Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Berlin Cult Novels
Berlin Alexanderplatz
, Alfred Döblin (1929)
Goodbye to Berlin,
Christopher Isherwood (1939)
Alone in Berlin,
Hans Fallada (1947)
Wall Jumper,
Peter Schneider (1983)
Berlin Blues,
Sven Regener (2001)
Modernism & Modernity
In the 1920s, Berlin became a literary hotbed, drawing writers like Alfred Döblin whose
definitive
Berlin Alexanderplatz
is a stylised meander through the seamy 1920s, and Anglo-
American import Christopher Isherwood whose brilliant semi-autobiographical
Berlin Stor-
ies
formed the basis of the musical and film
Cabaret
. Other notables include the political
satirists Kurt Tucholsky and Erich Kästner. Many artists left Germany after the Nazis came
to power, and those who stayed often kept their mouths shut and worked underground, if at
all.
In West Berlin, the postwar literary revival was led by
The Tin Drum
(1958), by Nobel
Prize-winner Günter Grass, which traces recent German history through the eyes of a child
who refuses to grow. In the mid-1970s, a segment of the East Berlin literary scene began to
detach itself slowly from the socialist party grip. Christa Wolf is one of the best and most
controversial East German writers, while Heiner Müller had the distinction of being unpalat-
able in both Germanys. His dense, difficult works include
The Man Who Kept Down Wages
and the
Germania
trilogy of plays.
Berlin's film-fan tourism generates over €330 million in annual revenue. To visit famous
film locations, sign up for the multimedia 'Filmstadt Berlin' tour by videoBustour
(
www.videobustour.de
). Sta Tours (
www.sta-tours.de
)
take you to the homes of film le-
gends.
