Future cities: Responses to the urban challenge in German utopian literature (1871-1914)

This dissertation examines the cultural significance of imaginary urban configurations envisioned in turn-of-the-century German utopian literature. Focusing on the relationship between utopian writing and non-fictional discourses (in particular the newly emerging discipline of urban planning), this study discusses the concepts of ideal urban space proposed in the novels of Theodor Hertzka, Justinus, Georg Michael Conrad, Kurd Lasswitz, and Bernhard Kellermann.; Responding to the rise of the modern industrial metropolis in the second half of the nineteenth century, the novels discussed in this study enact symbolic formations of societal unity and identity through the fictional design of future cities. These utopian projects successfully domesticate the city by reducing the complexity of the contemporary modern metropolis and by inscribing coherent structures into the envisioned urban fabrics of the future. Although the imaginary cities of Hertzka, Justinus, Conrad, Lasswitz, and Kellermann are designed to accommodate different concepts of social cohesion and order, the authors share a common objective: to reconcile the city (and thereby society) with the notion of progress as a positive momentum.