The ship-building industry in Elsfleth was undergoing through a structural crisis. Gerhard Wempe decided to leave his hometown and set up a store in Oldenburg, where his business continued to flourish.Meanwhile, the creations of Parisian jeweller René Lalique were revolutionising jewellery. It was the “fin de siècle” in the French capital; the Spanish dancer Agusta Carolina Otéro, “la belle Otéro,” was the sex symbol of this era, courted simultaneously by the Russian czar, the king of Belgium and the shah of Persia.