Faust's Metropolis: A History of Berlin [Paperback]

Alexandra Richie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 1999

Berlin - called the Schicksal Stadt Deutschlands, the City of German Destiny - has been at the heart of the most important events of not only Germany, but also modern Europe. In this powerful historical narrative, Oxford historian Alexandra Richie follows Berlin from its Medieval foundation to the nation-building dreams of Frederick the Great and Bismarck. Most important, she concentrates on the city during the twentieth century's upheavals: the Weimar Republic's decadent capital; Hitler and Goebbels's fascist metropolis; the city divided by the Cold War. Published to international acclaim, Faust's Metropolis is history at its most enthralling. "Brilliant work . . . the material is all fascinating, and Richie is an excellent descriptive writer." - New York Review of Books "Thoroughgoing and engrossing" - Peter Gay, author of My German Question "Outstanding . . . brilliantly written" - Michael Howard, Times Literary Supplement "Magnificent . . . should be required reading for anyone with any curiosity about where Europe has been and where it is going" - Piers Paul Read, Sunday Telegraph "A compelling narrative" - Philadelphia Inquirer "Absorbing" - Wall Street Journal

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An ambitious undertaking, Faust's Metropolis : A History of Berlin aims to chronicle the history of Germany through the microcosm of its most dramatic city. Alexandra Richie's thousand page tome spans from the time of Nero to Helmut Kohl. It is an encyclopedic description of the Schicksal Stadt Deutschlands--the City of German Destiny--filled with the politics of rulers and the ideology of artists.

Richie doesn't romanticize Berlin; early on, she invokes Goethe's view of the city as bourgeois, brash, and onerous. "Like the metropolis in Faust it has always been a rather shabby place," Richie comments. "It is neither an ancient gem like Rome, nor an exquisite beauty like Prague, nor a geographical marvel like Rio. It was formed not by the gentle, cultured hand which made Dresden or Venice but was wrenched from the unpromising landscape by sheer hard work and determination." By placing her historical account in a world-encompassing perspective, the culture described in Faust's Metropolis comments on the whole of Germany and its people.

The author is most eloquent in describing the recent history of the city. As a resident during its divided years, she describes Berlin as the ultimate "border city," on the frontline of the dueling Weltanschauungs of the Cold War. Her tone is familiar in describing the changing face of the city, and her enthusiasm evident as the book moves into the modern era. Filled with the insights of its unique and myriad residents, Faust's Metropolis recounts Berlin's culture, providing the reader with a thorough history and authoritative analysis. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The ending of the Cold War and the reunification of Germany have brought about an outpouring of books on the new Germany. Richie (Fellow, Wolfson Coll., Oxford) has added this lengthy study of Berlin. With its checkered past, the city stands at the center of the reunited nation's history. According to Richie, the making of an "instant capital" in Berlin after the demise of the Wall has been fraught with problems. After World War II the city did not regain its former importance, as many still saw it as the capital of Hitler's regime. Even many of the city's residents today protest the idea of the new capital. Berlin must evolve, according to the author, in a natural way and not by edict. Suitable for academic and large public libraries with large readerships interested in Germany and central Europe. (Notes and bibliography not seen.)?Dennis L. Noble, N. Olympic Lib. Sys., Port Angeles, WA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1168 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (November 7, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786706813
• ISBN-13: 978-0786706815
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #343,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Biography of a city and a prism on German history, July 19, 1998

By 

Richard E. Hegner (Columbia, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Faust's Metropolis: A History of Berlin (Hardcover)

This book, despite its length, was a compelling read, almost a page-turner. Seldom does it lag. The author writes well, and researched the book thoroughly. She has an eye for the ironies of German history--one of the greatest being the Slavic origins of the German capital, one of the many facts of the German past which Hitler suppressed. As a scion of the von Moltke family, she has some special insights to offer, and occasionally throws in a reflection on an ancestor or a bit of her own experience as a former Berlin resident. (It would have been nice to know a bit more of her own history, since she often chimes in with pieces of it.) As a good history should, this one reflects on the future, too--and the transcedent question of the meaning of Berlin as the once and future deutsche Hauptstadt. As a German-American, I have read many books of German history, but this is clearly one of the best. It is full of new insights, and very cleverly uses Berlin itself as a ! prism through which to view German history. It dispels the myth of the "typical Berliner"--given Berlin's relatively short history, most Berliners, even the famous ones, have reasonably short heritages in the city, and many came to Berlin from other parts of Germany or Europe--while presenting a fairly empathetic picture of the terrible times which Berliners have faced--including the post-WWI starvation and hyperflation, the Hitler tyranny, the ruthless Russian conquest, the oppression of the Russian occupation and the hope of the Berlin Airlift, the tragic division caused by the erection of die Schandemauer, and the heroic attempts at escape, culminating in the joy of November 9, 1989, when the wall came down. I can wholeheartedly recommend this work to anyone interested in modern Germany or modern European history.

34 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Out Of Her League, September 18, 2001

By 

SEAN MCATEER "Red Sox Fan and Deadhead" (Cranston, R.I. United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Faust's Metropolis: A History of Berlin (Paperback)

It is a sad commentary on today's book market that this could be published; surely the most poorly edited major book I have seen in years. Leaving aside content for a moment, we have numerous spelling and grammatical errors. There is inconsistent capitalization of terms throughout. In the author's section on WWII she ascribes the infamous Moscow July 1944 parade of German POW's as containing some 350,000 captured Germans. Two pages later it is 60,000 (it was actually 57,600 and change). She has no concept of the distinction between a Soviet 'front' and an 'army' or 'army group'. She speaks of Rokossovsky's role in the 'race' for and Battle for Berlin in April 1945 when Rokossovsky's Front was in action well to the north of the city. It is well known the 'race' was between Zhukov and Konev--hence Stalin's famous 'pencil mark' between the Fronts. In general, the entire WWII section is replete with errors that any decent editor should have caught. The material in that section was largely out of date thirty years ago.
As for content, the author's anti-German bias shows rather clearly. For example she can not comprehend why Berlin might not want a monument to Red Army war dead in their city! She comes down clearly on the side of those who condemn the new generation of Germans for the sins of their forbears. As for American angles, she repeats the old myth that we should have liberated Berlin as the disposition of the occupation zones was not set. This is very wrong, the zones having been determined in final form (except for the French zone--which did not come out of the Soviet allocation at all) over the fall of 1944. As we did with cities like Leipzig, we would have been obliged to withdraw from the territory surrounding Berlin by summer '45 or face a war. So Ike properly saw little reason to sacrifice American lives for land we would just turn over to the USSR anyway. She repeats the old McCarthy-ite myth that FDR 'gave' Eastern Europe away at Yalta! Any serious student of WWII will choke on almost every page she writes concerning that period, so replete is it with mistakes. Later, she castigates the US for not physically tearing down the Wall upon its 1961 construction--little realizing that such would have meant a war that no American then wished to fight. In general, the author has a tunnel vision grounded in some sort of anti-German and anti-American "pan-Europism". That, coupled with the worst editing I have ever seen in a major book means that this does not even deserve the one star I have given it.

20 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Broad in scope but horrible bias, July 25, 2005

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ARP - See all my reviews

This review is from: Faust's Metropolis: A History of Berlin (Paperback)

This book has several things going for it that I particularly liked. First off I appreciate how complete it is. While one could say that that the last 150 years of Berlin history were the most important, this book gives an account of Berlin from the first settlements in the area all the way up to reunification and beyond. I particularly appreciated learning about Berlin/Cölln in the middle ages as well as what the city experienced in The 30 Years War. The book is also extremely readable and quite engrossing.

The book staggers, however, when Richie comes to World War II. There are factual errors, as other reviewers have pointed out. Richie also falls into the camp that sees the allies as having given Berlin, East Germany, and Eastern Europe away to Stalin. She claims that Roosevelt just gave the city away, accusing him of "criminally stupid behaviour" and almost suggests that Roosevelt and Stalin were somehow conspiring against Churchill. Her argument would seem more convincing if, in the following four hundred pages, she did not go out of her way to portray anyone left of Joe McCarthy in the same light.

The problem with Richie's text is that it's about absolutes. Having read the text, one gets the sense that Churchill, Adenauer, Kohl, Reagan (yes, Richie falls to Reagan's feet too, I'm surprised she didn't claim that he tore down the wall single handedly) etc. could do no wrong, whereas the East German government was only evil, all the time, thanks to the assitance of Kennedy, Willy Brandt, and Günter Grass. Not a very healthy approach to history.