Gesichtswahrung, Statuskämpfe und soziale Grenzziehung. Interaktion im urbanen Vergnügen des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts

Abstract

Historians of turn-of-the-century Germany have argued that popular entertainment blurred class distinctions, as it appealed to people from different walks of life. The present article challenges this interpretation. Firstly, it proposes that commercial culture became a site where members of a new middle class strove for status. Secondly, it aims to explain why respectable men and women engaged in ‘improper’ amusements in the first place. Thirdly, it identifies ‘slumming’ as a practice whereby middle-class patrons of lower class entertainment reaffirmed social boundaries. Focusing on interactions in physical spaces, the article presents an approach well suited to the study of social distinctions in urban popular entertainment before the era of sound film and radio.