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Retailing in Germany is not in particularly good shape at the moment, according to the influential commentator, Theo Werdin. Department stores performance is poor, with indifferent profit‐to‐turnover ratios; legal restraints abound — even though some of them, such as the regulation to restrict superstore building — seem to have had little effect. But still the great combines — that unique feature of German retailing, the department store and variety chain store under single control — continue to experiment with concepts, profiles, and change. This is a shortened version of the paper read by Theo Werdin at the international conference of the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute last autumn.