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en Edmund Edel, Berlin W. A few chapters from the surface https://jewish-textual-architectures.online/source/jta:source-10 Edmund Edel Institute for the History of the German Jews Online Ressource In 1906, Edmund Edel (1863–1934), a popular poster artist and caricaturist in Berlin, made his debut as a writer with his satire Berlin W. A Few Chapters from the Surface [Berlin W. Ein Paar Kapitel von der Oberfläche]. The book sheds light on the new affluent social class that settled in the west of Berlin on Kurfürstendamm and its surrounding districts around 1900. There is no continuous plot and no protagonists. Instead, the nine chapters create a social panorama of caricature-like characters. These are also depicted in the numerous drawings made by Edel, which are inserted into the text. The focus is on family and social life, which was characterized by the newly emerging consumer culture with its department stores and fashions - the new ’surface culture’, which is referred to in the subtitle. Edel presents a bourgeois class that can only be recognized as Jewish through occasional references and an intertextual play with the Torah. His satire is thus a revealing document about metropolitan Jewish life around 1900 between tradition and modernity, religious identity and secular everyday culture. Berlin W. was published by the Berlin Publisher Boll und Pickardt. In addition to the regular hardback bookshop edition, fifty numbered copies bound in parchment and signed by the author were also offered. The book has 160 pages in octavo format. The individual chapters are named: The family [Die Familie], The marriage [Die Ehe], The day [Der Jour], The time of the young love [Die Zeit der jungen Liebe], Art and artist [Kunst und Künstler], In the zoo [Im Zoo], On the journey [Auf Reisen], When they go out in the evening [Wenn sie abends ausgehen], U. A. w. g. 2025-03-03