The Colorful Frankfurt

Selected Reportage and Features

Following last year's re-release of Henry Jaeger's novel "Die Festung", B3 Verlag continues its "Frankfurter Bibliothek", established in the fall of 2012, with Siegfried Kracauer's "Das bunte Frankfurt". The book is an interesting collection of journalistic pieces written by the writer in the 1920s about urban life in Frankfurt. On the one hand, the collection is an insightful companion piece to Kracauer's novel "Ginster", which was the focus of the 2012 event series "Frankfurt liest ein Buch". For it becomes clear again and again in the reportages that Kracauer also used his journalistic work, which he carried out for the Frankfurter Zeitung after the First World War, to gather information and ideas for his work as a writer.

On the other hand, the book also offers, as Detlev Claussen describes it in his foreword, a "peephole into the world of yesterday". The reader can witness the discussion about the construction of the first skyscraper, attend a celebration of the inauguration of the New Bridge, take a hike along the Main or visit the Frankfurt Spring Fair. In addition, Siegfried Kracauer writes about an architectural competition for a new cemetery for Frankfurt's Israelite community, about the Osthafen or about the workings of the city council assembly.

The book is interesting and worth reading in many ways. On the one hand, it makes clear the differences and also the similarities between the journalistic work of then and now. But on the other hand, it also introduces the reader to social, architectural and cultural changes in the city after the end of the First World War and the enthusiasm or heated debates they generated. And here, too, some clear parallels can be drawn with the present. In addition, it is simply most interesting to see how certain buildings and institutions that today's Frankfurters take for granted were received when they were still new or in the planning stages.

This makes "Das bunte Frankfurt" virtually predestined for inclusion in the "Frankfurter Bibliothek". Anyone interested in Frankfurt city history or wanting to get an insight into the journalistic work of Siegfried Kracauer should not miss this exciting piece of Frankfurt journalism. Recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp