In the summer of 2023, our association member Friederike Fechner visited both Leonhard Tietz’s granddaughter Vera Peck (daughter of Gerhard Tietz and his wife Bella Tietz née Schuty), who is over 90 years old, and her great-granddaughter Kay Graham (daughter of Luise Tietz and her husband Oskar Eliel) in London and brought them the novel “Das Kaufhaus” by author Susanne von Berg, which the Tietz ladies were not yet familiar with. The ladies were delighted, especially as Vera Peck speaks very good German. At the same time, documents were viewed and unpublished writings were photographed, e.g. diary entries by Ernst Baumann, the son of Leonhard Tietz’s brother-in-law. From this we quote an entry about Leonhard Tietz:
„For us of the young generation, Leonhard Tietz was naturally the patriarch, the head of the family concern and I recollect having felt full of respect. Today’s youth would not have had this feeling so similarly ingrained. In his demeanour however, he was in no way a dominant personality. He was small, quick in his movements and enormously kind – quite charming. He sported, as can be seen from his photographs, a small goatee beard. As far as I can remember – it is all very long ago – he always had the same appearance, it was always grey and I cannot bring to mind what other colour his beard could once have been – it was always grey-white. What has especially stuck in my memory of his intrinsic character is his kindness. As youngsters, we were not aware of his abilities nor of his commercial standing.“