Die provinzielle Großstadt. Städtische Selbstwahrnehmung in Plauen/Vogtl. um 1900

Abstract

The article explores the interrelation of urban growth and the idea of the modern city in the industrial town of Plauen (Saxony) at the turn of the 20th century. By reaching the benchmark of 100 000 inhabitants, Plauen in 1904 was numerically classified as Großstadt (metropolis) and thus became a focus of concepts discussing industrialization, urbanization and social balance. The members of the local elite developed an understanding of their city as a hub of the internationally connected textile industry (specialized in laces and embroideries), but without the negative consequences of industrial growth. Understanding and representing Plauen as environmentally and socially ‘clean’ functioned as a way to handle the problems of urban expansion and the widening social rift between the middle and working classes. The recourse to images of the ‘provincial’ town of the early 19th century also served as a useful strategy for managing the challenges of the modernizing city.