Public Speaking in the City

Public Speaking in the City

Also by Janet Stewart FASHIONING VIENNA: Adolf Loos s Cultural Criticism BLUEPRINTS FOR NO-MAN S LAND: Connections in Contemporary Austrian Culture (co-edited)

Public Speaking in the City Debating and Shaping the Urban Experience Janet Stewart University of Aberdeen, UK

Janet Stewart 2009 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-21809-3 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-30416-5 ISBN 978-0-230-24362-0 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230243620 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09

Dedication For Verity and Dominic, who arrived in the middle of things

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Contents List of Figures viii Acknowledgements x Introduction: Public Speaking in the Modern City 1 1 Look Who s Talking 13 2 Architects and the Urban Public 51 3 Appearing in Public 87 4 Locating the Voices 120 Epilogue: Public Speaking and the City of the Future 168 Notes 180 Works Cited 182 Index 199 vii

Figures I.1 American moving walkway at the Berlin Trade Exhibition, 1896 5 I.2 Imperial Jubilee Exhibition, Vienna 1898: Bird s-eye view of the exhibition site 6 1.1 Alfred Hagel: Karl Kraus lecturing 28 2.1 Final scenes from Der Weltbaumeister 75 2.2 Information about the 1910 General Municipal Exhibition in Berlin, with handwritten notes listing speakers by Muthesius 80 3.1 Georg Simmel at the lectern, 1906 108 3.2 Poster advertising Loos s 1913 lecture, Ornament and Crime 118 4.1 Interior of the Romanisches Café. Architect: Franz Schwechten: Berliner Architekturwelt IV (1901/02) 129 4.2 Sophiensäle: Grand hall in use as a swimming pool 134 4.3 Arbeiterheim. A concert in the big hall, 1902 136 4.4 Weinhaus Rheingold, Kaisersaal. Architect: Bruno Schmitz 137 4.5 Weinhaus Rheingold, high relief sculpture. Artist: Franz Metzner 140 4.6 Zoological Garden Berlin. Site plan of the entertainment complex showing the promenade 142 4.7 Raumbühne in the Konzerthaus in Vienna, 1924: Platform for public speaking. Architect: Friedrich Kiesler 147 4.8 Everything is spinning, everything is moving : Die Raumbühne. Caricature by L. Tuzynsky (originally in Der Goetz von Berlichingen, 24 October 1924) 148 viii

Figures ix 4.9 Berlin, Masurenallee 8 14. Haus des Rundfunks (Berliner Rundfunk) 153 4.10 Urania, Berlin: Scientific Theatre and laboratory for optics and acoustics 157 4.11 Frontal view of the newly built Volksheim in Ottakring, 1905 159 E.1 Rebecca Nesson lecturing at Langdell Hall, Harvard, 2008, with Second Life projected on a screen in the background 176

Acknowledgements This book would not have been possible without the support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Leverhulme Trust, both of whom facilitated periods of dedicated research time, while grants from the British Academy and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland enabled research to be carried out in Berlin and Vienna. The British Academy also provided assistance with the costs of illustrations, as did the College of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Aberdeen. This book is the product of extensive library and archival work and I owe gratitude to the staff of the following institutions: the Zentrum für Berlin Studien, the Staatsbibliothek and the Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin; the Deutsches Literaturarchiv in Marbach; the Austrian National Library in Vienna; the Albertina in Vienna; the Arbeiterkammerbibliothek in Vienna; the library of the Technische Universität in Vienna; the Wien Museum; and the Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek. The material presented in this book is original. However, in Chapter 3, I have drawn on two existing articles Georg Simmel at the Lectern: The Lecture as Embodiment of Text, Body and Society 5/4: 1 16 and Talking of Modernity: The Viennese Vortrag as Form, German Life and Letters 51/4: 455 69 while the analysis of the Weinhaus Rheingold in Chapter 4 appeared in an earlier form in Imagining the City, ed. Emden, Keen and Midgeley (Oxford: Lang 2006). In all cases, this material has been revised and adapted for the purpose of this book. For permission to reproduce illustrations, I owe gratitude to the Picture Archive of the Austrian National Library, the Wien Museum, the Werkbundarchiv Museum der Dinge in Berlin and the Federal Archives of Germany. As this book is intended for an English-speaking audience, I have used standard translations where available. Unless otherwise indicated, the translations are my own. This book would not have been completed without the intellectual encouragement and advice, at various stages of the project, of David Frisby, Roger Stephenson, Andrew Benjamin, Elizabeth Boa, Leo Lensing, Gilbert Carr, Andrew Barker and the anonymous reader at x

Acknowledgements xi Palgrave Macmillan. I would also like to thank supportive colleagues, old and new, at Aberdeen; in particular, Chris Fynsk and Michael Syrotinski both encouraged and enabled me to rework the project; Kriss Ravetto and Liz Hallam provided fresh intellectual stimulus; Finn Brunton offered insights for the epilogue. Beyond Aberdeen, thanks are also due to Paul Bishop for both his illuminating references and his deep pessimism. Thanks also to Philippa Gould at Palgrave Macmillan for giving this book a home. Finally, my thanks go to Simon. Without his encouragement, translations skills and overwhelming support, there would have been no Public Speaking in the City.