Fausts Metropolis: A History of Berlin

(Paperback)

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In Berlin, history is tangible. The sense of the past; of Europe, of Germany, and of the 20th century's myths, depravities, idealism and horror, hangs in the air around the old Hinterhofs and deserted railway stations. No other city has played such a part in the tides of twentieth-century European affairs. This is the rich and inspiring history of the city: from the revolutionary fervour of its teeming slums, the insufferable pomp of Imperial Berlin, and the frantic modernism of Weimar to the brutality of the Nazis and the symbolic defeat of communism as the Wall came down.

Reviews

'Thoroughgoing and engrossing. Modern Berlin was the hub of commerce, centre stage for politics, mecca for high culture, and a haven for extravagance and eccentricity. Alexandra Richie controls all this material superbly.' PETER GAY 'A wide-ranging book, full of fascinating detail, and compellingly written.' ROBERT CONQUEST 'A unique combination of an analysis of Berlin with a study of the entire history of Germany and of Germany's problems of national and linguistic self-definition.' HAROLD JAMES

Author Bio

Alexandra Richie wrote this book while a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. She has lived and worked in both East and West Berlin and in the unified capital, and wrote her Oxford doctorate on the history of the city. Her family has been linked to Berlin since the fourteenth century. She is currently researching and writing on German-Russian history. This is her first book.