Abstract

Glasarchitektur (1914) by Paul Scheerbart has already been thoroughly contextualized with regard to architectural and avant-garde discourse; this article proposes the first in-depth reading along the lines of modernist short prose. Beyond an appraisal of the volume’s hybrid blend of genres or its ironically utopian vein, the »Textur« exemplifies several core problems in the field of small forms: 1) challenges of communicating in a compact, efficient manner; 2) the conceptual difference between creating small aesthetics by means of »Verkleinerung« and the textual event of having this kind of prose emerge, as demonstrated by the striking Veranda-piece of Glasarchitektur. Finally, Scheerbart’s futuristic writing prompts the question 3) whether some type of intervention takes place. A passage from Walter Benjamin’s Einbahnstraße (1928) helps to elucidate a version of »Geistesgegenwart« that shares those activating as well as visionary affinities on a more theoretical level.