Reading Berlin 1900

Berlin in 1900 attracted writers, artists, and filmmakers whose fascination with the city manufactured an elaborate urban culture that insinuated itself into the most casual metropolitan encounters. The newspapers' daily versions fabricated Berlin into a sensational place, transforming city dwellers into flaneurs, browsers, and spectators. Paying more attention to the kaleidoscope of urban life than to singular world events, the print media reconstituted the metropolis into an extraordinary field of visual pleasure. At the same time, thanks to the extravagant and dramatic operations of the media, Berlin began to look more like the sensational front pages. Almost all Berliners were readers, and each day they took inventory of boulevards and alleyways, princes and prostitutes, the latest fashions and vanished landmarks. They consumed the city's sights as well as its commodities. Their city was an unending serial of surprise. Berlin's print culture enchanted the metropolis and thereby anticipated a modernist sensibility that celebrated the urban experience of discontinuity, instability, and transience. Fritzsche carefully explores this coming modernity, disentangling its myths from the modern experience itself and yielding an urban enclave at odds with its intended imperial destiny. It's a sharp-edged story with cameo appearances by Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin, and Alfred Doblin. This sumptuous history of a metropolis and its social and literary texts, of furtive glances and passersby, provides a rich evocation of a particularly exuberant, particularly fleeting moment in history.

the Great Cities At The Turn Of The Century Were Mediated By Words—newspapers, Advertisements, Signs, And Schedules—by Which The Inhabitants Lived, Dreamed, And Imagined Their Surroundings. In This Original Study Of The Classic Text Of Urban Modernism—the Newspaper Page—peter Fritzsche Analyzes How Reading And Writing Dramatized Imperial Berlin And Anticipated The Modernist Sensibility That Celebrated Discontinuity, Instability, And Transience. It Is A Sharp-edged Story With Cameo Appearances By Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin, And Alfred Döblin. This Sumptuous History Of A Metropolis And Its Social And Literary Texts Provides A Rich Evocation Of A Particularly Exuberant And Fleeting Moment In History.

john Bingham - Canadian Journal Of History

reading Berlin Marks An Important Step Forward In Charting Responses To The Modern City...in Inquiring Into The Actual Perceptions Of Turn-of-the-century Berliners And How They Understood Themselves And Their City, Fritzsche's Sensitive And Thoroughgoing Exploration Of The 'word City' Of Metropolitan Newspapers Is Especially Apt.

The great cities at the turn of the century were mediated by words--newspapers, advertisements, signs, and schedules--by which the inhabitants lived, dreamed, and imagined their surroundings. In this original study of the classic text of urban modernism--the newspaper page--Peter Fritzsche analyzes how reading and writing dramatized Imperial Berlin and anticipated the modernist sensibility that celebrated discontinuity, instability, and transience. It is a sharp-edged story with cameo appearances by Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin, and Alfred Döblin. This sumptuous history of a metropolis and its social and literary texts provides a rich evocation of a particularly exuberant and fleeting moment in history.