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A FEW CHOICE SPECIMENS 69
here: a demeanour normally indicating a person who lives only in
relations with other people derives here from plentiful resources.
According to his own account, he is received like a prince when he
drives up to see customers in his splendid company car. Since the
elegant car is just the right accessory for him, he likes to use it also for
excursions with ladies and other private purposes; a generosity which,
as he sees it, in return indirectly benefits the company, from which he
has never concealed these additional trips. (In the meantime, alas,
thanks to the advancing process of concentration in the cigarette
industry, car use has been rationed - so the ladies will be left out in the
cold.) The man is of modest origins and has his roots in the heart of
Berlin. Other people, endowed with his talents and income, see it as
their task in life to be gentlemen belonging to the upper class. He, on
the other hand, unaffected by the high life or the opportunities he
could no doubt exploit with the help of his friendly charm, sticks to his
employee union, to which he has already introduced many nonunionized
people. Mter conferences or local branch meetings, he often
repairs with male and female colleagues to coaching inns or semiproletarian
bars, in which he is just as much at home as in the car. He
is well acquainted with landlords and piano-players and knows all about
I he customers. The atmosphere soon grows lively, since neither women
nor men can seriously resist this mixture of native wit, irreverence and
feeling. His popularity reaches its zenith when he begins singing, in a
passable voice, from La Traviata and Lohengrin. Then everyday reality
vanishes and all those present, far beyond the circle of colleagues, revel
in the enjoyment of a more beautiful life.
Not often does the economy leave empty such a gap, in wh ich
person from a lower stratum who is something is permitted to be just as
he is. Many remain insecure throughout their lives, like that thoroughly
:tite-bourgeoise female secretary of my acquaintance who tries to
'ign a measure of experience by always inserting an English 'Well
into her conversation. She has taken this 'Well' from the linguistic
,Irsenal of the successful who get by effortlessly; but despite this crutch
she does not really make much progress, although she already has ten
jobs under her belt. An eventful life, but one that has no direction,
:e in terms of substance it is warped by the demands of the modern
linn. Those without substance have an easier time. At least the girl can
'I ill just keep up, while others have to exorcise their nature merely in
order to survive in one modest job. I once spent an evening with a
I I I I IIIber of older employees, who in the daytime are engaged in average
I I Hllmercial jobs. One is an accountant, a second a cashier - sober men,
lIonnally quite unremarkable outside office life and the narrow domcircle.
That evening we attended a ball for widows in the