Even though this building does not look its age, its structure dates back to 1480. Martin Römer, councillor and alderman, as well as chief tax officer of the silver mining industry, had this town house built with a grand crow-stepped gable and two alcoves. This is the very place where Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck exchanged their second kiss when the young pianist was in town for a concert and stayed at the Goldener Anker. In 1870, the building was reconstructed in the Gründerzeit style.
In 1901, the brothers Moritz and Julius Ury founded a retail chain which they named Ury Gebrüder, Zwickau/Leipzig. The manager was Simon Schocken, who had married into the Ury family. He subsequently took over the Zwickau branch. This is where the two brothers, Salman and Simon Schocken, founded I. Schocken Söhne Zwickau in 1907, which was to become one of the biggest department store chains in Germany. The family business was expropriated by the National Socialist regime in 1938.
Following extensive preservation work, the Goldener Anker was handed over to the municipality in May 2010.
