Three years after the Berlin Wall fell, three founders in Jena, a university town in the former East Germany, started selling e-commerce software. They called the company NetConsult. In 1995 it built Germany's first online store. By 2000 Intershop was worth about $11 billion and was a star of Frankfurt's Neuer Markt, Germany's answer to Nasdaq. That September it brought its shares to America, with headquarters in Hamburg and operations run from San Francisco.

Shops in a Box

Stephan Schambach, Karsten Schneider and Wilfried Beeck founded the company in 1992. Their bet was that every retailer would need an online store and few could build one. Intershop sold packaged software for running one, and services to install it. It released its current product line in March 1998, and most of its revenue came from software licenses. Development stayed in Jena, while product management sat in San Francisco. Schambach ran the company as chief executive.

Neuer Markt to Penny Stock

Intershop sold American depositary shares at $32.09 in September 2000 and listed on Nasdaq as ISHP. Within months its earnings warnings shook the whole Neuer Markt, and the stock sank to penny levels. About 30 companies spun out of Intershop, including Demandware, which Salesforce later bought. Intershop left Nasdaq in 2004, the year Schambach left. It survived and still trades in Frankfurt, based in Jena.

Cover: Cabaret de l'Homme Armé, Rue des Blancs-Manteaux, Jean-Eugène-Auguste Atget. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a Paris shopfront (an online shop).