For about 140 years these two stores have lingered around Germany. I'd call them Macys-like.
Every significant town had one of each, and lesser towns (say of the 100,000 in population) had at least one.
Through the wars.....both survived. Through the 1960s and 1970s....in West Germany....they survived.
At some point in the 1990s....both had issues. Profits were decreasing and management wasn't able to settle the problems.
If you asked me to review the two (I've been in both....probably in at least a dozen stores throughout Germany)....I'd say they featured finer clothing....nice kitchen items....top class shoes....and Karstadt featured a international 'deli' with all kinds of foods/beers from across the globe. Over-priced? Well....to some degree, yeah.
In the past coupe of years....they merged. That really didn't help matters.
They've asked for help from the government, and gotten several hundred million. The money hasn't really resolved much of anything except to buy time and convince them that a number of stores need to be closed.
In Wiesbaden, one of each still survives on. If you asked.....Galeria has fallen a step or two, and probably ought to be closed down.
An economic mess? Well....once Saturn and Media Markt arrived in the 1990s to sell electronic gear.....part of the success of both GH and Karstadt went away. Shoe shops appeared....to also carve away part of the Karstadt success. Same for perfume shops.
The federal gov't having money to help one more time? I doubt it. After Christmas, I expect a massive downfall, and probably half of all their stores go away.
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