Hierarchies of happiness: Railway infrastructure and suburban subject formation in Berlin and Cairo around 1900

Abstract

This paper analyzes the development of suburbs in Berlin and Cairo at the turn of the 20th century from a comparative perspective. Focusing on the interrelation of a critique of the city, suburban railways and the promotion of specific subjectivities, I argue that railway infrastructure offered new ways of social distinction for the middle classes in Berlin and Cairo. Trains and train stations were not only a means of transportation that linked the cities to their suburbs. They also became incorporated into practices that contemporaries described as producing suburban subjects. Contemporary publications presented train rides as providing room for reading, rationalizing technology or enjoying the historic landscape. These activities were seen as central contributions to the production of happy and healthy middle-class suburbanites, who differed from the lower classes of the city. I argue that this development ultimately sheds light on a shared history of subject formation in Berlin and Cairo. While acknowledging differences in power structures, the paper thus calls for a bridging of historical research on European and non-European cities.