[1] It depicts a "dark and dirty" working class sector of the German capital, Berlin, in which industrial smoke dominates the skyline and the few lights of windows are drowned in the gloom.

The workers' homes are concentrated in the background, while the foreground is dominated by train tracks and the white (back) light of a railway signal.

In the lower left corner, standing on a train car, is a dark and mysterious figure – shown in such little detail to almost be a silhouette – wearing a coat and a hat, its back to the viewer.

[3] Hans Baluschek (1870–1935), the son of a railway engineer who had been active in the arts since, completed City of Workers in 1920, two years after Germany's defeat in World War I.

A member of the Berlin Secession, Baluschek used an emotional technique similar to the German Expressionists in his work, but remained influenced by Realist subject matter.