El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-05-09
REVENGE Of
WOMAN BACK
Of FAILURE
Gigantic Commercial Crash
in Paris Caused by a
Merchants Wife.
TURNED HUSBAND
AGAINST BROTHERS

II ERIN. Germany. May 9.-The TO-
nance behind the gigantic failure
- Of the Wolf Wertheim department
stores, limited, was revealed today. 1t
Is the story Of the attempted revenge
OF a once wealthy and brilliantly am
bilious woman
She is Frau Gertrud Pinkus-Wer-
theim. wife Of Henry Wolf Wertheim,
founder OF the firm. and before her
marriage was a novelist and a satirist
under the name OF Truth
The stores have liabilities OF $685..
900 and estimated assets Of less than
S2,50O,O0O-
brothers who introduced great shops
on American lines into Germany Isl
years ago The parent establishments
the A Werthelm company in the Letp-l
sigerstrasse, in Berlin is one OF the.
greatest shops IN the world The
brothers Wertheim worked together
tremendously until 1909. when Wolfs
part OF mis- brothers, married Truth. =
a widow Quarrels ensued-
Erau-P1nkus Wertheiu1. who aspiredi
% be merchant princess wanted her
husband TO become general manager OF
the business. The brothers opposed.
this Litigation was started. but a pri-s
herr Wolf Wertheim withdrew from
the firm, receiving S1.250,00O as pay-3
meut for his partnership interest
Starts Rival Enterprise.
Frau-Pinzus Wertheim now deter
mined TO revenge herself on her brOth-3
erinlaW She Induced her husband TO
invest his $3.50, 900 in a rival enter-4
Prise. TO be conducted under the namsi
OF Werthelm- He bought q gigantfui
new emporium in the F'riedrichstrasse,
and. with his wife in personal CHARGE
OF the publicity department" BEGAN
operations with an advertising cam
Hubert Latham was then the most
FAMOUS alrman IN Europe, and frau
Pinzus- W ertheinn engaged him TO fly
az 1enpeLho1 field and invited Ber-
liners 20 be the guests OF her firm
she was the soul OF the arrangements
and was assisted by her vivacious
daughter, Dolly. soon herself to play a
conspicuous role in cause celebre-
Opens Additional stores
A few months later. 20 carry the war
against her brorhsriulaw into Their
own 1lelds frau Pinkus-NV ertheim per
suaded her husband to open q second
shop in the Porsdamersrrasse- Novel
advertising methods, for which she was
mainly responsible, drew public atren-
ton 70 the new stores Then herr - of
Wertheim bought third store. this
time In the Leipzig rsIrasse, near the
stores Of his brothers
But things did not 90 we'll Before
long dwlndliug business, heavy rents.
and expensive advertising began 10
make serious inroads on the firms
eh
Herr Wertheim effected an alliance
with the Princes Trust''-prince
E'urstenberE and prince HOhenIohe.
which had an ambitious scheme to
dominate the German money market 3
The advent OF the princes did not i'm
prove a bad situation. and presently the
shops found themselves face TO face
with disaster
Becomes Involved in Trial.
Frau Pinkus- We rtheim had mean
time become involved in the count
Wolf Meternich trial. IN which there
were allegations as To the matrimonial
Vaccinations OF herself and her daugh-t
ter. Dolly, with uoblemen and military
officers After this the family aban.-i
dOned their residence in Berlin The
management OF the shops herr lIer-.
theim founded was now transferred to
the Princes Trust" Since that time
herr wolf Wertheim has been mainly
dependent on the good viii OF his
brothers, who settled an annuity OF
$4,000 on him
Truth" as frau Pinkus-Wertheim Is
best known, IS still under SO. She Isl
considered an uncOmmoniy beautiful
and clever woman Her daughter Dolyf
was married two years ago to a hoteRi
proprietor.