Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Bella Fromm
Blood and Banquets.
Fromm, a Jewish
aristocrat living in Berlin, kept a diary from 1930 until 1938.
Her job as society reporter for the
Vossische Zeitung
gave
her inside knowledge on the top figures of Berlin society,
and the diaries are a chilling account of the rise of the Nazis
and their persecution of Berlin's Jews.
Tony Le Tissier
The Battle of Berlin.
Soldierly (the author
is a retired lieutenant-colonel) shot-by-shot account of
Berlin's final days. Authoritative, if a little dry. The same
author's
by working for the SS as a “catcher”, hunting down Jews
hiding in wartime Berlin - including former friends and
even relatives. The author, who knew the young Stella,
traces her life story and tries to find some explanation for
the motives behind what seem incalculably evil actions.
A gripping, terrifying story.
POSTWAR HISTORY AND SOCIAL STUDIES
Ì
Anna Funder
Stasiland: True Stories From Behind the
Berlin Wall.
Engrossing account of the experiences of those
East Germans who found themselves tangled in the web of
the State Security Service (Stasi) in the GDR.
Ì
Timothy Garton Ash
The File: A Personal History.
Garton Ash lived and worked as a journalist in East Berlin in
1980, making him the subject of surveillance and a Stasi
file. In this topic he tracks down the file and interviews
informers using an informal style to weave everything
together and marvellously evoke the era. His book
is a collection of photographs
of sites in the city during the war years, contrasted with the
same places today. This extraordinary book is the best way
to find what's left of Berlin's Nazi buildings - a startling
number have barely changed.
Martin Middlebrook
The Berlin Raids.
Superbly
researched account of the RAF's campaign to destroy the
capital of the Third Reich by mass bombing. Based on
interviews with bomber crews, Luftwaffe fighter pilots and
civilians who survived the raids - a moving, compassionate
and exciting read.
Ì
William Shirer
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
Shirer was an American journalist stationed in Berlin
during the Nazi period, and his history of the German state
before and during the war has long been recognized as a
classic. Notwithstanding its length and occasionally
outdated perceptions, this topic is full of insights and is
ideal for dipping into, with the help of its exhaustive index.
Hugh Trevor-Roper
The Last Days of Hitler.
A brilliant
reconstruction of the closing chapter of the Third Reich, set
in the Bunker of the Reich's Chancellery on Potsdamer Platz.
Marie Vassiltchikov
The Berlin Diaries.
These diaries,
written by the daughter of a Russian émigré family,
provide a vivid portrait of wartime Berlin and the July
1944 bomb-plot conspirators - whose members
numbered among her friends.
Peter Wyden
Stella.
Stella Goldschlag was a young, very
“Aryan”-looking Jew who avoided deportation and death
Berlin Then and Now
We the
People
(US title:
The Magic Lantern
) is an equally enjoyable
first-hand account of the fall of the Wall.
Norman Gelb
The Berlin Wall.
The definitive account of
the building of the Wall and its social and political
aftermath up until 1986. Includes a wealth of information
and anecdotes that you won't find in other books.
Anne McElvoy
The Saddled Cow.
Thorough and witty
analysis of the GDR by Berlin's
Times
correspondent who
witnessed the fall of the Wall. The topic also draws on the
author's time in East Germany before and after the
:
its title is a quote from Stalin, who once said that
“Communism fits Germany as a saddle fits a cow”.
David E. Murphy, Serfei A. Kondrashev and George
Bailey
Battleground Berlin: CIA vs KGB in the Cold War.
A detailed account by participants of the tense skirmishes
in Berlin between the spies of the two superpowers.
Hermann Waldenburg
The Berlin Wall Book.
A collection
of photographs of the art and gra
ti the Wall inspired, with
a rather self-important introduction by the photographer.
Wende
ART AND ARCHITECTURE
Peter Adam
The Art of the Third Reich.
Engrossing and
well-written account of the o
cially approved state art of
Nazi Germany - a subject that for many years was ignored
or deliberately made inaccessible. Includes more than
three hundred illustrations.
Ì
Karl Baedeker
Berlin and its Environs.
First published
in 1903, the learned old
Baedeker
is an utterly absorbing
read, describing a grand imperial city now long vanished.
There's advice on medicinal brine-baths, where to buy
“mourning clothes”, the location of the Estonian embassy,
and beautiful fold-out maps that enable you to trace the
former course of long-gone streets. An armchair treat.
Ì
Duane Philips and Alexandra Geyer
Berlin:
A guide to recent architecture.
Ideal pocket guide to many
key Berlin buildings, with good photographs and an
interesting commentary, even if it's occasionally mired in
opaque architectural snobbery.
Michael Z. Wise
Capital Dilemma: Germany's Search for a
New Architecture of Democracy.
Engaging discussion of the
historical, political and architectural considerations in the
rebuilding of Berlin.
GUIDES AND TRAVEL WRITING
Stephen Barber
Fragments of the European City.
Written
as a series of interlocking poetic fragments, this topic
explores the visual transformation of the contemporary
European city, focusing on Berlin. An exhilarating evocation
