Matthew Jefferies Lecturer in German History,University of Manchester

'Sheds considerable light on the character of the Wilhelmine bourgeoisie and its relationship to the economic, social, political and cultural features of Germany's 'modernization' in the early years of the 20th century.'Joan Campbell, Department of History, University of Toronto'Architectural history set in an economic and social framework is all too rare: the present work is to be doubly welcomed, for it is also both knowledgeable and sensitive, and it makes fascinating reading.[...]The study casts a welcome light on the 'other' Germany, cultured, humane, progressive, which is too often overlaid by the coarse Prussian militarism of that age.'Business History'Jeffries's book is a significant contribution to our understanding of the complex intersection of art, industry and German cultural reform. His thorough and interdisciplinary research will make his study useful to scholars interested in architecture, bourgeois reform industrial relations, and economic structural ch

• The rise and fall of historicist industrial architecture in Germany; back to the future? The Heimatschutz movement in Wilhelmine Germany; "from sofa cushions to town planning" - the German Werkbund; Friedrich Naumann and the "Heilbronn connection" - the politics of the Werkbund; German industry and the "quality workplace" - company responses to the new industrial architecture; inside the "quality workplace" - the Werkbund and the workers; industrial architecture and municipal politics - the experience of a single town.