Der Querschnitt, a high-brow magazine

 

"Der Querschnitt" (The Cross-Section) is considered the most intellectually sophisticated illustrated magazine of the 1920s. The gallery owner and art collector Alfred Flechtheim began publishing the magazine in 1921, at first as a bulletin for his new Berliner Galerie. In 1924, Hermann von Wedderkop took over the editorship at Ullstein and "Querschnitt" soon established itself as a modern zeitgeist magazine aimed at an elite interested in cultural topics.

 

The issues were marked by international literary contributions (for instance, by Hemingway, Majakowskij, Ringelnatz, Benn, Lasker-Schüler, Proust, Pound, Joyce), occasionally even in the original language, and often translated or printed here for the first time. Esthetically outstanding illustrations and photographs were accompanied by sophisticated small talk in feuilleton style. Portraits of stars and starlets provided esthetic appeal, as did the pictures of nudes or athletes, or the street scenes captured in the unusual perspectives of Neues Sehen ("New Vision"). Typical of "Querschnitt" were also the often cryptic, occasionally provocative combinations of photographs in the art print sections.

"Der Querschnitt" was banned in 1936. The ostensible reason was supplied by sarcastic definitions of foreign words in Issue No. 9, which could be understood as references to the current political situation. A final issue was produced in October of 1936, but not delivered to newsstands.

https://magazine.illustrierte-presse.de/en/