Verwirrung der Gefühle: Erzählungen (Fischer Klassik Plus 32) (German Edition)

Edition Raconteur .. Destroyed in during the battle for Vienna, between Germany's army and Russian forces. Wieviel Verwirrung steckt im Namen Bristol, der als permanenter Irrtum von über 50 Hotels years (Warsaw , Oslo , Paris plus around 50 further hotels across Europe). Kein Gefühl.
Table of contents

• A Companion to the Works of Franz Kafka (Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture)
• Villeggiatura
• A Companion to Twentieth-Century German Literature - PDF Free Download
• Ein Hotelier als Kavalier — vom Scheitel bis zur Zehe

Whether she had truly lost her memory or whether this was merely an elaborate publicity stunt was never established. Christie did not mention the episode in her autobiography. She died in and the puzzle went unsolved. So where, you may be wondering, does Pera Palas, the famous hotel in Istanbul, come into the equation? She did not stay at the hotel when she first travelled to Istanbul. She had chosen the Tokatlian Hotel, which no longer exists. The often quoted tale that she had written Murder on the Orient Express at the Pera Palace appears to be a myth. Or does it not? Although Istanbul is thousands of miles away from Berkshire, no one had the slightest inkling that the answer to the Christie affair might lie on the banks of the Bosporus.

The Hotel Baron in Aleppo, Syria , was an other logical haunt of the writeress. It is indeed documentd that she stayed there. But did she write Murder on the Orient Express there? In Warner Bros saw a box-office hit in Christie's mysterious disappearing act and turned it into a movie, starring Vanessa Redgrave as the missing author and Dustin Hoffman as the intrepid American reporter hot on her tail.

Because there was so little evidence to build the plot around, Warner Bros took the unusual step of hiring the celebrity Hollywood medium Tara Rand to contact with Christie's spirit and get to the bottom of the mystery. From the unearthly quarters of the other world came an eerie message: The medium explained that she had seen a vision of Agatha Christie at the Istanbul hotel, hiding the key to a secret diary under the floorboards of room Within days swarms of camera crews, photographers and reporters travelled to Istanbul from all over the world to witness the unravelling of the mystery.

On March 7 they squeezed into room of Pera Palas. A telephone connection had been established between the hotel and Los Angeles, and Rand was issuing instructions. The information she gave seemed authentic. Sure enough, the floorboards were loose precisely in the spot the clairvoyat indicated. Beneath them was found an old rusty key, some 8 centimetres long.

This was all great news for Pera Palas, of course. Not only did the affair provide welcome publicity, it also offered a possibility of some unexpected revenue for a hotel in need of a major revamp. Over in California, Warner Bros hesitated, before turning once again to Tara Rand who duly went into another of her trances and summoned the ghost of Agatha Christie. Without further ado, Warner Bros dispatched Rand to Istanbul to get hold of the key and solve the enigma once and for all. The American press scrapped to be the first to break the news.

This was the kind of story that would not come along twice. And then came the anti-climax. On 30 June , just as the US media was preparing for the denouement of this great twentieth century mystery, the Pera Palas staff went on strike. It would last a whole year. Amid the commotion, the affair of the key was put on the back-burner. Public enthusiasm quickly deflated and the press went home. Warner Bros did release their movie Agatha later that year, but minus the Pera Palas connection. The fabled key ended up gathering dust in the vault of an Istanbul bank, where it unconfirmed!

In , a second one was discovered under the floorboards of room , directly above Another twist in the tale? Perhaps we will never know. Today, the Pera Palace Hotel has dedicated a room to the great English crime writer. It displays a historic typewriter and presents a respectable collection of Agatha Christie's books. Even the hotel's signature restaurant is named Agatha—a respectable tribute to a great writer, who, as it stands at the moment, has never stayed at the hotel. She, herself, never commented on the missing 11 days. Did she excape on the Orient Express to Istanbul?

Did she collect experiences and details for her book Murder on the Orient Express during that journey? Did she secretly stay at the Pera Palace Hotel, hiding from the rest of the world? For the follwoing three reasons:. Constantinople wasn't the logical choice for a woman travelling alone. Sunningdale, Berkshire, where she was living, is east of London, south of Windsor today we'd say: To reach the Orient Express would have been more than complictaed.

As the timetable suggests click to enlarge , the journey took way over two full days and nights from Paris to Constantionple, not to mention the crossing of the channel and the onward journeys, London — Paris vv. In total the time for the journey with perfect connections and no time lost in transit would have been just under three days.

That doesn't sound as if she had just returned from a 10 days trip to the Orient. Hercule Poirot, her super-detective, like herself, didn't check into the Pera Palace Hotel. All evidence of Agatha Christie every staying there had disappeared. Manager Hakan Suezer snatched at that golden opportunity and simply moved the entire Christie story over to the Pera Palace, his hotel, deeply in need for a good publicity stunt.

1. A Companion to Twentieth-Century German Literature?
2. Mao Tse-tung und der Sino-Sowjetische Konflikt (German Edition);
3. Learning to Sail: In Dinghies or Yachts: A No-Nonsense Guide for Beginners of All Ages?
4. The Moulin Rouge and Black Rights in Las Vegas: A History of the First Racially Integrated Hotel-Cas.
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What a shame about the strike. However, neither Hollywood nor oriental creativity could delete the lines from Agatha Christie's biography and novels. So for the time beeing I shall close this case, but rest assured, dear rader, I will keep an eye on this file.

A Companion to the Works of Franz Kafka (Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture)

Book enthusiasts know summer is high season for books. Hotel Bristol Vienna - the burning glass of intellectual capacity. Next to the Viennese Opera House it was the home away from home to all conductors, singers and stars who ever stood on its stage. And there is the love story of the Prince of Wales …. An account of transformation, from Indochine to Indochic. Two charming buttleresses were captured by photographer Bill Lorenz. O ver 80 titles await you in our bookshop. You can browse the exhibition and all authors. I know those concepts can stand alongside this virtual assistant strategy and serve to embellish it in some ways, but is this really in sync with the culture you are trying to create?

It is not well. Finally something to smile. Are we approaching an age of darkness? Prince de Galles Paris: Grand Hotel Royal — the "Corinthia Budapest": It stopped taking paying guests in The Half Moon Treasury is out. The story of the legendary Caribbean resort and a brief history of Jamaica is available in our bookshop.

We bestow the title "oldest hotel in the world" on a hospitable place in Japan, dating back to the 8th century, called Keiunkan. Because it was founded in the Keiun era, the inn was thus named Keiunkan. With Closr we create descriptive and informative presentations of famoushotels history images.

At the same time, we have re-listed the Oriental Hotel Kobe, Japan. Two articles explain in German and in English what's going on during these extraordinary days. It is currently closed and will reopen in It is a rare jewel of the beginning art-deco, end of art nouveau Jugendstil. We are completing our book on the Paris Hotel Prince de Galles.

More about it soon! The Half Moon Treasury is about to be launched. The smallest hotel with an overall floorspace of 53 m2, is the Eh'hausl hotel in Amberg, Germany. Meanwhile, to secure the lead, the hotel increased its size from 6, rooms to 7,, with the construction of a Tower 2 Annex. Since , we have listed over hotels: We have researched the history of numerous individual hotels, recorded their history, and published it in our library.

There is a global demand to take history earnest, with a certain twist of entertainment. Our readers are educated, travellers. They want well researched information. So we are as diligent, profound and thoughtful as possible. We should not forget that we have inherited the responsibility to research and record the history of a famous hotel. It is an asset which needs to be developed with expert advise, carefully nourished and accompanied for ever. Andreas Augustin President famoushotels. And the book is a big success — in fact a bestseller.

The history of the hotel is an integral part of the hotel's identity. Famoushotels provides outstanding references on the truly great Hotels of the world. The research is thorough and the attractiveness of each book combines tradition and history in the settings of todays competitive environment.

Keep up the traditions, each book is a unique piece of history in its making. Cornelia Kausch was the general manager of the Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal in Budapest when famoushotels researched and produced the book about the history of this icon of Hungarian hospitality. The Imperial's pillared verandahs, dining rooms, tea lounges, Royal Ballroom, cool and verdant gardens have been witness to the venue of many celebrated encounters between the British and Indian aristocracy and gentry. If only walls could speak, here indeed was a repository of fascinating anecdotal material for authors of romantic and detective fiction.

It has made a huge impact coming from the most renowned keeper of grand traditions and heritage in luxurious hospitality. We are delighted about the research made in cooperation with famoushotels. It is with great pride that we have been welcoming and pampering guests since !

Opened in , this legend of Ukrainian hospitality has set all standards for tourism in the country. The saying goes that he who does not appreciate the past has no future. Andreas Augustin - with the help of local professionals - made a deep professional research of the historic data of the Premier Palace and of Kyiv life, as well. After one year of solid work a complete history was established and the author had a clear picture of the development of hospitality industry in Ukraine. The elegant, individual book illustrated with unique historical photographs, published in , became a result of detailed work.

Our book by Andreas Augustin and his team is a great success with our guests. Our hotel has a long history and with it many interesting stories have been developed and collected over the years. A luxury brand has in most cases a longstanding tradition. History becomes part of the DNA. Famoushotels' support of our hotel school is a wonderful example of the commitment our alumni and industry friends have to our teaching mission.

Thank you again for the thoughtful generousity. For every guest in a hotel it is interesting to know where they are and what has happened at the property. We as the professionals on property need to make personal contact to and with our guests. History is most helpful in this respect. No one will really remember the color of the carpet in his room, but the history of the hotel and place where they stayed will be in most cases unforgettable, if someone tells you about it. This adds an additional dimension — you are not only enabling your guests to experience a delightful hotel but also a part of the history of the city.

It does of course also come with the great responsibility to maintain and preserve such an architectural treasure. The series of The Most Famous Hotels in the World make a wonderful set of chronological history of some unique trophy palaces. The team of The Most Famous Hotels in the World capture beautifully not only the history, but the vibrancy of many such intriguing organizations, in a well presented format.

Our guests have passed much praise and credit on the book in relation to quality, presentation and content. While researching our books about the most legendary temples of hospitality, we always come across interesting findings, more often than not linked to the hotel s we are researching. Enjoy a look into our sketch book. When his family migrated to the USA, he took a large portion of Austrian snide humour across the Atlantic. At 30 he managed the largest hotel chain of the United States. Fluent in French, Spanish, Italian, and marginally fluent in Russian, Chinese and Japanese, Aloha Wanderwell — nomen est omen — was the first woman to drive around the world in a customised Model T Ford.

The hotel business has seen many fine promoters and salesmen but perhaps none as creative as Ralph Hitz. Hitz does not rank with the other great hotelmen in the sense that he built an empire or left an estate. His period in the limelight lasted only 10 years, a period when the hotel business was at its low ebb in American history. Hitz was a sales and promotion phenomenon, who was able to take ailing hotels and forecast within a few dollars what their sales and profits would be and then produce the sales he had forecast.

Born in Vienna, Austria, on March 1, , Hitz started his career as an elevator boy at the Hotel Sacher in Vienna when he was fourteen after he'd ran away from school. His family eventually returned him to school as his father wanted him to be an architect. However, on a family trip to the United States he ran away from home three days after his family arrived in New York in He made his way to New Mexico and started as a busboy at a small hotel in Lumberton.

He spent the next nine years working in restaurants and hotels around the nation, then got into hotel management. Hitz's ability to turn a profit during the depression led the hotel's mortgage holder, Manufacturers Trust Company, to hiring him to control all of its hotels. During the s, his National Hotel Management Company was the largest chain of hotels. In Hitz published The Standard Practice Manuals for Hotel Operation , which covered every aspect of what he believed needed to be done in order to operate a hotel successfully. The coffee shop was in instant success.

Against the Name bands and ice shows were also a favorite with Hitz. He was the first, according to his son, Ralph Hitz, Jr pictured with his autograph; , to air condition a hotel dining room. Again a simple explanation: When the 2, room New Yorker Hotel prepared to open, Hitz was hired to manage the new venture, which opened on January 2, , weeks after the stock market crash. Guests checking into a Hitz-managed hotel were showered with attention. Jones to room During the registration procedure the word loved most by the guest, his name, was used at least three times.

Jones was stopping at the hotel. On the way to the room, the floor clerk was also let in on the fact that Mr. Jones, may I be of further service? Jones was feeling quite friendly toward Mr. Hitz and the hotel. A first-stay guest could expect even more of the red-carpet treatment: A guest who stopped at a Hitz hotel times became a member of the Century Club, his name engraved in gold on a gift notebook.

Villeggiatura

Statler started the idea of slipping the daily newspaper under the guest room door. Hitz tracked information about annual conventions for 3, organizations, sent weekly bulletins to each of his hotels, and lobbied to have conventions booked in the seven cities where the NHM hotels were located.

Hitz recognized the importance of keeping his employees happy, paid competitive wages, sent gifts on special occasions, and protected the jobs of any employee with at least five years of service. Hitz was the first manager to create a customer database. In the days before computers, Hitz maintained file cabinets with information on the preferences of thousands of guests.

Another Hitz idea was a closed circuit radio system, similar to the in-house television channels in modern hotels, to advertise services in each of his hotels. Tall people were given room with seven-foot beds. Sick patrons were personally visited by the floor managers. Guests leaving on an ocean trip were sent bon-voyage messages. While most hotels were requiring guests without luggage to pay in advance, a no-luggage guest at a Hitz hotel was provided with an overnight kit containing pajamas, toothbrush, toothpaste and shaving gear.

Everyone in the Hitz hotels was trained and expected to be a supersalesman. Room clerks were sent out over the country for one or more months each year to pick up business and get acquainted with their customers first-hand. A Hitz man was supposed to give his all for the hotel, and room clerks were expected to make calls within their own city during their off-hours.

To insure compliance, each salesman kept a file card on each prospect and noted the time of the contract. Hitz hired a 7-passenger plane to sales-blitz all cities of , and more in population. Selling went on all the time the guest was in the hotel. If he opened a closet door, there staring him in the face was a placard advertising one of the hotel services or a dining room.

Even the mirrors in the bathroom medicine cabinets held advertisements. Cesar Ritz, before the turn of the century, had sent private letters to his hotels describing the idiosyncracies, and special likes and dislikes of his guests. Hitz systematically collected the information he wanted on each guest and set up a guest history department.

This department, manned by a separate staff, kept guest records and followed the Hitz system of bringing the guest back to the hotel. Routine also was the sending of a letter to all first-time guests, to each guest who had stopped with the hotel twenty-five times, fifty times and one-hundred times.

On the fiftieth visit the guest received a complimentary suite. With the hundredth visit an appropriate gift with a letter was sent. Birthday greetings and wedding anniversary felicitations went to all regular guests. Color signals on the record cards showed if there was to be no publicity, if the person was undesirable and not to be welcomed or if the address given was questionable. Special credit cards for people important to the hotel were developed by Hitz management.

Statler had given gold fringed cards to his friends which entitled them to the ultimate in service and accommodations. Hitz also gave a Gold Credit Card to persons who might influence convention or other group business. Anytime a Gold Card holder checked into the hotel he was extended special courtesies , and was at liberty to bedazzle wife and clients with a virtually unlimited credit. Hitz had a system for nearly everything. Like his former employer, the Hotel Sacher in Vienna, he offered active help to his staff. Should an undesirable person attempt to register at a Hitz hotel, this little contingency was handled with adroitness and business acumen: To insure that guest rooms were really clean and in immaculate order, a full-time room inspector went from room to room checking on everything in the room.

His inspection was in addition to the O. Hitz preached guest service which was implemented by a carefully devised system. He had a setup for each hotel practice. A Hitz hotel was operated by the numbers. Bellmen were uniformed and drilled by a former trainer of Roxy Theatre ushers. Hitz demanded much from his employees and because it was a time of economic depression, he got superior performance. He also paid higher wages. His department heads were the highest paid in the business because he knew it was through them that his systems would be implemented. Promotion was a part of the Hitz personality and he used it to promote himself as well as his hotels.

In , he was offered the management of the Cincinnati Gibson Hotel which was having financial difficulties. Because he gave guests who paid regular rates the same superior service that was associated with deluxe rates, his hotels ran high occupancies. Bankers and insurance company officials who reluctantly got into the hotel business via foreclosed mortgages were eager for his services. Hitz did more than promote, he introduced all-out standardization to hotelkeeping.

His kitchens were fine examples of efficiency and uniformity. Controls of all kinds were installed and thorough-going accounting practices followed. The income from his restaurants, and such services as valet and guest laundry, were so high as to confound his contemporaries. What others had done, he could do better. A hard-driving man, he was also known for quick thinking and a well-developed sense of humor. To get a true picture of him, one had to see him making daily tours of his house, busily taking copious notes, and later, during the check-in hours, to see him in the lobby, a short, ebullient man personally greeting new arrivals in his almost incomprehensible Viennese accent.

Hitz became ill towards the end of and died of a heart attack at the Post Graduate Hospital in New York City on January 12, at the age of His funeral was held at the University Chapel before a gathering of hundreds of mourners. It is maintained to this day. London with its archives, public libraries and private collections provided all the rich material one needs to create a dazzling book. In the late s, we put up at The Savoy , researching the history of the city and digging into the archives of the hotel. Susan Scott , the hotel's archivist, opened the archives at that time still at the hotel— gladly we scanned it all.

We spent days and nights in it, before we — after weeks of research — returned the keys. D'Oyly Carte, a man with extensive experience of staging operettas, knew that he needed a star for the leading part in this hotel. So he engaged a young hotelier on the rise, somebody who had shown his talents in various hotels on the continent. The Savoy London's archives reveal some of the guest history cards of its famous patrons. Actress Marlene Dietrich, for example, expected 12 pink roses and a bottle of Dom Perignon upon arrival.

The other thing he was aware of was that fine food is the second most important thing. Hundreds of Britons left the island every year starving for the cuisine of France and the rest of the continent well, it wasn't only for the food. Lead by the Prince of Wales, Albert Edward, who had little to do as his mother, Queen Victoria, had no intention to give up her post until she died after 63 years of reign, the landed gentry and its entourage spent more time on vacation in spas abroad than on their own island.

They went to locations that had the three characters B, A and D as part of their name. No, he had no reminiscence about this little Swiss chap who spoke English remarkably well. But from now on he would remember him. So Ritz lured Auguste Escoffier to London; the chef who established the modern restaurant kitchen as we know it today.

Escoffier came, cooked and conquered Britain. But he refused to learn English: The book was described as: In the summer of — the days of Gilbert and Sullivan, the heroes of English operetta — The Savoy opened its doors. After a century of confusion behind the fall from grace of this celebrated hotelier and his faithful chef this book discloses the sober facts. The American Bar became the watering hole of prohibition refugees.

This book talks about the people who created this legend. The personalities who make The Savoy one of the most successful and famous hotels in the world. The stars of yesteryear parade through these pages and meet the names of today. The choice is yours. In , when it opened its doors, the London Hilton was a novelty, a sensation , a scandal perhaps, but certainly a temptation. The hotel revolutionised British hospitality. A suite on its upper floors became the most sought-after accommodation in the city on the River Thames.

Moreover, for generations of young hoteliers the world over, London Hilton on Park Lane served as a training ground. Open and enlarge it in a new window with a mouse-right-click. This book takes you from the first idea for the hotel to the first visit of Her Majesty, The Queen who was NOT amused to see that giant tower rising from the windows of Buckingham Palace. Three hundred photographs illustrate the progress of the hotel on Park Lane, from a luxurious skyscraper, filled with modern novelties, to one of the most famous hotels in the world. Before we board our train north, we arrive at Paddington station.

It's history started in , it was the wrold's first palatial terminus hotel. They arrived in the UK on 24 September From then on it was hard work all the way up, starting with a small hotel: You must try the Royal Scotsman , a superb little luxury train with overnight compartments and a restaurant car.

It took me into the capital of Scotland. Edinburgh boasts two railway hotels; one, The Caledonian , which became my home for some while when I wrote its history. In fact, it was the Scottish author Roddey Martine photo who wrote most of it, while I enjoyed Edinburgh. I went out to explore the hidden layers of the ancient city, strolled through the streets and parks and finally fell in love with a Reverend, a certain Robert Walker, Skating on Duddingston Loch.

The gallery is in a park ideally situated between The Caledonian and the other grand hotel of the Scottish capital, The Balmoral. We also list, of course, all the legendary golf hotels of the rest of Scotland. The Caledonian — the book: By the end of the 19th century, Scotland had become the land of artists and poets, engineers and inventors. In Princes Street Station was to become the base for a grand hotel. All hotels were chosen by the honorable jury, regardless of their geographical location, their brand, their political environment and their commercial success.

Each week we put on new images from our vast archives. In case you find this Feuilleton Ritz-heavy, you couldn't be more right. Since the early s, the name Ritz is simply the better word for luxury. This time you can even take it home. Prices are astonishingly un-Ritzy. Prince Bertie, the Prince of Wales. At least, of some of us. We've got the answers. Hungry for more Ritz on stage? The spectacle is written and directed by Beni Kreuzer left , a native from the region. We are bringing back our coveted bestseller The Raffles Treasury — following the request of our faithful readership.

An oasis in the heart of the city of Yangon. The Strand's story is available at our bookshop. Pera Palace Istanbul is no longer a Jumeirah hotel. Pinar Kartal Timer is no longer general manager. Agatha Christie's secret still remains unsolved. Chinese hospitality expert Professor Zhang Guangrui answers all our questions. Letter from Adrian Mourby. Greetings from Europe, the cradle of ancient customs and the inventors of the modern world. This was often a quit pro quo, in return presents or favours were expected. Influenced by Buddhism or out of conscience, Chinese people in the ancient time believed in Karma and were willing to do good work and show mercy to others.

For the ordinary, hardly any inns for travelers en route could be found outside big towns. So, the locals were more willing to offer a place for over-night stay and some foods free if they were asked on their ability. Very often, the host might offer some food or other necessities for the visitor on the way. Earliest western traveller in China in the th century: He was the first European to set foot on Chinese soil.

From our book People's Grand Hotel Xian. As you know, for a long time, China had been an agricultural society, and the traditional rural lifestyle prevailed everywhere in the country. Some of the traditional customs have remained. Home is the most suitable place to show true affections and friendship. If relatives and friends come to visit, you should have them at home, just like your own family members, and prepare meals at home in person or help might be offered by your neighbors.

Of course, the guests may never complain about the condition offered. If there is not enough room indeed, the host might stay overnight at somebody else place for the guest convenience. Without specific reasons to be understood, family affection might alienate, or good relationship might be broken off.

That is why there are very few inns or hostels in the country. And, of course, that is not the case any more in the big cities in modern time. Todays pilgrimage of Mary and Joseph seeking shelter and a save place for their child can be witnessed in the heart of Europe every day. Not Joesph and Mary, but Vaslav and Romula , and their 19 month old daughter Kyra , were looking for shelter.

The most famous ballet dancer of his time, the 'God of Dance', Vaslav Nijinsky , found himself and his little family stranded in Vienna. In , war had broken out. The dancer and his family fled from Russia to Budapest, Hungary, escaping the turmoil of their home country. Nijinsky's wife Romola was a Hungarian socialite, the daughter of a politician and a celebrated actress.

Their daughter Kyra had been born in Vienna in , during peaceful days. In Budapest, they were interned and put under house arrest until their departure. They were finally permitted to go to New York for an American tour. They boarded the Orient Express at Budapest Keleti Station, but on their way they stopped at Vienna , where Nijinsky had so many fond memories.

They made it to the inner city, where they entered the Hotel Bristol. Janaury , he registered at the hotel. That was the day when he had asked the owning manager of the Hotel Bristol in Vienna, Arthur Wolf for a room, but told him right away that he wouldn't be able to pay for it. Wolf ordered the family some tea, offered them a seat in a drawing room and took the dancing star aside: Let me tell you one thing: That means, that you should not — by all means — NOT be in Vienna. BUT let me assure you that because you have given us so much pleasure with your performances, you will be my guest.

Order anything you like. Stay as long as you wish. You can pay — or not — when this terrible war is over. Officially, Nijinksy and his family stayed for two months in Vienna. In March , they left Vienna and continued their journey. The war took until In , after a tour of South America, the family settled in St.

Moritz in peaceful Switzerland. Nijinsky had become increasingly mentally unstable. It was simly too much stress to manage everything himself. His mental condition deteriorated; Nijinsky was diagnosed with schizophrenia in Nijinsky returend to Vienna where he spent over two years in a mental ayslum. For the next 30 years, he was in and out of institutions, never dancing again in public. A shadow of himself, the former great dancer was brought back to life in , again in Vienna, when he stayed at the Hotel Sacher.

But that's an other story. He lived until His daughter Kyra visited the Hotel Bristol again in , leaving a note of appreciation in the guestbook of the hotel. Not just travel, Indian royalty were also creating second homes in the international playfields of the rich and famous or in the exclusively secluded places that kept them away from the public eye. Maharani Sita Devi Sahib of Baroda set up a second home in Monaco with her second husband, Maharaja Pratap Singh Gaekwad of Baroda, who was the eighth richest man in the world and the second richest Indian Prince at the time.

London, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Switzerland were destinations the Royals travelled to for work, but essentially for pleasure and leisure. A look back into history and into the lives of the Indian Royalty shows how they were adept at blending the Indian spirit with western sensibilities. The Royalty was not only building up a huge aspirational value back home but also creating matchless and enormously successful business opportunities for some of the top class brands globally.

A Companion to Twentieth-Century German Literature - PDF Free Download

The original Louis Vuitton cabin trunk of the private secretary of the Maharajah of Alwar. When the Indian Royalty travelled abroad, they travelled in style. Even their luggage planning was a big affair. Bespoke, monogrammed luggage with the Royal family's insignia, were specially crafted out of finest leather by the likes of Louis Vuitton. I recall conceptualizing and shooting for the set of Guest postcards we were developing during my Oberoi years. For one of the postcards we wanted to show our smart Bell boy pushing a superbly buffed trolley stacked with Louis Vuitton suitcases.

We approached Tikka Shatrujit Singh, the scion of the Royal family of Kapurthala in Punjab, who graciously loaned to us his family heirloom luggage for the shoot. The large to very large pieces were works of art, beautifully created by the House of LV for the King in the 19th and 20th centuries. He was quite a Francophile and loved the Palace of Versailles so much that he ordered his main palace to be modelled after it.

It is said that Jagatjit Singh owned at least 60 pieces of bespoke luggage made especially for him by Louis Vuitton to hold his clothes, swords, turbans, suits, shoes and the elaborate traditional dresses. Amongst scores of his other purchases, the Baroda ruler got Louis Vuitton to make a Torino suitcase with toiletry accessories in vermeil and ivory, a shoe trunk and a tea case, that proved to be an elegant and practical accompaniment for his hunting expeditions. Maharaja Hari Singh, the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, who was a polo aficionado, was ordering Louis Vuitton to make special trunks for his clothes and equipment, including one to hold his mallets, in the year In the seven months between June and December , Hari Singh had placed an order for 38 pieces of luggage with specific purpose marked for them.

For instance, there were special boxes for polo outfits, twelve boxes for drying cigarettes, a shoe-maintenance kit, a toiletries kit that was superimposed on a tea set. The toiletries kit was uniquely elaborate. It consisted of 50 items in silver and was used to hold products for personal hygiene from brushes to bottles, soaps and razors. It also served as an extensively layered jewellery box. Being an Indian royal was all about the finer things in life, cultured discernment and a predilection for arts, letters and fashion. The exposure the royal class had to the West, cultivated in them love for western music and arts.

Notably, Rani Vijaya Devi, the Thakurani of Kotda-Sangani, was not only adept at Carnatic music and dance but was also a Piano playing virtuoso; so much that she won a fellowship at the Trinity College of Music, London. She became the founder and president of the International Music and Arts Society.

Not only in music, arts, fashion and jewellery, the imperialists in India were adopting western lifestyle in their daily life too. The queens would go hunting wearing breeches; the royalty began the use of chairs and table for dining, and started to eat in the finest porcelain and china from the illustrious makers in Europe.

Their tastes were so refined that they were buying mirrors in Venice, porcelain in Dresden; besides clothes and jewellery in Paris and other style-bearing ports in Europe. The European houses of fashion and style returned the love and adulation by creating works inspired by India. For instance, in the world of fragrance, Maison Boucheron proclaimed its love for the palaces and royal gardens of Jaipur by creating the eponymous perfume Boucheron Jaipur.

The first three Rolls-Royce cars owned by the Rajpipla royal family. Maharani Gayatri Devi, with her refined sartorial sense, natural beauty and inherent grace, was re-garded as one of the most beautiful women in the world by the czars of fashion and style internationally. Among her other interests was her love for wheels so much that she is credited for importing the first Mercedes-Benz W to India.

Such was the de-mand of luxury cars in regal India that Rolls-Royce were delivered to the country between and There is a rather delectable lore told around the pride of Indian Royalty and how sometimes the international luxury brand makers failed to recognize the might, purchasing power and opulence of this set. The story goes that the Maharaja of Alwar was insulted at a Rolls Royce showroom during one of his foreign travels. At one time, the Maharaja asked Vandyk to set up a studio at his palace in Patiala. Indira Devi, the Maharani of Cooch Behar which was considered as one of the most westernized royal houses of the time, had a fetish for shoes.

Salvatore Ferragamo, the legendary Italian shoe designer, reveals in his Autobiography about the time the Queen ordered more than a hundred pairs of shoes.

She even sent him pearls and diamonds from her collection to create a special pair. Both the queens were trendsetters and heralded as fashion icons; with magazines like Vogue and well-known photographers like Andre Durst, Man Ray and Cecil Beaton clambering to get their time and attention. Both royal men and women wore priceless, precious pieces all over their personage, starting from rare gems encrusted in their crowns down to expensive trinkets that adorned their feet. With their leaning towards appearing modern and to portray their western sensibilities, the Indian royalty began commissioning renowned designers in Europe to create bespoke items of jewellery.

The Patiala Necklace is still considered the most expensive piece of jewellery in the world. The Maharaja had Cartier make jewellery for his queen Rani Yashoda Devi, who would often be seen wearing beautiful necklaces with rubies, pearls and diamonds. The Maharaja also instructed Maison Boucheron to design and create jewellery for him. In again, one day the King brought along a casket full of stones — a mind-boggling carats of diamonds and carats of emerald and commissioned Boucheron to make designs for him.

Die Presse, Austria, April - Link to newspaper. Der Fremdenverkehr war noch nicht Devisenbringer. Es kam kein Geld rein, also musste Mann raus: Das ist wie Alain Ducasse beim Riesenrad.

Fortan sollte Ritz sein Hotelier sein. Ritz wurde ein Star. Das fand Oscar Wilde gar nicht gut. Dabei entfernte er die gesamte Einrichtung. April unter den Hammer. Der Katalog ist online unter http: Particular locomotives had to be constructed to manage the climb. This mountain train passage became the role model for similar tasks around the globe. This part of the railroad is 41 km long, climbs over 16 viaducts including several two-storey , 15 tunnels and arched bridges. It grew into a famous resort. Today it is a mundene desserted place, awaiting a new lease of life.

Er kommt aus Wien. Die Passagiere geniessen wohl auch die Aussicht. Wohlmeinend gauktelt uns der Kultur. Semmering vor, dass am Zauberberg alles in Ordnung ist. Es wird rechtzeitig dunkel, ehe das kritische Auge die Details wahrnimmt. Den einzigen Patienten, den es beherbergt, ist es selbst. Meere, 2 Stunden von Wien. Die Investoren — ein kasachisches Konsortium. Das funktioniert dann so: Sie wieder abzunehmen hat nicht gelohnt. Damit kein Irrtum aufkommt: Alle ein dramatischer Schwanengesang auf eine Region.

In der Tradition des Berges war zu diesem Zeitpunkt das Hotel bereits geschlossen. Destination unbekannt, die Zeitreise findet vorerst nicht mehr statt. Im gleichen Besitz steht das bekannte Kurhaus Dr. Es hat den Konkurs angemeldet und ist ebenfalls geschlossen. Im Panhans wird gearbeitet. Er stinkt zum Himmel.

In Abwesenheit von wenigsten vier Sterne, bitte! Mangels Angebot verirrt sich auch unsere work-life-balanced Society an ihren Home-Office-Days nicht hierher. Aber es gibt Hoffnung. Die private 6-Schlafzimmer Villa Antoinette ist mit Euro 1. Anzunehmen, dass die Schwindsucht geheilt ist, ist ein Irrtum. Sie ist schleichend am Semmering angekommen. Er ist auch noch nicht am Ziel.

Die Sehnsucht hat zur Zeit woanders Endstation. Semmering bietet ein ambitioniertes Sommerprogramm. Renommierte Namen der Wiener Szene treffen auf Newcomer. Das Publikum reist in der Mehrzahl extra von Wien an. Das ist wahre Treue. Anderseits, so eine Kulisse gibt es nicht einmal im Burgtheater. Auflage , S. Hotelnamen haben einen besonderen Klang. Der Hotelname ist eine Erfindung der Neuzeit. Wir lesen in Exodus 4: Das Wort Hotel kam noch nicht vor. Jahrhundert seinen Palast baute. Mittlerweile haben die meisten aufgegeben, sich auf den good old Earl zu berufen. Imperial ist auch so ein Klassiker.

Wien, Neu Delhi und Tokio, um genau zu sein. Das war aber weder in der Habsburgermonarchie, in Indien noch in Japan der Fall. Dezember nie dort. Man muss nur an den Namen Metropole, Grand oder Palast Hotel denken und schon entsteht in uns ein Bild von Opulenz und Herrlichkeit, nach der sich mancher sehnt. Conrad Hilton war ein Amerikaner, der einer der ersten Ketten seinen eigenen Namen verlieh. Das Sacher in Wien hat auch so ein Kuvert im Archiv.

Traditional continental European setting of a tabel for a menu, consisting of a first course, soup, fish, main course and dessert. Reduce at your own liking, but try to avoid more flatware on the table. The Strand Hotel in Yangon — opened by the Sarkies brothers in — has set standards in Burma Myanmar since its opening.

Stylebook has become part of the Classic Edition books. It reflects the style of the house, its habits in setting tables, presenting amenities and its tradition of service and related rituals. The history of the Hotel Imperial brought me back to this hotel which I had been visiting since the s. Happy personal memories were merged with professional research, carried out in India and internationally with devotion and attention to detail.

My personal Imperial saga had started about Back in those days, I remember the hotel being a dark and almost dilapidated site, but buzzing with business. A shaky Ambassador taxi transported me from the airport to the city. Nobody was there to greet me at the hotel. Two decades is a long time, however. When I came back to The Imperial, a member of the front office staff welcomed me at the airport terminal; cooling towels were handed out before the new Mercedes-S class took off.

The Sikh doormen traditionally guarding the hotel opened the door of the limousine and greeted me with a friendly "Welcome to The Imperial! The corridors were adorned with thousands of pieces of art. Researching the history of the hotel, I had to go back to the day when New Delhi was declared the capital of India. That was the year Slowly I worked my way up to the day the hotel came into being. That was between The Singh family had built it, but rented it out to the Oberoi family, who ran the place. Nehru centre held important political meetings at the hotel.

In the s a member of the owning family took the helm of The Imperial: The red upholstery is still threadbare to the point of decrepitude. Most of the light bulbs are burned out, the lamps are delightfully bizarre. Likewise, the bellboys understand nothing at all, yet their philosophical air is irresistible. Jasdev Singh Akoi took his place in the driving seat of the company, just as easily as he slides into his splendid Jaguar Mark III, model. With his natural sense for elegance and speed he became the long missing visionary leader of the good old Imperial. With the help of his wife Mira he worked seven days a week, 18 hours a day.

Wing after wing of The Imperial was renovated. No part of the hotel could be closed as the income was needed to pay for the work. Temporary lobbies had to be created, and electricity transformers had to be moved without being turned off. There was still very much of the 'old' in The Imperial. The Imperial has added a new wing but, realising that its history gives the building a character no other Delhi hotel can match, room rates have been revised so that the guests pay more to stay in the old wing, along with the ghosts of Nehru and Jinnah.

Meanwhile, Jasdev Singh Akoi had begun to collect art and antiques, buying from the palaces, collecting some 5, pieces of art. Singh Akoi decided to combine hotel and museum in one. A new floor was added, the number of rooms increased by 57 units. In he proudly invited guests to the first opening of his 'Great Exhibition of Imperial Art' at the hotel.

His masterpiece was still to come. Never before had a restaurant in India such a feed-back. Acclaim came from all over the world. A correspondent of the New York Times wondered: A confident Thai lady with the sweet-sounding name Veena Arora became the chef of The Spice Route, the first female chef of a restaurant of note in India. Part of her success is a collection of home cooking recipes. Here the charismatic Muslim leader Jinnah founded Pakistan. Gobind Akoi , the son of Jas Singh Akoi, became the new executive director of the hotel in His father elegantly stepped aside and handed his dream, his vision over to his son.

He found Rishi Kapoor , who took over the part of strategic planning. Soon The Imperial was the first hotel in India to install Fidelio, a hotel operating software. The Italian restaurant 'San Gimignano' became an other India's sensation. In Frenchman Pierre Jochem became the first foreigner at the helm of The Imperial since the s.

Pierre's persistence often needed a good portion of sense of humour: That's a fairly old model; and the maid said. Yes, indeed, but it doesn't matter, when it breaks down we have a second one. On the first of January we start to vacuum the hotel on one side, at the end of the year we finish at the other. It took me four months to make sure that every room was vacuumed every day. The Imperial became the first hotel in India to hire music designer Marc Barrott to create special moods in different sections of the hotel.

In the kitchen leading European chefs motivated their Indian colleagues. Flower arrangements all over the hotel were inspired by Strasbourg florist Groll. The housekeepers of competing hotels were seen once a week to copy the set up. Chic wooden furniture was placed on the lush lawns in front of the terrace.

Today 21 Art Deco at sq. Sebald stirred up a controversy when he claimed in a essay that the theme of the bombing of German cities had been neglected in German literature a ; a novel by Gert Ledig that described this bombing as graphically as could be imagined was reprinted, proving Sebald wrong, but also then helping to intensify German self-pity It must be said that this interest in German pain takes different forms. The melancholia that runs throughout postulates a false equivalence, yet the empathy for Jewish suffering is undeniable.

The end of the Cold War made possible a depoliticized adoption and exploration of the theme of German pain as trauma and traumatic legacy. Equally, in this age where the holocaust is rapidly becoming some would say inappropriately a metaphor for all manner of crimes, it would be censorious to insist that the Germans ignore the crimes committed against them. Yet the danger of relativization is considerable, and certainly the theme of German pain does predominate in recent German fiction about Nazism to a degree that might be considered excessive.

In fact he published an open letter in the FAZ declaring this refusal to serialize the novel There followed a bitter and entrenched debate in German newspapers on whether or not the novel was anti-Semitic, and, even if it were, whether Schirrmacher had the right to censure it as he had done prior to its publication. This claim is really quite false; in fact the opposite is the case.

Freeing literature from its anti-fascist moorings was supposed to produce a de-ideologized literature. Schirrmacher surely did not intend this extreme shift, whatever his flirtation with right-wing positions. Walser had already hinted in at the fact that, in terms of his relationship with Reich-Ranicki, he viewed himself as the Jew and Reich-Ranicki as the German quoted in Niven We must end then on a cautionary note. For not only are Germans now viewed as victims of the same category as Jews, they are the victims of Jews.

For a good overview of German literature after unification, see Brockmann See also Kolinski and van der Will For good overviews of cultural production under National Socialism in literature, theater, music, and cinema, see Ketelsen ; London ; Levi ; and Reimer respectively. Scottish Academic Press, Literature and German Unification. Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Volk und Welt, Deiritz, Karl, and Hannes Krauss.

Kleine Literaturgeschichte der DDR. Der Junge mit den blutigen Schuhen. Manchester and New York: Literatur und Drittes Reich. Kolinsky, Eva, and Wilfried van der Will, eds. Reprint of edition. Music in the Third Reich. Theatre under the Nazis. German Intellectuals, Unification and National Identity. New Haven and London: Facing the Nazi Past. London and New York: Writers and Politics in West Germany. In den Reflexzonen der Gesinnung. Essays on the Cinema of the Third Reich. Rochester, NY and Woodbridge: German Literature under National Socialism. Der neue Roman von Martin Walser: Kein Vorabdruck in der F.

The Language of Silence: West German Literature and the Holocaust. German Culture and the Uncomfortable Past. Frankfurt am Main and Berlin: Protest und Menschenrechte im klassischen Weimar. From Nature to Modernism: One such definition is that of culture as an independent part of a three-fold social order, an idea that has become established over the last twenty or thirty years in a large number of social theories. Although the terms used may vary, there is considerable agreement on the basic idea.

The sociologist Daniel Bell, from the more conservative camp, makes a similar differentiation Moreover, it is worth noting that this division into three is also used outside professional sociology, for instance in the artistic and social theory of Josef Beuys. In all these definitions, the cultural sphere is regarded as distinct from 1 the political and economic spheres. This means that society is not viewed as a homogeneous entity characterized by a unified structure and organized according to universal principles. On the contrary, it is a complex of interconnected parts, and conflicts between these parts are inevitable as they develop at different speeds and not always simultaneously.

I divide society, analytically, into the techno-economic structure, the polity, and the culture. These are not congruent with one another and have different rhythms of change; they follow different norms which legitimate different, and even contrasting, types of behavior. It is the discordances between these realms which are responsible for the various contradictions within society. In fact, Jakob Burckhardt — was the first writer to develop such a division systematically By contrast, religion still had sufficient importance for him to keep it separate and distinct from culture.

This has now changed. Indeed, the literature of the social sciences shows that the merging of culture and religion is accepted in a number of theories and 3 approaches. A glance at what happened later suffices to show how, within thirty or forty years after Burckhardt, the legacy of the nineteenth century was realized in the twentieth. The concept of culture had become more flexible, and found its place in a network of other concepts. To take one example among many: But, on the other hand, he also works with the concept of a conflict between culture and nature, which was familiar from the time of Burckhardt and an important theme in the nineteenth century, as well as with the opposition of culture and civilization, another nineteenth-century theme.

However, Musil is really ahead of his time when, in the s and s, he presents culture as a part of society that stands in opposition to the economic and political spheres. Another example is Alfred Weber — He distinguishes between society, civilization, and culture. In the progress of society and civilization it is human will power that dominates in the former and rational and intellectual capacities which are more important in the latter.

It protects society and civilization from the meaninglessness of mere intellectualism and rationalism. The transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century can indeed be best understood as a battle of differentiation, in which the split from the political sphere is surely one of the most important, however dubious and even fatal the dividing line between the different spheres may be. Where, one might ask, does the political begin and the cultural end?

In considering the first decades of the twentieth century, one must surely say that there are overlaps, adaptations, exchanges, and blurred boundaries. The National Socialists, for instance, did away with the difference between culture and politics. Others had the illusion that it was possible to keep politics out of culture. It must not be forgotten, however, that conceptual differences are not readily invalidated either by political ideologies such as fascism or by the misjudgments of certain social and cultural groups. Nonetheless, concepts of culture must defend themselves against competing views of culture.

The greatest challenge to the idea of culture as a subsystem comes from the idea of culture as an all-embracing totality. Others, such as Georg Simmel, took up the same idea, as we shall see later. The theories of culture developed by Herder and Burckhardt were 4 not the only ones that contributed to the debate about culture. In fact, nowhere in Europe during the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century was there a greater wealth of cultural concepts than in German-speaking areas.

The word embellished the speeches that celebrated the turn of the century, it was brought up at assembly meetings if the tone needed to be lifted, and was regarded as essential at the unveiling of memorials. However, the term was not only understood positively, that is, as an affirmation of the glory and achievement of contemporary society. Criticism of culture was already an established form of discourse at the turn of the century.

In addition, the elevation of the phenomenon to an academic discipline had begun with what has been known since the midnineteenth century as Kulturwissenschaft cf. Certainly, Herder provided the word and the concept with a permanent entry not only into the German language, but also into the academic and literary world, as the following two centuries would show. However, the word did not have a widespread impact. Many, including Moses Mendelsohn, saw it as belonging to the language of learned books, which to most people meant nothing. Schiller and Kant accorded it recognition, and gave it a certain status in their work but, in comparison with Herder and Rousseau, they did not develop a full-fledged theory or history of cultural development.

Goethe developed no explicit cultural concept, and Hegel appears to have had no serious philosophical 5 interest in the concept of culture. Nevertheless, it must not be forgotten that the use of the term, as well as the subject itself, began to arouse increasing interest. Three years later, J. Now, more clearly than before, the word Kultur denoted specific developments and characteristic customs, practices and forms of knowledge that were to be found in folklore and social traditions, in language, law, and art, but also in the technology and craft of a people or an ethnic group.

What in the Enlightenment was still subsumed under the general title of the progress of the human race was now divided into the diversity of the different ways of life of individual groups or historical periods Garber This change also marks the birth of a new generation of cultural historians whose far-reaching influence can be detected well into the twentieth century. They have contributed decisively to the view that we hold so dear today, namely that the individuality of a people or group, along with the socially accepted and shared ways of life of a particular time, should be conceptualized in terms of culture.

Jakob Burckhardt is surely the most influential here with his book Kultur der Renaissance in Italien, which appeared in and by was already in its twelfth edition. Another influential book was his Griechische Kulturgeschichte, which appeared from to Book titles such as Culturgeschichte des deutschen Volkes, which appeared from to , or Kulturentwicklung Sueditaliens or Kulturgeschichte der Neuzeit from , indicate the triumphal march of the new concept of culture.

Such books on cultural history, however, also bring something foreign to the homes of German readers. Travel writing and reports on life in foreign parts of the world expand and complement the views that readers found in books on European cultural history. In the same way, the historically foreign is for the first time perceived as the interconnectedness of a cultural way of life.

The reading 6 public also took an interest in these excavations. Jakob Burckhardt brought new insights into foreign culture to complement this existing interest in archaeology. His Griechische Kulturgeschichte revealed a culture that could not be more alien. Hans-Georg Gadamer describes the effect of this book on the twentieth century as follows: Thanks to the efforts of Jakob Burckhardt and Friedrich Nietzsche, it is generally realized just how different the Greeks really were from those noble human beings whom Classicism offered for our emulation.

It was a new and more profound view of Greece in which the dark, brooding, subterranean presence of the Titans took their place alongside the higher forms of Olympian clarity and splendor. But it must not be forgotten that at the beginning of the nineteenth century the Historische Schule had established itself, and, supported by documentation, concentrated on political history.

Power struggles, major state operations, diplomatic intrigues, and military developments were here the fields of research, against which cultural history had nothing comparable to offer. As a result, cultural history was academically marginalized. In the nineteenth century, politics was the exclusive object of historical study, attracting teaching posts, professorial chairs, and doctoral students, whereas cultural history, with a few exceptions, remained excluded from universities Burke From here on, even at the beginning of the twentieth century, very little changed and this remains of no little importance for the relationship between politics and culture.

Civilization and Culture Of importance to the relationship between politics and culture and also to the relationship between culture and economics is the debate surrounding the difference between civilization and culture. Kant had already drawn attention to this difference: But we are still a long way from the point where we could consider ourselves morally mature. For while the idea of morality is indeed present in our culture, an application of this idea which only extends to the semblances of morality, as in love of honour and outward propriety, amounts merely to civilisation.

What Kant called social courtesy and decency was for the Sturm und Drang movement the courtly manners and etiquette of rococo society. The French nobility embodied these manners, which in Germany were dismissed as empty, superfluous, and merely superficial or, at the very least, unsatisfactory. They were considered achievements of civilization, perhaps necessary, but certainly not sufficient in themselves. This final aspect must have played a large part in the choice of the word Kultur as, since Cicero, the word had expressed the ideas of cultivation and further education.

The excesses, terror, and relentless bloodshed of the French Revolution taught the Germans how little mere manners and etiquette sufficed. Only through culture did individuals achieve full humanity. With the rise of nationalism that changed. The civilization-culture opposition transformed itself into the opposition between France or France and Great Britain on one side and Germany on the other. Friedrich Theodor Vischer — praised the fact that Germany achieved a victory over France in and attributed this to its high-mindedness and spirited activity derived from its connection with Bildung and culture.

In , the first year of the First World War, Werner Sombart — played out a similar confrontation in his book Helden und Haendler: Germany was, in political terms, bogged down in feudal relationships until and these continued to exert considerable influence in the following decades. The idea that had been developed much earlier — of political activity and participation as part of culture — was increasingly rejected.

The political dimension, however, was excluded from this engagement. Eine Selbstkritik of already shows the new trend that would become so influential later on right up until the time of the Nazis. Baumgarten wishes to combine culture with the authority and military strength of the state. For him, 8 politics is a matter for civilization, and therefore of concern to the West. Parliament and public set the agenda there and make decisions; the individual is tangled up not only in social roles and pressures, but also in conflicts and power struggles, which, although external to him or her, cannot be evaded.

The addiction to material gain is ubiquitous. To this civilization of the West Thomas Mann opposes the culture of the community, in which role-play and struggle for status are of secondary importance. Here art and the metaphysical laws of the soul reign supreme. The former is connected to the vital forces of life and dominated by creative will.

It leads individuals to the original powers and foundations of their existence. By contrast, Western civilization, especially England and France, has only what Thomas Mann calls literature to call upon, and this is limited to social criticism. Incidentally, with this form of literary social criticism Thomas Mann had his own brother, Heinrich Mann, in mind.

Civilization, Culture and the City It was Voltaire who first linked the importance and growth of civilization to the establishment and expansion of town and city.

Ein Hotelier als Kavalier — vom Scheitel bis zur Zehe

It may therefore not come as a surprise that the culture-versus-civilization debate gains significance at a time when Germany experienced extreme urban growth, together with a strong increase in population. Manfred Vasold has described how until about there was little growth in most German towns, but some doubled their population between and or even, like Berlin, trebled it by Some previously small towns — such as Dortmund, Duisburg, Essen, Remscheid — within a century grew forty times larger.

Here one was confronted with its achievements in all arenas, but here also, one could no longer escape from it. How much of this new civilization was culture and how much was not? One could not resolve this question without taking the city into account, especially the so-called 9 cities of modernism such as Berlin and Vienna. Attitudes toward the city quickly split into three camps. First, there were those who responded to it positively. This group included profiteers, job seekers, entrepreneurs, and artists, writers, and musicians looking for an outlet for their talents.

Among the enthusiasts were people such as Frank Wedekind and Arno Holz, who wanted to benefit from the cultural experience the city had to offer. They sought an enrichment of their artistic sensibility. And finally, there were those who decisively rejected the city, and who, like Friedrich Nietzsche, could manage only an outpouring of contempt and ridicule on the subject. For them, the city was the epitome of alienation and decadence. Urban growth and expansion not only bring the old village extra muros into the city itself, they also change fundamentally the relationship between city and environment as village economy and labor become modernized.

Around the turn of the century there was already a reality of experience that may be interpreted as follows at the end of the twentieth century: The mode of village life, which had been formative for all cultures from the neolithic period until well into the nineteenth century, survives only in imitation form in developed countries. The decline of the peasantry has also revolutionized the traditional relationship between the urban and the rural. The fast growth of the city and its multicolored and bewildering mixture of civilization and culture, of industry, technology, mass rallies, new art forms, and new means of communication did not allow contemporaries to comprehend their experiences according to the model of past aesthetics and philosophies.

This is partly due to the fact that the form of experience changes. In the age of modernism it becomes increasingly difficult to let experience fall into a pattern by repeating it. Such patterning had been possible for thousands of years with the experience of nature and its seasons through worship, ritual, and the celebration of festivals. Not so in the city, which constantly produces new styles and fashions, alongside new forms of entertainment and leisure.

Billboards, newspapers, exhibitions, and tradeshows are characteristic of the ever-changing life in the city. Just as the means of transport are accelerated so too is the flow of new images, forms of music, tastes and smells. The danger arises that city dwellers are unable to grasp and make their own what they have experienced. Instead they may suffer, in the popular words at the time, nervous stimulation and nervous exhaustion, eventually even nervous breakdown.

At any rate, alienation is the result. Georg Simmel — , philosopher, sociologist, and contemporary commentator on modern life and change, called this the tragedy of modern culture: There is too much that can be culturally experienced, too much of it is inferior and too much is just distracting. There is too little time and strength of mind to cope with it. His idea of culture as a means of affecting and profoundly shaping the inner life of the individual is unthinkable without the older concept.

The beginning of the century is also the time when a new intellectual sensitivity was awakened and new concepts of culture were being formed, gained from the unsettling, often unnerving, but always stimulating experience of life in the city. This collection, which appeared in , reveals a sharp mind and a keen observer highly sensitive to city life in all its forms. This link would prove very productive in German cultural criticism, especially in the work of Adorno, but also in the writings of Ernst Bloch; Simmel was in many ways typical of a new intellectual sensitivity to modern culture and its discontents.

A number of writers therefore called upon culture as the one authority that could represent a much needed counterweight and remedy. In fact, compensation theories have a long tradition in German twentieth-century thought and have more than once caused politicians to seek out culture as a means of ensuring stability and cohesion Habermas The situation at the beginning of the twentieth century was of course different from the one at the end. Instead, these enclaves ensure the cultivation of traditions and the protection of forms of sense-making in both individual and social life.

Culture is therefore an epiphenomenon of technological rationalization and modernization and should not be confused with cultural criticism which challenges the hegemonic demands of industrial and capitalist society. Here too culture creates a counterweight or balance, but this time compensation involves the very fabric of society. It also extends into the domain of human anthropology and includes criticism of modern civilization. But these cultural objects, which could also be described as the result of the process of civilization and modernization, are not in themselves already culture.

Culture is the process whereby individuals make the cultural objects their own and grow in perfection. As compensation for individuals who give themselves up to the world of cultural objects comes the opportunity of personal development and growth. Culture represents both the world of man-made objects, institutions, forms of knowledge, and behavior, and the individual who seeks to appropriate all of these. As a result, culture does not have a political dimension of its own.

The political is just one of the many forms that culture can take and is subsumed under the concept of culture. However, a specific political dimension is also lacking in what Simmel calls the tragedy of modern culture, as mentioned before. Relevant here are overproduction, division of labor, the production of goods creating new needs in the individual, or the creation of cultural objects for their own sake, along with a number of other developments.

What was created by the individual for the sake of its development now turns 12 against it and its development. That is the real tragedy. The critique of political economy is turned into cultural criticism Bollenbeck Alfred Weber comes to the same conclusion as Simmel but from a different perspective. For him too the progress of civilization must be complemented by culture. The rationality and intellectualism which developed in Western civilization are incapable of giving meaning and value to life: Nowhere is that clearer than in the relationship between culture and nature.

In Germany, the concept of nature has often been included in the concept of culture. Kant spoke of a natural plan, to which the development of the human species was subject. For him the development of culture should be inspired by the experience of nature. Genius was a bridge between nature and culture in that it created the latter according to the rules of the former However, this view of nature was abandoned during the course of the nineteenth century.

It resurfaced, albeit in a greatly modified form, in the evolutionary theories of Darwin and Theodor Haeckel. In his Weltgeschichtliche Betrachtungen Burckhardt talks of a break between nature and history. For him, culture is the playing field of hybrids, while nature deals with species. Under the impact of the strongly growing influence of the natural sciences, Wilhelm Dilthey — felt it necessary to clearly differentiate the methodologies of Geisteswissenschaft from natural science Thereby, from the philosophical point of view, the division between nature and culture was cemented in methodology.

Goetheanism continued as a cultural heritage, but in the natural sciences became increasingly marginalized Schad The same is true of the medicine of the Romantic period. It is only in folk medicine, homeopathy, and naturopathy that some vestiges survive see Wiesing , and Harrington The path to fascism was prepared. Notes 1 For further examples, see Reckwitz See also Liebrucks Here, the influence of Humboldt is very obvious Mann See their contributions in Bovenschen Works Cited Arnason, Johann P.

Das langsame Verschwinden der Materie um The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. Zivilisationskritik in Deutschland — Glanz und Elend eines Deutungsmusters. Die Listen der Mode. Brackert, Helmut, and Fritz Wefelmeyer, eds. Zu Begriff und Geschichte der Kultur. Bradbury, Malcolm, and James McFarlane, eds. Pittock and Andrew Wear. The Relevance of the Beautiful and Other Essays.

Sylvia Bovenschen, et al. Berlin and New York: Ein Grundmodell praktischer Philosophie. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Critique of the Power of Judgement. Auch eine Philosophie der Geschichte zur Bildung der Menschheit. Cambridge UP, , 41— Yearbook of European Studies, 7, ed. Joep Leerssen and Menno Spiering. Zu Begriff und Geschichte der Kultur, ed. Helmut Brackert and Fritz Wefelmeyer. Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen Frankfurter Ausgabe.

Politische Reden und Schriften. Foundations of Modern Sociological Theory. The Free Press of Glencoe, , 30— Civil Society, Cultural Power and Threefolding. Die Transformation der Kulturtheorien: Zur Entwicklung eines Theorieprogramms. Tycho de Brahe, , 23— Zur diskursiven Konstitution von Kultur um Zur Neuordnung von Kultur und Geschlecht um , ed. Ueber das Abenteuer, die Geschlechter und die Krise der Moderne. Ein Lesebuch zur deutschen Geschichte —, ed. Konzeptionen der Medizin in der deutschen Romantik. Die Gartenlaube als Dokument ihrer Zeit.

Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, , — In fact, to underline the point, Wickert goes on to quote the response attributed to General de Gaulle at the time of the May events when it was suggested to him that Jean-Paul Sartre should be arrested: A closer look at the text, however, raises a number of questions that should not be overlooked. Wickert then, in contrasting the two countries, is picking up on a long tradition.

However, a few lines later, Mann writes: It only needs to be pointed out that two years after these words were spoken forces came to power whose actions can hardly be described by this adjective. At the same time, National Socialist ideology, with its stress on physical strength at the expense of the intellect, does underline the possibility of the kind of dichotomy between intellect and power that Mann is referring to.

On one occasion, he finds himself at the Brandenburg Gate face to face with his ruler, who significantly towers high above him on his horse. His thoughts are expressed in the form of an interior monologue: Die wir im Blut haben, weil wir die Unterwerfung darin haben! As this title implies, Enzensberger is not championing one side, but rather suggesting that the whole conflict is not to be taken particularly seriously. Just as such marital conflicts become part of a routine between two people, who in fact over the years have come to resemble each other more and more, the intellect and power dichotomy may well hide similarities between the two camps.

Both live off the public: The only comfort would then be that, at least in the cases of the Millennium Dome and Expo , many people turned their back on the entertainment on offer. However, I must first point to certain difficulties. First, we should not assume that the relationship was always marked by the kind of tensions stressed by Mann. Within all the periods under discussion, it would be possible to cite instances where particular writers, artists, and other intellectuals lived in harmony with the political authorities.

In turn, Kaiser Wilhelm II took a keen interest in the arts, contributing himself to the building of another national monument in the same monumental style, the Hermannsdenkmal near Detmold, which commemorates the victory of Germanic tribes under Hermann Arminius over the invading Romans. In a recent publication, Mark Hewitson interestingly challenges the idea that leading German thinkers at the beginning of the twentieth century rejected the political structures of the Empire, suggesting rather that the French republican model no longer held any particular attraction Among the names he mentions are the sociologist Max Weber and the historian Friedrich Meinecke.

Among these were the philosopher Martin Heidegger, who accepted the post of Rector at the University of Freiburg, and the poet Gottfried Benn. The postwar GDR, which prided itself on creating a society where there was no need for conflict between intellect and power, represents a special case that will be considered later. A second problem is that of periodization. It would appear self-evident that this kind of discussion must take as its point of orientation the various political and social systems under which some or all of the German people have lived in the past or so years.

While this will largely be the case, we must remember that cultural and political history do not necessarily run in tandem. Some recent observers have suggested that, for instance, the time between to , which for all Germans encompassed three political systems, not counting the years of occupation, can be viewed as a single period in terms of cultural history, during which intellectual life 1 was marked by a dominance of conservative or traditionalist ideas.

Whatever the validity of this theory, it is clear that did not mark a total caesura; previously established writers such as Benn continued to play an important role in postwar cultural life. At the same time, writers normally associated with the postwar period, such as Alfred Andersch and Wolfgang Koeppen, had been active before and in a number of cases been 2 members of the Reichsschrifttumskammer. References to possible affinities between intellectuals and the Second Empire mentioned in the previous section should not be taken to mean that relations between the two spheres were entirely harmonious.

Heinrich Mann, with his satire on the subservient attitudes of the nationalistic bourgeoisie in Der Untertan, was not alone in his criticism. By contrast, the Austrian Grillparzer, whose fellow countrymen were excluded from the new Reich, commented that Bismarck had destroyed much that was valuable and created only insta3 bility.

Even if such a viewpoint might be discounted as coming from someone on the losing side in the hegemonic struggle between Austria and Prussia, there were also critical voices from within the new Germany. Later in the poem he expresses himself very much in the spirit of Heinrich Mann avant la lettre: Although he is generally associated with both German nationalism and the cult of power, he was no friend of the Second Empire. The position is succinctly summed up by Matthew Jefferies: The Second Empire therefore presents a very mixed picture, which makes it almost impossible to generalize about the relationship at that time between intellect and power.

Prior to unification in it was common to compare the Federal Republic with its doomed predecessor, the Weimar Republic. For example, executive power was no longer shared between Chancellor and President, while it became extremely difficult for opportunistic alliances of parliamentary parties to topple the government by means of no-confidence motions and thus create a political vacuum. When it came to the reasons for the collapse of Weimar, it was commonly claimed that the first attempt to create a democratic republic in Germany had been thwarted by extremists: They, too, it was held, had failed to support the democratic republic and thus contributed to its downfall.

As for intellectual life, the democratic Republic was opposed from the outset by rightist nationalists, who either hankered back to the monarchy or sought some other nondemocratic form of government. Franz Schauwecker, for example, shows a total disdain for the revolutionary masses of the early years of Weimar in the following passage: This quotation shows the actionism of the conservative revolutionaries — one of their leading publications carried the title Die Tat — but leaves open the question of their own beliefs.

At the same time, he strove for reconciliation with France, something that was only to be achieved after following the third conflict in less than a century between the two nations. What is held against many writers and intellectuals, who initially supported Weimar, is that, instead of defending democracy, they succumbed to disillusionment. In this same year of the leftwing writer Kurt Tucholsky expressed his personal disillusionment in the following aphoristic comment: When the Nazis did assume power, one group of intellectual opponents was immediately visible through the fact of emigration.

It is well known that major figures such as the Mann brothers and Brecht went into emigration, not least because in many cases the alternative would have been persecution and imprisonment. How far it is possible to speak of opposition at all in the case of writers associated with the conservative revolution remains a moot point. Right-wing opposition to Nazism, although certainly a fact, was tainted by its continuing failure to endorse democracy. Hence, it is small wonder that one postwar German state, the German Democratic Republic, made great play of having created a society where the old enmities did not exist.

The potentially most revealing word in the above quotation is the last one. Officially, the existence of censorship was denied and some things inevitably slipped through the net; nevertheless the system whereby everything that was printed, down to labels on consumer products, had to be licensed amounted in reality to the same thing. Even if something critical was published, there were other steps that could be taken that functioned as forms of censorship.

These included limiting print runs, prevention of reviews, and the refusal to reprint once a first edition had run out. What was offered writers was a kind of compact, whereby they would be rewarded in terms of status and, in GDR terms, a relatively high standard of living, provided that they conformed. Under these circumstances, it is small wonder that there were many instances of conflict between the realms of intellect and power, too numerous to be detailed here. I will mention only three key events. As stated above, these terms did change; however, periods of relative liberality were followed by clampdowns, as the next two examples show.

The result was a period of greater intellectual freedom, which, however, was brought to an abrupt end in A major victim of the new hard line was the film industry, with several critical films being banned. The expulsion of the songwriter Wolf Biermann in provoked protests from leading writers in the country and led others to take the path of emigration. In some ways, this could be said to be the most significant example of conflict in that it provoked such widespread disillusionment, as the subsequent wave of emigration showed, that the bulk of writers and intellectuals no longer retained any hope of the GDR becoming the kind of society where they might work together with politicians to achieve socialist ideals.

One might even claim that GDR literature, that is to say writing that, however critical, in some way identified with the state, largely came to an end in Indeed, particular opprobrium was heaped in the early s on those writers who had appeared to criticize aspects of the GDR, yet remained loyal to the state and to the ideal of socialism.

As is well known, the main target was Christa Wolf, not least because, as a young woman, she had cooperated with the Stasi for a brief period. Since it is a matter of record that her objections to the events of led to her being removed from her status as candidate for the Central Com- 54 E STUART PARKES mittee of the SED and that she came under prolonged Stasi surveillance, all that needs to be said in this context is that her fate illustrates the existence of the intellect and power dichotomy in the GDR in a particu5 larly virulent form.

The state that proclaimed harmony imprisoned, expelled, and spied on its writers and intellectuals. To their credit, many refused to be cowed and arguably helped to create the conditions for the peaceful revolution of Here, too, the story is of conflict, at least for a time. The first cause of tension between the post west German state and writers and intellectuals was the fact of its existence. The division of Germany, which came about formally through steps undertaken in the western part of the country the currency reform and the creation of the Federal Republic , did not meet with widespread intellectual approval.

The danger of division and later the danger of its persistence exercised many writers from both East and West. Accordingly writers from all zones took part in a congress held in , organized by the Soviet Zone Kulturbund, which expressed its disquiet about already apparent signs of division. For western writers and intellectuals it was not just the fact of the existence of a separate state that caused concern, but also the kind of policies that it pursued.

The issue that provoked most anger was undoubtedly rearmament. This policy was decided on less than ten years after the total defeat of , which seemed to have discredited the military ethos for ever. Ich bin schuld, ich bin schuld, warum habe ich nichts getan. Nevertheless, calls to action like the one from Richter were generally answered more favorably by the s.

He ends his essay with the provocative exclamation: Many writers now set about creating such a state through advocating a change of government. Volumes of essays appeared in the first half of the s advocating, not always particularly enthusiastically, a vote for the Social Democratic Party Walser ; Richter , thus provoking the kind of comments from CDU politicians referred to at the beginning of this essay.

The goal of an SPD-led government was not of course achieved until , by which time the Gruppe 47 had ceased to exist and some writers, in the wake of the student movement, appeared to be advocating the abandonment of traditional intellectual pursuits, specifically literature, in favor of revolutionary politics. At this time, Grass expressed, through his metaphor of the snail, 6 his belief in slow, evolutionary progress rather than revolution. In the late s some writers felt challenged by the phenomenon of terrorism and the countermeasures taken by the SPD-led government of Helmut Schmidt, which were widely felt to endanger democratic freedoms.

Once terrorism had died down and the advent to power of Helmut Kohl in did not appear to threaten civil liberties, the previous conflicts between the worlds of intellect and power largely died down. The question that presents itself in this concluding section is whether the conflicts described above represent a noble struggle of positive against evil forces, which is roughly the position of Heinrich Mann, or are merely manifestations of a childish pastime, as suggested by Enzensberger.

The obvious answer is that the issue is to be considered historically. It goes without saying that almost any form of opposition to National Socialism, whether practiced by intellectuals, accountants, or any other group, has to be praised. Something similar might well be said of the GDR, although, measured by the scale of human misery created, it cannot be compared with what preceded it. More problematical is the case of the Federal Republic, the one example of a largely successful democratic state on German soil. In this case, what has to be considered is almost exclusively criticism from the left.

Although the extreme Right did not disappear in , it did not attract the kind of intellectual support it had enjoyed in the Weimar years. Before any specific issues are discussed in detail, it is necessary to return to Enzensberger, who also adopts an historical approach. Now, however, the situation has changed: In other words, there are no longer any forces which seek to guide and control its direction or, as he puts it: Despite the tone, one can take this as an endorsement of the critical role of GDR intellectuals. This can be illustrated by recent criticisms of the Gruppe 47, the association of writers that undoubtedly became most celebrated for its social and political criticism in the first two postwar decades.

How far the metaphor of the slaughterhouse was ever applicable to the Federal Republic is of course very much open to question. How then is one to view the political role of authors associated with the Gruppe 47? These two views may not be mutually exclusive, but they do underline the difficulty of reaching easy conclusions. However, there were at least two occasions where the Group took part in successful campaigns against potentially undemocratic developments during the Adenauer era.

When in the government attempted to introduce a centralized television channel — although responsibility for broadcasting lay with the Federal states — members of the Group joined in the chorus of protest. Again writers from the Group protested against what appeared to be an unjustifiable attack on press freedom. Even if the authors were acting in their own direct interests in fighting government control over the media, freedom of expression remains an essential part of a democratic society.

Finally, it is necessary to consider the postunification position. Accordingly it is not surprising that many writers have turned away from direct involvement in politics. There is in fact a wide consensus that art and politics are no longer closely entwined. In an essay published in about oppositional art, whose conclusions could equally be applied to literature, the political scientist Klaus von Beyme puts forward the following reasons for this development: Given that this state of affairs is a result of the democratic stability of the Federal Republic, it can only be welcomed. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the worlds of writing and politics remain entirely distinct.

Intellectual engagement with political questions is clearly not at an end, but taking new forms and considering other issues. Political institutions or the stances of specific politicians are no longer at the center of attention. Without this development the public sphere in Germany would be much poorer. See, for example, Anz , and Vinke Works Cited Abusch, Alexander.

Boa, Elizabeth and Rachel Palfreyman. Politics and Culture in Modern Germany. Aus dem Tagebuch einer Schnecke. Die Gruppe 47 als deutsches Problem. Stuart Parkes and John J. National Identity and Political Thought in Germany: Wilhelmine Depictions of the French Third Republic — Kultur und Politik in der DDR — Edition Deutschland Archiv, Schwierigkeiten mit der Wahrheit.

Cultural and Intellectual Trends. Scherz und Goverts, Die Schriftsteller und die Weimarer Republik. Richter, Hans Werner, ed. Schwarz, Georg and Carl August Weber, eds. Verlag Willi Weissmann, Politik und Gruppenethos im historischen Zusammenhang. Deutsche Schriftsteller und ihr Staat. Die Alternative oder Brauchen wir eine neue Regierung? Hoffmann und Campe,