Despite the public's apparent fascination with the former Berlin Wall and East/West border, there are few really exceptional books about the subject. Most of the best books are now out of print. Below are a number of quality books (in English only) available through amazon.com. Clicking on the links below will take to amazon.com where you can purchase the books or find more information about them. And don't forget your public library.
Capital
Dilemma : Germany's Search for a New Architecture of Democracy
by Michael Z. Wise
One of the best books about the rebuilding of Berlin and
the controversies surrounding architecture and planning in the new capital
of Germany. Although Wise is not an architectural critic, he has a solid
understanding of the issues, and frames them for the general reader.
The
Berlin Stories
by Christopher Isherwood
Written before the
War, a classic view of Berlin in the 30s. Required reading for anyone
interested in Berlin past and present.
Along
the Edge of the Forest : An Iron Curtain Journey
by Anthony Bailey
The author travelled the length of the East /West border during the early
'80s. I came across it first as a three-part article in The New Yorker.
An inspiration for my project, Bailey wrote the essay that accompanies
this website.
Unfortunately, this book is out of print. Click on the link to go to amazon.com and have them search for a copy of the book.
Spy
Who Came in from the Cold
by John Le Carre
It would be an international crime to reveal too much of
the jeweled clockwork plot of Le CarrŽ's first masterpiece, The Spy Who
Came in from the Cold. But we are at liberty to disclose that Graham Greene
called it the "finest spy story ever written," and that the taut tale
concerns Alec Leamas, a British agent in early Cold War Berlin. Leamas
is responsible for keeping the double agents under his care undercover
and alive, but East Germans start killing them, so he gets called back
to London by Control, his spy master. Yet instead of giving Leamas the
boot, Control gives him a scary assignment: play the part of a disgraced
agent, a sodden failure everybody whispers about. Control sends him back
out into the cold--deep into Communist territory to checkmate the bad-guy
spies on the other side. The political chessboard is black and white,
but in human terms the vicinity of the Berlin Wall is a moral no-man's
land, a gray abyss patrolled by pawns.
The
Wall Jumper : A Berlin Story
by Peter Schneider
Stories, anecdotes, myths. A vividly written book about the Berlin Wall
and the craziness and tragedy of the city during the years of its division.
The
Ghosts of Berlin : Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape
by Alan Ladd
The New York Times Book Review: "With erudition, insight
and restraint, Brian Ladd ... carries off the dangerous task of analyzing
architecture and urbanism in the once and future capital of Germany in
terms of its horrific political past. He convincingly argues that architecture
embodies ideological meaning more powerfully than other artifacts of a
society. "
Wings of Desire
(video)
by Wim Wenders
"There are angels over the streets of Berlin," quotes the movie poster,
but these are like no angels you've ever seen. Bundled in dark overcoats,
they watch over the city with ears open to the heartbeat of the human
soul, listening to the internal musings and yearnings of earthbound humans
like existential detectives. In these delicate, astounding scenes we float
through the thoughts of dozens Berlin citizens, from the weary and worn
to the hopeful and young, as the angels record the magic moments for some
heavenly record.
A masterpiece.
Berlin
Bis
Photos by Jordi Bernado
and Ramon Prat
The urban landscape and architecture of Berlin 1993-98. A small hand-sized
book, but nicely done. "It was a moment of tranquility for a city
undergoing reconstruction (or construction twice-over). Now, six years
later, many of the things that were there (on top of what didn't exist)
are no longer there. As if the city that was and no longer is were rebuilt."
Berlin
Alexanderplatz : The Story of Franz Biberkopf
by Alfred Döblin
Psychological portrait and classic depiction of Berlin in the 1920s. The subject of Werner Fassbinder's sprawling film.
The
Politics of Memory : Looking for Germany in the New Germany
by Jane Kramer
In this illuminating,
beautifully written collection of essays, the acclaimed New Yorker writer
reports on the zeitgeist of reunified Germany. Jane Kramer surveys the
fraught moral and political landscape of today's Germany, where the reunification
of East and West has brought into conflict two vastly different memories
of what it means to "be German."
The best writing on post-wall Germany I've encountered. Naturally, out-of-print. Go to amazon.com to search for copies.
The
Fall of the Berlin Wall
(video)
This documentary, produced
in English by German television, captures the exhilaration of the events
of November, 1989 as the Berlin wall, the stark symbol of cold war-era
communism, crumbled. Its construction, the many human tragedies played
out at its foot and its final demise in front of the world's cameras.
Cold
War Giftset
(video)
This 8-volume, 24-episode
series, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, is a comprehensive history that examines
the key events of the arc of the Soviet Union, from its birth to its fall,
and provides a thorough analysis of what was going on behind closed doors.
Informed by the stories of 500 eyewitnesses--from citizens and soldiers
to historians and statesmen--and strengthened by painstaking reconstruction
of archival historical film footage, CNN's Cold War is a heroic undertaking
and a sweeping chronicle of the world's most fragile decades. --Susan
Benson
One, Two, Three
(video)
by Billy Wilder
Berlin 1961; weeks before "The Wall" was built. The contrast
between East & West was never portrayed in a more black/white comparison.
James Cagney is the ultimate "Capitalist"; Horst Buchholz the 110% "Communist".
Add a beautiful 17-year old Southern Belle Executive's Daughter, Cagney's
super sexy "bilingual" blond secretary, and an international cast of comedic
actors, along with several "international incidents", and you have one
of the best comedies Hollywood has ever produced!
