It is, it is, it is [ . . . ] yes, it is many things; it is the big city. Herein lies the whole secret of the thrill which life in this city has for every person and every taste. Life in a big city is always exciting, mainly because it is multifaceted and I have often heard from intellectual men that they could not live in any other city. Everyone can live how they want, because you can find everything you want; you can even have everything at the same time. No one takes care of others in the big city; people living on the same floor often do not know their own neighbors. It is very conceivable to hear a person living in the building answer the question from an unknown visitor: a man named Fischer is unknown to him although there has been a man living next to him for 10 years who might have this name. If someone wants to live as a recluse, then this is the place to do it, and if he wants to enjoy the pleasures of the big city, he has only to leave his cave. Since it is possible to continue to be incognito whenever one wants, there are some who do both. The pietist can search for worldly pleasure without running the risk of being held in disrepute by his clergy brethren; the young man from the province with glowing recommendations can visit people of the higher classes and enjoy reciprocal visits, without anyone noticing that he lives together with a young, unmarried seamstress. This disappearance of so-called considerations gives, as mentioned, a stay in Berlin its attraction and makes it preferable to the province, but it also is the main cause of the decline of domestic life. The husband does not have to fear being seen cheating on his wife; the wife knows that her spouse can’t follow her if she leaves the house under some pretext. Respect and courtesies disappear, life excites with all of its pleasures; and everyone, from highest to lowest, rich and poor, spiritual and worldly, quietly steps out of their relationships. The security with which all of this transpires has something eerie, almost gruesome about it. This security unties the bonds calmly and silently without anyone noticing that they are unbound. There is a dualism to this life that naturally had to bring with it a general demoralization. This hiding of affections from family relations and other social classes makes life superficial and public. The higher circle partakes of their hidden pleasures just as the middle class does, the elderly just like the youthful. The student escorts his seamstress calmly on his arm along the street. The upper crust have their orgies at the best restaurants; the old gentleman quietly throws a party while the middle class son attends public gardens and concerts.
The streets therefore are where you can best get to know the orientation and the lifestyles of the city dwellers. Since there is seldom a domestic life to be found and everything revolves around chasing pleasures, the expression of life is no longer found in the kitchen, but rather outside of the home in the wild and confused chaos of urban life, and again, superficiality is the best characterization of this. It is very educational for the unobtrusive observer to walk the sidewalks and study faces.
The Berlin street youth, for example, is the most obnoxious in the whole of Germany, and of them, the chimney sweeps take first place. The barbaric modern custom of building small and tight chimneys into which only children can fit has created a huge increase in poor children for this industry. Moreover, they do not get an education, and completely degenerate in this career. You see entire battalions of these small, black soldiers in the streets, usually led by a single fellow who displays his distinguished status by wearing a hat. Passersby, namely women, get out of their way, because the boisterousness of these small rascals exceeds description. Nevertheless, their obnoxiousness discreetly illustrates a kind of clever humor, and if you wanted to, you could fill books with all the witty jokes they play on anyone who crosses their path. One would also like to harass the fish lady with some jokes, but she possesses a certain coarseness that can be very rough and mean and I recommend that no one try to play a joke on her.
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