The Artificial Silk Girl

Doris rides the train all night and arrives in Berlin at Friedrichstrasse Station with only 90 Marks to her name. She is awestruck by the size and brilliance of the vast metropolis. When she arrives, two French politicians are giving speeches, and a crowd amasses. Doris feels swept up in the excitement but doesn’t understand what’s going on. She talks to a man in a blue suit, hoping that he will inform her about politics. They go to a café. The man is married and is clearly flirting with her. Doris sees right through him. She has some coffee and three pieces of cake. The man is not interested in discussing politics, so she tells the man she’s going to the restroom, but she really goes out the back door, leaving him waiting for her in the café.

She then makes her way to Margrete Weissbach, a friend of Therese’s, with whom she will room. Margrete is pregnant and goes into labor soon after she’s there. Her husband is unemployed and angry. Doris doesn’t feel comfortable staying with them. Margrete gives her the address of an old colleague of hers: Tilli Scherer. Doris rooms with Tilli, who also wants to be a star. Tilli is married, but her husband is away a lot. She doesn’t accept money from Doris in return for staying. Doris quickly finds a date with a man she calls “the white-slave trader type” (44). She is uninterested in him but feels he can introduce her to opportunities. 

Doris writes that things are getting better for her. She has acquired some extra clothes. She was able to get a pair of lizard-toe shoes by wearing her ermine coat into a shoe store, purposely breaking her old shoe’s heel, and flirting with the salesman, all of which gets her both the shoes on credit and a date with the salesman. 

Doris meets a man she calls the Red Moon at the Jockey Bar. He is a writer. His wife is out of town on vacation. He treats her to Danziger Goldwasser (a type of liqueur with gold flakes in it). The Red Moon is really into her, but she isn’t into him. She laments how difficult it is to find someone who finds her attractive and whom she finds attractive as well. She ponders about the type of elegant life she wants. She feels unhappy but tells herself it’s a good thing because “only if you’re unhappy do you get ahead. That’s why I’m glad that I’m unhappy” (54). She goes home with the Red Moon. He wants to sleep with her, but Doris parries his advances. She gets him to read from one of his books for her, in order to distract him. While he is reading, Doris notices some nice Bemberg silk shirts that belong to the Red Moon’s wife. She stuffs several of them into her clothes and leaves shortly thereafter.

Doris goes to work for a wealthy family, for the daughter of a former general, as a nanny. She refers to them as the onyx family and the husband as the Onyx. Doris resents the family’s wealth and status and bemoans her own social station. She notices that the husband is attracted to her. She is planning on sleeping with him so that he will give her rich things. The Onyx, however, introduces her to one of his friends, a younger man who is very attractive. Doris sleeps with the Onyx’s friend, and then the friend tells the Onyx. Doris is promptly fired by both the Onyx and his wife, who calls Doris a whore.

Doris worries about having to leave Tilli when her husband returns. She meets a pimp, Rannowsky, who lives in the same building. Doris fears ever having to prostitute herself as his girls do. She reiterates how much she wants to become a star. She’s looking forward to going to the Resi with Franz that evening.

Doris loves the Resi. It’s full of glitz and glam. Her favorite song is being played: Die Liebe der Matrosen. Doris begins to narrate more about her past. Her father is not her biological father. She was bullied when she was younger because she wore clothes that her mother fashioned from drapes. She is ecstatic about being in Berlin and wearing a fur coat, and she recounts all the wonderful sights and sounds and how very interesting and exciting it all is. She remembers her relatives, the Ruhrbeins, especially her cousin Paul, who committed suicide.

Beneath Tilli’s apartment lives a man Doris refers to simply as Herr Brenner. He was blinded in combat during World War I. His wife complains a lot about what a burden he has become and how much work she has to do to support the two of them. Doris befriends Brenner and pities him. She doesn’t like his wife at all. Because of the situation, Doris “can understand why men are unfaithful” (61).

Doris enjoys being Brenner’s eyes and “showing” him Berlin by telling him of her adventures in the city, describing in detail what she does and sees. She quickly develops feelings for him, and they have a brief affair. Brenner’s wife, however, feels she can no longer take care of him and decides to place him in a home for invalids. Doris fights with Brenner’s wife. Doris wants to take Brenner out in the city for one last hurrah before he goes away. Brenner’s wife eventually concedes, and Doris tries to show him a good time, but as the night progresses, Brenner grows increasingly depressed. Toward the end he says, “The city isn’t good and the city isn’t happy and the city is sick […] but you are good and I thank you for that” (79). This statement brings Doris down. The night ends with Brenner walking off on his own. Doris feels she shouldn’t let him, but she feels too tired to stop him.

Doris meets a wealthy old man, an “industrialist,” who gives her everything she wants: “I’ve made it […] I’ve gone on a shopping spree […] I’m powerful. I’m bursting with excitement” (81). The man’s name is Alexander. He is much older than she, and she likens him to a rubber ball.

Doris is living the high life and loving every minute of it. She spends extravagantly. She buys Tilli a kayak; however, she begins to be overwhelmed by the situation. She can relate to something Hulla, the prostitute, once said: “What’s the use of having all that money just for yourself? And when all you get are men that aren’t any—just automatons” (83). Alexander’s wife returns and Doris has to leave. Eventually, Alexander is arrested. Doris now has nothing and returns to Tilli. 

Doris has difficulties being around Tilli’s husband, Albert. Doris resents the difficulty she has in finding a man. Tilli and Albert fight a lot. Hulla needs Doris’s help because one of the fish died. Rannowsky returns. Hulla kills herself by jumping out of a window. Doris finds herself increasingly attracted to Albert. She decides to leave and finds a furnished apartment for the time being, but when that doesn’t work out, she stays with a man named Lippi Wiesel. She’s not all attracted to him. She wonders, though, if she even deserves better than him.

Christmas comes around, and Doris spends it alone in Lippi’s apartment because he is with friends. Lippi comes back late and wants to sleep with her. Doris is angry, frustrated, and down in the dumps. She leaves Lippi and spends the night on a park bench in the Tiergarten.