Café Josty was one of the most popular cafes on Potsdamer Platz. In his book on 1920s Berlin, Spazieren in Berlin (1929), Franz Hessel wrote: “The Josty corner will remain part of the old times for a while. But going up on the other side of Bellevuestrasse – for now behind a high, poster-covered wall – is something very new, a department store with a Parisian name. Will it be as nice as [Alfred] Messel's masterpiece behind the foliage over on Leipziger Platz – the Wertheim House? Bellevuestrasse, which we can still glimpse, is becoming more and more a “Rue La Boëtie” of Berlin.”