“For Us, Bühne is Everything that has an Audience.”: Masses and Mass Arts in the Viennese Lifestyle Magazine Die Bühne in the 1920s and 1930s

Abstract

In the 1920s in particular, the illustrated Die Bühne magazine claimed to appeal to “everyone” and to be a stage (=Bühne) for the widest possible readership. With an eye on international developments, it offered a mix of topics—from modern theatre, revue and mass media, to sport, the new body culture and leisure activities—and propagated a modern lifestyle overall. The article explores how the slogan “For us, Bühne is everything that has an audience”, proclaimed in the first issue in 1924, manifested itself and its attitude towards mass arts over the years. The editors are examined as well as the intended and actual readers, with a focus on the various strategies used to attract and involve readers and to keep them loyal to the Die Bühne as a product. The provided role models were largely middle class. However, the content indicated that the magazine wanted to appeal to a cross-milieu and thus to a more diverse readership than the promoted lifestyle, consumer products and trendy places may suggest at first glance. At the same time, “everyone” refers to mass or the masses, which is most frequently expressed in articles on leisure culture and in relation to (theatre) audiences. I analyse the contexts and times when this topos is used positively—e.g., in the sense of active, idiosyncratic audiences—and when mass stands for the superficial or the ordinary. The question of the masses is explored in two ways: firstly, as the popular approach of addressing everyone and promoting mass arts, and secondly, as the depiction and representation of various aspects of the masses.