The Mass Ornament

Weimar Essays

Siegfried Kracauer

Edited and translated and with an Introduction by Thomas Y. Levin

    Translator's Note

    Introduction by Thomas Y. Levin

    Lead-In: Natural Geometry

    Lad and Bull

    Two Planes

    Analysis of a City Map

    External and Internal Objects

    Photography

    Travel and Dance

    The Mass Ornament

    On Bestsellers and Their Audience

    The Biography as an Art Form of the New Bourgeoisie

    Revolt of the Middle Classes

    Those Who Wait

    Constructions

    The Group as Bearer of Ideas

    The Hotel Lobby

    Perspectives

    The Bible in German

    Catholicism and Relativism

    The Crisis of Science

    Georg Simmel

    On the Writings of Walter Benjamin

    Franz Kafka

    The Movies

    Calico-World

    The Little Shopgirls Go to the Movies

    Film 1928

    Cult of Distraction

    Fadeaway: Toward the Vanishing Point

    Boredom

    Farewell to the Linden Arcade

    Notes

    Bibliographic Information

    Credits

    Index

  • Cover: The Mass Ornament

Siegfried Kracauer (1889-1966) was the author of Theory of Film, From Caligari to Hitler, and many other works on historical, sociological, and cultural topics.

Thomas Y. Levin is Associate Professor of German at , Princeton University.