Berlin [Paperback]

David Clay Large (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 8, 2001 | ISBN-10: 046502632X | ISBN-13: 978-0465026326

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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Founded in the 13th century as a trading post on a windswept Prussian plain, Berlin was something of an accidental capital. It was selected by Chancellor Bismarck after Germany's unification in 1871, in part because the choice of any other city--Munich, say, or Frankfurt--would have provoked terrible regional rivalries. As it was, the rest of Germany simply looked down on the hinterland Berliners as, in historian David Clay Large's words, "parvenus whose civilization was hardly more substantial than the Prussian sands on which their town was built."

The people who soon swarmed to Berlin from all over Germany--and elsewhere in Europe--put their scorn for the city aside, and they turned it, writes Large, "into a hothouse of modernity, a place that pursued change like a drug." That change becomes a dominant theme as Large charts the rapid growth of Berlin in the early 1900s from regional backwater to a leading European center of socialist politics and the arts. Berlin's avant-garde culture and freewheeling atmosphere made it a target of the Nazi leadership, which put in motion grandiose schemes of social and civil engineering intended to remake it into an imperial city the likes of which the world had never known. Devastated, instead, by World War II and divided by the victorious Allies for four decades afterward, Berlin was, until recently, gray and unattractive compared with many other German cities--and, writes Large, that suited many Germans who "harbored the conviction that Berlin, the former Nazi capital, had no business being pretty or glamorous."

In Berlin, David Large brings the city's recent past to life. Though lacking the literary flair that makes Alexandra Richie's wider-ranging history of Berlin, Faust's Metropolis, so readable, it stands as a substantial contribution to the historical literature. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

"This book is a narrative history of the city of Berlin framed by the two German unificationsAGermany'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"Awhich 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 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 736 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (November 8, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 046502632X
• ISBN-13: 978-0465026326
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.6 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #295,230 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!, December 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Berlin (Hardcover)

Any fan of the city must read this book. This history of Berlin from its time as the Prussian capital to today covers such varied topics as music under the Nazis (I learned some things about Richard Strauss and Herbert von Karajan I hadn't known before!), Wall escape attempts, and the problems of reunification, among others. It's liberally sprinkled with examples of the famous Berliner sense of humor. A great read for the novice or the experienced Berlinophile. My one major grumble: the Cold War era section covers the western half of the city far more extensively than the eastern half. I would have liked to see more about life on the "other side". Minor quibble: being a first edition, it suffers from a very noticeable number of typos. Still a fantastic introduction -- or reintroduction -- to the city on the Spree.

18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Overrated in every way, February 12, 2002

By 

P. Geyer "prgeyer" (Vienna, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Berlin (Hardcover)

Large can certainly write a smooth and engaging narrative. But that's about all that I can recommend about this book. Large's caustic and cynical view of Berlin and Berliners is can be extremely off-putting, bordering at times on the offensive. I found his particular comment that the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church looked better after the carpet bombing of World War II than before to be extremley offensive, especially in light of how many thousands of Berlin's civilians were killed during that particular episode of "architectural improvement."

Add to this that the book seems to lack any sort of historical context, placing artistic, social and political movements apart from similar movements that were sweeping through other European cities of the time, and I find it very difficult to recommend this book to anybody.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ....Berlin said best...., May 22, 2002

By 

Steve Newman (Helena, Montana.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Berlin (Paperback)

Once again David C. Large proposes that college required reading and a sense of humor can be assimilated. Stating that the "Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church looked better after the carpet bombing of World War II than before" is comical, yet sadly true! Large educates the reader about Europe's most captivating city, Berlin! He manages to not only remind us of its beauty, but that it is a romantisch city that need not be known only as the former Nazi capital. A consistent and entertaining book, an asset to history itself. Steve Newman