Ornaments of the Metropolis

For Siegfried Kracauer, the urban ornament was not just an aspect of design; it wasthe medium through which city dwellers interpreted the metropolis itself. In Ornaments of theMetropolis, Henrik Reeh traces variations on the theme of the ornament in Kracauer’s writings onurbanism, from his early journalism in Germany between the wars to his “sociobiography” of JacquesOffenbach in Paris. Kracauer (1889-1966), often associated with the Frankfurt School and theintellectual milieu of Walter Benjamin, is best known for his writings on cinema and the philosophyof history. Reeh examines Kracauer’s lesser-known early work, much of it written for thetrendsetting newspaper Frankfurter Zeitung in the 1920s and early 1930s, and analyzes Kracauer’scontinuing reflections on modern urban life, through the pivotal idea of ornament.