MESSEL, ALFRED (1853–1909), German architect, born in Darmstadt. He built apartments, public buildings, banks, the Pergamon Museum, and the villa of Eduard Simon. His most famous work, the Wertheim department store in Berlin, built in 1897, was the first store to be constructed entirely of stone, steel, and glass. An extension made in 1904 is overlaid with neo-Gothic decoration, but the basic design of repeated verticals proved to be a prototype of the modern store.
Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.