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For more information contact [email protected] Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL) School of Languages, Linguistics and Film (SLLF) German Department John Goodyear Musikstädte as real and imaginary soundscapes: Urban musical images as literary motifs in twentieth-century German modernism supervised by Professor Rüdiger Görner and Dr. Astrid Köhler This PhD thesis is submitted to the German Department in the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film (SLLF) at Queen Mary, University of London in part-fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. London and Oldenburg 2010 “In der Hoffnung auf eine Zeit, da man auch wieder an Musik denken kann! Deine Christel 26. Februar 1945.” Handwritten note on the inside cover of Eberhard Preußner’s Die bürgerliche Musikkultur (1935) in the music collection at Oldenburg University library Acknowledgements From its conception in China to its completion in Germany, this doctoral thesis has been over six years in the making. It has been an enlightening and stimulating intellectual endeavour that has opened my eyes and ears to the significance and meaning of musical life in the German-speaking hemisphere. The entire project, however, would not have been possible without the help, support and guidance of a whole range of people on whom I have come to rely over these past six years. I want to take this opportunity to single out certain individuals and groups whose tireless efforts and support ensured for a successful completion of this PhD. The PhD would not have been financially possible without a studentship from the Westfield Trust in the first year and then an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) award for the following two years of my doctoral project. These organisations put faith in both me and my project. The funds from this studentship and scholarship allowed me to make numerous Forschungaufenthalte (research trips) to the German- speaking world, enabling me to access German archives and make research breakthroughs as well as establish a network of academic contacts that still bear fruit today. Standing in his intellectual awe for the past decade––from my time as an undergraduate at Aston University to the present day––I could not have asked for a better first supervisor than Professor Rüdiger Görner. I have yet to encounter another individual in academia who combines intellectual rigour and outstanding literary achievement with such warm-hearted generosity than Professor Görner. Not only his highly impressive roster of publications on German literature and culture but also his industriousness and commitment to Anglo-German cultural relations have been an inspiration to me over the past decade. For that and his exceptional supervision of my thesis, I owe him a debt of gratitude beyond measure. The German Department at Queen Mary in the East End of London was the ideal location for a thesis on the city and sound. The expertise of my second supervisor, Dr. Astrid Köhler, who often read my written submissions and offered valid criticism and praise, enhanced the quality of the thesis and its arguments, its approach and conclusions. I thank her as I do the staff of the whole German Department who showed general and real interest in my academic endeavours. Outside the German Department, there were other academics, librarians, visiting guest lecturers, administrative support staff, PhD peers and members of the Anglo-German cultural world, both in London and around the world, who so often went beyond the call of duty to help me and my work. It will be impossible to list them all, but I would like to single out Professor Peter Gorny, the grandson of Theodor Lessing, on whose help and generosity I came to rely in the dissemination of his grandfather’s work on urban noise. I am also grateful to the financial support of the Theodor Lessing Gesellschaft and its initiators, Professor Peter Hansen and his wife Professor Ursula Hansen, both of whom organised a public event in Hanover for me to present my research to a German audience. When I moved to Oldenburg in January 2009, Sharon Bernor, the Postgraduate Administrative Assistant at the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film (SLLF) remained my lifeline to the Department in London. Her chain of electronic correspondence is something I appreciate, especially during the write-up stage of my thesis, undertaken away from Queen Mary’s academic sphere. During my time in the Department, she always had an ‘open ear’ for my administrative questions and never ceased to show a real interest in my academic research. I have often been told that it is quite rare for a person of my social background of attending a traditional, working class comprehensive school in the heart of the Black Country in the West Midlands to do a PhD in German. To that end, I am really and truly indebted to my German teacher at Britannia High School, Mr. Graham Newson, who has since become a friend and, for a time, a colleague. Graham is a teacher of extraordinary abilities who fostered in me a deep interest in the German language and culture that very much informs my life in Germany today. For his tireless efforts and his interest in my work, I thank him. Last and by no means least, I would like to thank my friends and family, without whose encouraging help, support and consideration the PhD mountain would have been practically impossible to climb. Combining a fascination for both the arts and sciences, I really need to thank that rare breed of a person, Christopher Unwin, for his kindness and generosity as well as our brilliant conversations on matters both academic and non- academic. From the musical life of Birmingham to Berlin, from Hamburg to London, I shared the most memorable musical and geistigen moments of my entire six years with Kristin Hagel. These moments inspired my writings on the Musikstadt (musical city) and I can not really find the words to express my gratitude for my precious time together with her. I could not have asked for a better and highly intellectual flat mate in Chiswick (my place of abode during my time in London) than Dr. Ahmed Ijaz Malik. As a PhD student at the School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS), it was highly beneficial to have Ahmed around to share and receive advice and support on a whole range of issues, from the academic to the non-academic. Instilling values of discipline, decency and determination, hard work and a thirst for learning, my mother and father, Christine and Alan, have always been there for me. Their support is a pillar of strength and stability that has accompanied and aided me throughout my doctoral studies. I do not think I could have completed this thesis without them. My two younger sisters, Kay and Tracy, have always been an inspiration to me and I thank them together with my grandparents and my wider family for their support before, during and after the PhD. Abstract This study examines German literary images of musical life as part of the wider sound identity of the modern German city at the turn of the twentieth century. Focussing on a forty-year period from 1890 to 1930, synonymous with the emergence of the modern German metropolis as an aesthetic object, the project assesses, compares and contrasts how musical life in the Musikstädte was perceived and portrayed by writers in an increasingly noisy urban environment. How does urban musical life influence and condition city writings? What are the differences and similarities between the writings on various musical cities? Can an urban textual sound identity be derived from these differences and similarities? The approach employed to answer these questions is a new, cross-disciplinary one to urban sound in literature, moving beyond reading the key sounds of the urban soundscape using urban musicology, sensorial anthropology and cultural poetics towards a literary contextualisation of the urban aural experience. The literary motifs of the symphony, the gramophone and urban noise are put under the spotlight through the analysis of a wide range of modernist works by authors who have a special relationship with music. At the centre of this analysis are the Kaffeehausliteratur authors Hermann Bahr, Alfred Polgar and Peter Altenberg, the then Munich-based author Thomas Mann and the lesser known René Schickele. The analysis of these particular works is framed in the music-geographical context of the Musikstadt and literary underpinnings of this topos, ranging from Ingeborg Bachmann to Hans Mayer and, once again, Thomas Mann. In analysing these texts, the methodological approach devised by Strohm, who identifies the blending of a range of urban sounds as a definition of urban space and identity, is applied. His ideas combine historical literary analysis, musical history and urban sociology. They are rarely used in the analysis of the auditory environment. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 9 – 43 1.1 Musical Life and the Soundscape ……….……………………………. 9 – 13 1.2 Defining Musikleben in the Context of the Soundscape ……………... 14 – 21 1.3 The Urban Sound Image ……………………………………………... 22 – 26 1.4 Reinhard Strohm’s Approach ………………………………………… 27 – 30 1.5 Introducing Urban Aurality …………………………………………... 31 – 33 1.6 Comparative Study …………………………………………………… 34 – 43 2.