In Search Of Berlin: The Story of Europe's Most Important City
Product ID: 722492090
Buy anything from 5,000+ international stores. One checkout price. No surprise fees. Join 2M+ shoppers on Desertcart.
Desertcart purchases this item on your behalf and handles shipping, customs, and support to Spain.
A WATERSTONES BEST HISTORY BOOK OF 2023 LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 ONDAATJE PRIZE 'A masterful portrait of one of the world's greatest cities... A must-read' PETER FRANKOPAN 'Such a delightful read' KATJA HOYER, The Times 'Berlin may well be Europe's most enigmatic city and John Kampfner is the ideal guide.' JONATHAN FREEDLAND, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Escape Artist ' Gripping' Financial Times No other city has had so many lives, survived so many disasters and has reinvented itself so many times. No other city is like Berlin. Ever since John Kampfner was a young journalist in Communist East Berlin, he hasn't been able to get the city out of his mind. It is a place tortured by its past, obsessed with memories, a place where traumas are unleashed and the traumatised have gathered. Over the past four years Kampfner has walked the length and breadth of Berlin, delving into the archives, and talking to historians and writers, architects and archaeologists. He clambers onto a fallen statue of Lenin; he rummages in boxes of early Medieval bones; he learns about the cabaret star so outrageous she was thrown out of the city. Berlin has been a military barracks, industrial powerhouse, centre of learning, hotbed of decadence - and the laboratory for the worst experiment in horror known to man. Now a city of refuge, it is home to 180 nationalities, and more than a quarter of the population has a migrant background. Berlin never stands still. It is never satisfied. But it is now the irresistible capital to which the world is gravitating. In Search of Berlin is an 800-year story, a dialogue between past and present; it is a new way of looking at this turbulent and beguiling city on its never-ending journey of reinvention. Review: Excellent & informative - This is an excellent and informative book and brilliant background reading for my immanent trip to Berlin. Despite all the research I've carried out (I'm a little anally-retarded that way) there were still things I hadn't known. I would have given it 5 but I felt it ended on a bit of a flat note, almost like Mr Kampfner couldn't think of what to say about what Berlin is like today (I could have done a better job just walking round Google Street). Review: A Once Walled City - One of the best books on a city that I have read. John Kampfner writes easily and with authority as he takes the reader gently through the long and conflicted history of Berlin. I especially enjoyed the way Kampfer's book brings episodes of past history up to the current day, often by way of commenting on the many public memorials, cemeteries, and museums that dot today's city. The author's material on the Nazi period and Jewish life (and death) is quite good. As is the material on the Berlin Wall and the political and social split between East and West. I've had the benefit of several visits to Berlin over the years. This book rings true and was a joy to read.
| Customer Reviews | 4.7 out of 5 stars 91 Reviews |
M**K
Excellent & informative
This is an excellent and informative book and brilliant background reading for my immanent trip to Berlin. Despite all the research I've carried out (I'm a little anally-retarded that way) there were still things I hadn't known. I would have given it 5 but I felt it ended on a bit of a flat note, almost like Mr Kampfner couldn't think of what to say about what Berlin is like today (I could have done a better job just walking round Google Street).
C**T
A Once Walled City
One of the best books on a city that I have read. John Kampfner writes easily and with authority as he takes the reader gently through the long and conflicted history of Berlin. I especially enjoyed the way Kampfer's book brings episodes of past history up to the current day, often by way of commenting on the many public memorials, cemeteries, and museums that dot today's city. The author's material on the Nazi period and Jewish life (and death) is quite good. As is the material on the Berlin Wall and the political and social split between East and West. I've had the benefit of several visits to Berlin over the years. This book rings true and was a joy to read.
J**N
Well worth a read
Great insights into Berlin history
G**E
Beguiling Berlin
I still have tiny fragments of the Berlin Wall chipped off during my visit on 9th November 1989 when the wall came down. They are safely contained in a plastic box, as I’m pretty sure they contain blue asbestos that was, I understand, used to strengthen the concrete. To get there required a flight to Hamburg and hiring a BMW 5 series in which we drove through a strange landscape, enduring the fumes from Trabant cars en route. It was an amazing experience. Reading John Kampfner’s excellent book In Search of Berlin brought back memories of that first and subsequent visits. This is not a travel book or a guidebook; It’s an easily readable journey through 800 years of Berlin’s remarkable history. If anyone thinks they know Berlin, they need to read this book to realise there is so much more to this beguiling city. Mr Kampfner engages the reader with personal asides from his experiences of living there and reporting from it. My only criticism is that the pages with maps are hard to read without a magnifying glass. I very much enjoyed this book. Indeed, had I been able I would have read it one sitting. It’s a pity it hadn’t been published before my first trip there all those years ago. I was left with a desire to make another visit, book in hand, to explore in greater depth.
A**R
History of Berlin
Reads like a novel , great story telling and thorough research. Berlin never fails interest
Trustpilot
3 weeks ago
3 weeks ago