Hans Ostwald

Hans Ostwald was a German writer and journalist. After training as a goldsmith, he worked in the trade only briefly before traveling through Germany as a journeyman. He drew on his experiences among itinerant and marginalized people for the semi-autobiographical novel *Vagabunden* (1900). Ostwald regarded himself as a chronicler of the lower social classes and marginalized groups. He is particularly known for the series *Großstadt-Dokumente*, which he oversaw between 1904 and 1908. Published in fifty volumes, it documented urban life from cultural and social-historical perspectives.