The increasing popularity of the field of Sound Studies marks the sonic turn in cultural studies since the millennium. This compilation draws on a number of diverse fields, including journalism, history, cultural studies, music, architecture, and art history, to ask what Germany sounds like. The book is divided into five sections, organized thematically. The first section, “New Sounds in the Twentieth Century,” considers the rise of urban sound in the early 1900s and the radio play in the post-war years. Section two, “Defining Space through Sound,” focuses on the interactions between sound and space, particularly the very different soundscapes of the battlefield and the concert hall. Section three considers the divergent sounds of East and West Germany, through interviews and literature, and section four, “The Politics of Sound,” deals with music in socialist East Germany and the power structures inherent in acoustic surveillance. Finally, “Soundscapers of the Millennium” looks at sound art and hip-hop as two examples of the creative and political possibility of sound. Together the chapters consider the acoustic fingerprint of Germany, the cultural significance of sounds and space in the German context, spanning more than a century from the development and rise of sound-recording and sound-disseminating technologies in the early 1900s to today. This book is designed as an introduction to the topic and is accompanied by online teaching materials.
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Scholars of gentrification often study the visual results of socioeconomic structural change in urban environments, including graffiti removal and historical reconstructions of façades, turning “ugly” factory ruins into charming residential loft spaces, etc. This article examines the gentrification of Berlin’s former working-class neighborhood Prenzlauer Berg in terms of sound. We present the Knaack Klub as a sonic case study symbolizing the erasure of the voices and culture of Berlin’s long-term residents and argue that contestations over sound, brought on by West German migrants in what can be considered a “hostile takeover” of parts of East Berlin, are a key driver of gentrification. Mining visual material including photographs, police reports, court verdicts, real estate advertisements, and street maps for acoustic clues, we are able to synthesize sight and sound, ultimately allowing us to move beyond the surface—in this case, building façades—to study the visual and sonic penetration of a gentrifying neighborhood’s intersecting public and private spaces. The study of the sonic heritage of neighborhoods or even single buildings helps us to move beyond Wilhelmine façades and the surface of courtyard living to reevaluate the relationship between urban space and community, between architectural history and policy.
In today's Germany, university graduates and first-time job seekers find themselves in a different position than did those of previous generations-for many, obtaining a secure, full-time job has become a dream of the past. To boost their résumés, many enter a loop of internships and other similarly precarious states of employment. This article examines the way in which author Kathrin Röggla treats these insecure economic times in her 2004 novel Wir schlafen nicht, with a focus on sex and gender in the New Economy. Are jobs gendered, and what are the resulting effects for both men and women? I discuss the continuum of business masculinity and femininity and argue that business masculinity (as performed by men or women) creates, and ultimately depends on, a feminization of the workforce. By personifying the New Economy and presenting her female characters as the losers of capitalism, Röggla unmasks grievances in contemporary Germany, revealing the entire economy's process of feminization and its effects, which are borne more heavily by women than by men.
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