Around 1900, a dazzling new world emerged around the Kudamm. “Berlin W.” – W as in the West – lived in the lap of luxury. Right in the middle of it all, millionaires and half-world ladies, gigolos and lots of artists.
It was the time when the myth of the Kurfürstendamm was born.
Edmund Edel (1863-1934) grew up in Charlottenburg and published his first book about the new wild west in 1906. “Berlin W.” immediately became a bestseller and the talk of the town. No one had ever looked at the world of nouveau riche society in such a cheeky, funny and honest way. The book is now available again in a new edition.
Noble was no stranger. As a poster artist, he created fascinating motifs primarily for the Ullstein Verlag.
As a writer, he wrote plain language
He described life in the “swank castles of money”. Eight to twelve rooms in Charlottenburg, Schöneberg or Wilmersdorf. Where apartments have representative floorboards and sideboards overflow with French bronzes and porcelain from Copenhagen. Where the daughters play tennis, read Nietzsche and no longer wear corsets. The sons, on the other hand, come to school in tails and hope that their father’s business will do well.
Dance parties, visits to the zoo, walks and flirts – Edel describes all of this in entertaining chapters. A journey through time to the beginning of the 20th century, in which the sentimental reader becomes very melancholy. The appearance was so beautiful!
