accept digital payments, which has met with broad approval from bank executives.

Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil plans to require shops and restaurants to accept card payments and digital payments. A YouGov survey shows that 56 percent of adults in Germany were unable to make cashless payments at least once a year. Among the boards of directors of Volksbanks outside Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, 77 percent support the obligation to accept cash, while 49 percent support mandatory cash acceptance up to a maximum limit.