#schocken

[btaut]

Chemnitz, April 2026

[noconcessions]

[coffeenuts]

[thegirlwholeftthefridgeopen]

You must surely have noticed, whenever we see each other again after a longish time we're disappointed, irritated, until we get used to the irritation. Then we have to put up a front of words, so that our yawns won't be noticed. The fear creeps over me that you won't understand this whole letter- what's its aim? Without flourishes and veils and warts: When we talk together we're hampered by things we want to say and cannot say just like that, so we bring them out in such a way that we misunderstand even ignore, even laugh at each other. (I say: The honey is sweet, but I talk so low or so stupidly or inadequately, and you say: Nice weather today. The conversation has already taken a wrong turn.) Since we are always trying and always without success, we become tired, dissatisfied, stiff-jawed.

Franz Kafka [Prague, February 4, 1902]

[thisobscuredesireforbeauty]

Erich Mendelsohn - Kaufhaus Schocken, Stuttgart (Schocken Department Store), 1926-28. Source

[concretemods]

Schocken department store, Chemnitz. Architect: Erich Mendelsohn, 1930. Mendelsohn's third department store for the Schocken family is now used by the smac, the Saxon Museum for Archeology. #schocken #chemnitz #germany #erichmendelsohn #architecture #modern #modernism #bauhaus #departmentstore #1930 #smac

[btaut]

Chemnitz, April 2026

[universitybookstore]

He was the first cartoonist to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, and deservedly so. New from Schocken and the genius of Ben Katchor, The Diary Restaurant. With pictures, sure, but fascinating history yet.