Berlin

In the political history of the past century, no city has played a more prominent-though often disastrous-role than Berlin. At the same time, Berlin has also been a dynamic center of artistic and intellectual innovation. If Paris was the "Capital of the Nineteenth Century," Berlin was to become the signature city for the next hundred years. Once a symbol of modernity, in the Thirties it became associated with injustice and the abuse of power. After 1945, it became the iconic City of the Cold War. Since the fall of the Wall, Berlin has again come to represent humanity's aspirations for a new beginning, tempered by caution deriving from the traumas of the recent past. David Clay Large's definitive history of Berlin is framed by the two German unifications of 1871 and 1990. Between these two events several themes run like a thread through the city's history: a persistent inferiority complex; a distrust among many ordinary Germans, and the national leadership of the "unloved city's" electric atmosphere, fast tempo, and tradition of unruliness; its status as a magnet for immigrants, artists, intellectuals, and the young; the opening up of social, economic, and ethnic divisions as sharp as the one created by the Wall.

A sweeping narrative history of one of the 20th century's most loved-and unloved-cities, Berlin is every bit as fascinating, vibrant, and colorful as the great German metropolis itself.

Publishers Weekly

"This book is a narrative history of the city of Berlin framed by the two German unifications--Germany's unification by `blood and iron' in 1871," and that of 1990, "which of course was achieved not by war but by the disintegration of the Soviet empire and the implosion of East Germany." Large (Where Ghosts Walked: Munich's Road to the Third Reich), professor of history at Montana State University, has written a lively, rich and engaging work, full of his passion for his subject, that puts the question of Berlin's future in the context not only of its past but also of the past of the entire nation of which it has long been an ill-fitting part. As he explains, Berlin has suffered for most of the last 100 years from a "municipal inferiority complex," but with the most recent reunification, Berliners are hopeful that their city "will finally make the grade" as a world-class city. Likewise, Germans outside the capital have long maintained a love-hate relationship with Berlin, which Large equates with most Americans' "wonderful, terrible" opinion of New York City. But while its political history during the last century has been tumultuous and dangerous, the city's ability to influence the world in positive ways has been sustained by Berliners' adaptability in embracing the new, intellectually, artistically and culturally. Large cites examples including efforts to get rid of "the ghosts of Berlin" such as the Reichstag, "the war-scarred fossil... so laden with conflicting, mainly depressing, historical associations"--which was accomplished when the artist Christo was given permission to "wrap" the building completely. Large claims that the city's hosting of the April 1999 European Union summit marked Berlin's "debut on the stage of international diplomacy," and that a renewed Berlin may be among the world's leaders in embracing an era of globalization. Readers interested in the history of Germany or of European culture in general will find much to enlighten them. Agent, Agnes Krup. (Nov.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

David Clay Large, Professor of History at Montana State University, is a specialist in modern German history. He is the author of Where Ghosts Walked, Germans to the Front, Between Two Fires, and Berlin. He lives in Bozeman, Montana, and San Francisco, California.