A Dance Between Flames: Berlin Between the Wars [Hardcover]

Anton Gill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1994

An informative look at the fascinating history of Berlin between the two World Wars explores the brilliant artistic ferment of the 1920s as it existed along with poverty and hardship and follows the rise of Nazism and its horrors in the 1930s.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This fast-paced, wonderfully evocative chronicle of interwar Berlin opens with the Communist revolution of 1918, which nearly took over Germany; it closes on Kristallnacht , Nov. 9, 1938, when Nazis burned and pillaged Jewish property and synagogues. Drawing primarily on German sources, British writer Gill re-creates the creative frenzy of a city that nurtured Bertolt Brecht, Max Reinhardt, Josephine Baker, Kathe Kollwitz, George Grosz, Arnold Schonberg, Christopher Isherwood, satirical journalist Kurt Tucholsky and dozens more against a backdrop of economic chaos and rising Nazism. He charts the Weimar Republic's doomed attempt to introduce democratic ideas to a wrecked, disillusioned people craving order, and he includes a wealth of fresh material on Berlin's cafe society, criminal underworld, theater, arts and its regimented university system--which emphasized militarist nationalism and actively harassed Jewish students and teachers. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Gill ( Berlin to Bucharest , LJ 11/1/90) here collects wonderful anecdotes from Berliners who remember the Weimar era. A master raconteur who knows Berlin and Berliners well, he captures the Zeitgeist from the collective memory of a city that was both exhilarating and terrifying. Gill doesn't tell how Germany descended into a nightmare, but he shows how Berlin remembers the descent. This work is the perfect complement to the current explosion of books in Germany on the Weimar Republic, which consider whether there is anything to be learned from the pre-Hitler era concerning Germany's present difficulties. There is no fresh scholarship here, however, and Gill gets sloppy with his facts. For example, he cites the controversy about the republic's flag but describes the flag backward. Still, this book will be a good addition to public and undergraduate collections.
- Randall L. Schroeder, Augustana Coll. Lib., Rock Island, Ill.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub; 1st US edition (April 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786700637
• ISBN-13: 978-0786700639
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #738,169 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Very readable introduction to 1918-1939 Berlin, June 19, 2011

By 

G.C. (St. Louis, MO, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Dance Between Flames: Berlin Between the Wars (Hardcover)

Gill has written a very enjoyable and reader-friendly survey of Berlin between the two World Wars here. A lot of the names from Berlin's cultural, political, scientific and sociological history will be unfamiliar to modern readers, but Gill's style makes it all go down easy. He is humble enough to acknowledge that his one book can only really skate the surface of Berlin's rich history. I am not knowledgeable enough about Berlin's history to comment as critically as the excerpt by Randall Schroeder that Gill slips on the facts sometimes, but with that caveat, this still makes a good introduction for those interested in the city or who love the city, as I do.