The Artificial Silk Girl

Herr Brenner, whose first name remains unknown, lives in the same apartment complex as Tilli and Doris. A wound he suffered during World War I left him blind, so Doris likes to visit with him and tell him all about her experiences in Berlin. Brenner’s marriage is strained because he is unable to work, and his wife is overworked and stressed by having to take care of him. He and Doris have a short affair.

Brenner’s wife decides that she can no longer care for him and decides to send him to a home for invalids. Doris wants to take Brenner out for a night on the town before he leaves. The wife feels that she, since she has been caring for him, should be with him. Herr Brenner wants to go with Doris. Even though he is blind, he “sees” things about Berlin that Doris does not. During their night together in the city, Doris attempts to “show” him everything she finds wonderful about the city by taking him to many clubs and bars and describing everything she sees. She doesn’t realize until the end that what Brenner actually wanted was to spend time with her.

Because he is blind, Herr Brenner is not distracted by bright lights and fashionable clothes. He is able to perceive better Berlin’s darker side: injustice, destitution, and immorality. By the end of their time together, Doris can’t help but see this other side. She finds it difficult to come to terms with that aspect of Berlin.

Ernst is a middle-aged, educated man who works in advertising. He rescues Doris from having to prostitute herself after she has been living on the streets for a week. He is lonely and depressed because his wife, Hanne, left him for another man, so she could pursue dancing.

Ernst embodies the white-collar member of Weimar society (the bourgeoisie) who had a better chance of maintaining employment and who had access to culture (e.g., the poetry of Baudelaire, and the music of Tchaikovsky and Schubert). A representation of economic stability, Ernst’s bourgeois life is a respite from the chaotic and unstable worlds of the proletariat (Doris, Tilli, Therese), the aristocracy (the Onyx family and Mila von Trapper), and the nebulous world of stardom/Glanz (film stars, Alexander).

Karl, a native of Berlin as shown by his accent, lives outside of the city on a small patch of land. He grows a few vegetables and creates handmade puppets and other trinkets, all of which he tries to sell in Berlin. Karl belongs to the unemployed working class, but whereas many of his contemporaries and compatriots wallow in their unemployment, remain idle and/or drunk, and feel depressed by the economic downturn, Karl takes life into his own hands and tries to carve out his own destiny.

Karl is not taken in by the materialistic world surrounding him. His hopes for life are simple: He wants enough work to have a place to live and food to eat, and he wants the companionship of a woman. He is content with belonging to the proletariat.

Alexander is an older, unattractive, married man described by Doris as being an “industrialist.” He represents those who have achieved the position of being a star/Glanz not by birth or inheritance, but through a mix of luck and their own abilities. Alexander appears to have acquired his wealth through illegal means; shortly after his wife returns to Berlin and Doris has to move out of his apartment, Alexander is arrested and thrown in prison.

Tilli is a 28-year-old married woman who takes Doris in shortly after she arrives in Berlin; her husband is often away from home. The Scherers are poor, as work is difficult to find. Tilli dreams of becoming a film star. She becomes a close friend of Doris’s and doesn’t charge Doris anything to live with her. Because Tilli’s husband, Albert, is attracted to Doris, Doris decides to leave before anything might happen. Doris is attracted to Albert but doesn’t want to betray Tilli’s friendship.

Like Doris’s, Tilli’s dreams of stardom never come to fruition in the book. In fact, Tilli’s situation may be worse than Doris’s: Albert is eventually arrested for burglary, as is Tilli for abetting him.