Between Identity and Commodity: Female Urban Experience in Vicki Baum's Menschen im Hotel Page: 24
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Jones 24
It is not just spending but the decisive, active way of living it represents that divides the
characters' experiences in Berlin along gender lines. Preysing craves the sense of masculine
vitality he gets from the intoxicating, forbidden experiences the city offers, which is apparent
during his sexual encounter with Flammchen (Baum, Menschen 276-77). His desire to consume
represents the desire to reach out and grasp life, to take what he wants and enjoy the sense of
excitement such action produces. The Baron von Gaigem is Preysing's opposite, already
possessed of the vitality and personal power the general director wishes he could achieve.
Gaigem drives a fast car, engages in frequent romances with women in the city, and makes his
living as a high-end hotel thief, which for him is an exciting and risky adventure. When he finds
himself in financial straits, he refuses to become Grusinskaja's gigolo and resolves instead to take
what he needs. Rather than allowing himself to be dependent on her, he chooses an active
solution in which he can be the master of his own success or failure. Whereas the novel portrays
it as acceptable for Kringelein to financially support Flammchen, the same action on Gaigem's
part would emasculate him.
Through his friendship with Gaigern, Kringelein also achieves a sense of energy and
empowerment. During their tour through modern Berlin, the Baron escorts Kringelein to a
fashionable tailor and convinces the bookkeeper to spend an exorbitant amount of money on a
new suit. Staring at himself in the mirror, transformed by the new clothing from a poor,
disheveled Angestellter into an elegant modern gentleman, "spiirte er zum erstenmal wie eine
Ahnung, dafi er lebte. Ja, er spurte sich, er erkannte sich selber, mit einer heftigen ErschOtterung
wie unter einem Blitz" (Baum, Menschen 191).14 Spending power brings him to this moment, in
which the purchase of a new suit and the physical transformation it makes possible reveal his
14 "...he had the first inkling that he lived. He recognized himself with a strong convulsion as though by a flash of
lightning" (Creighton 183).
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Jones, Carina. Between Identity and Commodity: Female Urban Experience in Vicki Baum's Menschen im Hotel, thesis or dissertation, Spring 2012; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc146554/m1/25/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Honors College.