The Journal des Luxus und der Moden (Journal of Luxury and Fashion) appeared from 1786 to 1827. It lived through the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, almost a decade of French occupation, a dozen years of postrevolutionary reaction, and five different titles.1 Forty-two volumes were published, amounting to roughly forty thousand pages with a total of 1,493 illustrations. In its early heyday the 2,250 monthly copies, sold primarily by subscription at four Reichstaler per year, reached an estimated readership of twenty-five thousand (Greiling 2005: 221; Wurst 2010: 57). Spawning several offshoots and competitors, the journal was one of the most successful publication ventures of its kind; more than any other, it shaped the discourse on fashion and luxury in German-speaking Europe.
The journal was located in Weimar, a petty political backwater about to emerge as Germany’s supreme cultural hotspot. Not surprisingly, some of its...
