Vergnügen in der „Emporkömmlingsstadt“. Soziale Scheidelinien in der populären Kultur Plauens im frühen 20. Jahrhundert

Abstract

Its growing textile industry turned the town of Plauen in southwestern Saxony into a Großstadt (major city) at the turn of the 20th century. In the context of rapid demographic growth and urban development a great number of institutions of high and mass culture were established in Plauen. This article explores the interconnections between urban social structures and popular culture, referring to the discourse on legitimate amusement in a ‘city of arrivistes’ (Emporkömmlingsstadt). Plauen’s theatre, cinema, and music hall were examples of a developing popular culture, where neither social exclusion nor sophisticated cultural taste dominated. Thus, the characteristics of the ‘provincial’ town of the 19th century were still important in a modernising city.