Figures of Misery: The Berlin Housing Survey (1901-1920) as an Epistemic Project

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

From 1901 until 1920, Albert Kohn, director of the Berlin insurance organization Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse, conducted a systematic housing survey of defective apartments. The work included statistics, reports, and photographs. I situate the project within the context of social surveys in the years around 1900. In the larger history of housing surveys, Kohn’s project was one of the first that amalgamated diverse media and data visualizations. The original publication exhibits a crucial connection between statistics, reports, and apartment photographs. I will show that both reports and photographs epistemically hinged on numerical data gained from a questionnaire. The assemblage of shocking figures in statistics, reports, and photographs was intended to make visible an epistemic object: the misery of the lower classes. Hence, Kohn’s depictions of urban misery did not depend on a specific form of representation, but rather on the consistency between descriptive registers.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)755-778
Number of pages24
JournalJournal of Urban History
Volume50
Issue number4
Early online date9 Jun 2022
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2024
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85131732876
Mendeley 6b29cba0-fb2d-3cdf-a87f-7ee54504ab3b

Keywords

Research priority areas of TU Dresden

DFG Classification of Subject Areas according to Review Boards

Sustainable Development Goals

Keywords

  • Figures, housing, Housing conditions, numbers, data visualisation, narrative, Berlin, Hygiene, misery, surveys, data visualization, photography

Library keywords