I just returned from a trip to Europe- where I visited, amoung many places, Berlin and Prague. I mention Prague because I had imaged that city would be the one that stole my heart- well Berlin is the city in Europe that I sit here missing the most.

This book is really beautifully done. All the photos are high in quality and in black and white. What I love most is the pictures of Unter den Linden and the Gendarmenmarkt- my two favorite places in all of Europe.

There are many others that show the wonderful variety of architecture in this great city. A city that, as I once read quoted, "is always in a state of becoming and never in a state of being." That was a quote from 1900 and 100 years later it is yet again true. Only this time when all the building is done, Berlin will come out as Europe's greatest city.

A wonderful collection of many photos...truly showing the spirit, splendor, and enchantment of Berlin.

Don't miss this opportunity!

Drawn from the writer's experiences growing up in pre-World War II Berlin and through the war years, this well-written book reads more like a spellbinding thriller as he deals with, then goes underground, to avoid persecution. You feel firsthand the horror, frustrations, and heartbreaks he endured. Reading Gruenberg's riveting story gives one a new perspective on the known historical events as they changed the day-to-day lives of those affected, and what was required to cope. One cannot be unmoved by this story, or the message delivered.

This is a "must-read" book!

The photography was excellent, capturing enough of the surroundings that you can understand some of the works. It was also a thrill to see some of my work in print since my friend Mongo and I were the ones who painted "Late night with David Letterman" on the wall. I have a posterprint hanging on my wall as proof of our endeavers. The historical facts of the wall listed in the book were also excellent reading. I only with I could have been there when they tore it down!

Readers in grades 5-7 will find this 'New Perspectives' series addition stands alone as an excellent survey of history surrounding the Berlin Wall in general and Eastern Europe in particular. The Berlin Wall uses different viewpoints to tell of how the wall was built, how it affected the peoples' lives, and how it came down. Politics is clearly explained and explored.

This is the perfect book to teach middle school students not only about the Berlin Wall, but about the Cold War for which it serves as a metaphor. The author explains the background and concepts connected with the Wall in language adolescents can understand. Her prose flows smoothly and maintains the reader's interest throughout. The black and white photographs bring history to life with, for example, an image of an East German border guard leaping over rolls of barbed wire (which he probably had just helped install) to freedom in the West. This is a very good book.

The history of the city of Berlin is perhaps the most interesting and tragic history of any capital city in Europe. Alexandra Richie, in her epic 'Faust's Metropolis: A History of Berlin,' gives her readers and extensive history of this great city. From it's birth to reunification, Berlin's sad pattern of always being in a "state of becoming, rather than being," is illustrated in great detail. Many times over the course of her history- Berlin has found herself in ruin. No other century was as disasterous for Berlin as the 20th century.

In 'Berlin: A Century of Change,' the reader is taken on an incredible journey of a city that at one moment was the mightest in Europe and the next was a wasteland of rubble. The reader is taken on a journey, from the celebrations of the marriage of the Kaiser's daughter in Potsdamer Platz to the views of the bombed out Reichstag, to the new architecture arising in post-Cold War Berlin.

The photos are extensive and beautifully illustrated. There are many photos from all the major events over the course of the century. The Imperial troops returning home in defeat following WWI peace. The massive Nazi parade grounds and Unter den Linden transformed into a Nazi show piece. Many arial photos of the hollow shell of the bombed out city following defeat in WWII! The massive crowds outside the Reichstag during the Berlin Blockade. This book has it all and is a wonderful pictorial exhibit of how vastly Berlin has changed in the 20th century. After visting Berlin last May, I have no doubt that the 21st century will see her emerge (finally) as the greatest city in Europe.

For further photographic books on Berlin, I would highly recommend Profitlich's 'Berlin Images.' This book is full of beautiful black and white photos of many of the great and beautiful buildings in Berlin.

For further information on the new architecture sweeping Berlin, I would highly recommend Kieren and Gottlieb Hempel's 'New Architecture Berlin, 1990-2000.' This book has tons of photos, descriptions and locations (including bus, U, and S lines) on the wave of new architecture that has swept Berlin over the past 10 years. Excellent book!

I would also highly recommend Foster and Jenkin's 'Rebuilding the Reichstag.' An awesome book on the history of the Reichstag, including tons of illustrations of past and present design competitions. As well, this book presents the history of the building from it's Imperial days, to ruin, to the modern dome. This book really illustrates how important the Reichstag is. It's not just a building- it's Berlin. What has happened to the Reichstag has happened to Berlin.

Lastly, for a historical text on Berlin- I would highly recommend Alexandra's 'Faust's Metropolis: A History of Berlin.' While it is quite thick (900+ pages), it is well written and extensive in covering every facet of Berlin's history- from politics to music, art, and literature.

If you have an interest in Berlin- the books mentioned here are essential and all available on Amazon.com.

The Germans may have taken an undignified whipping at Munich last year when the English were just too strong for them in every department of the game and they were overwhelmed by an avalanche of goals and quality - but they do have a rather nice word for "malicious enjoyment of another's misfortune".

Ms King has really written a very authoritative book on that literary phenomenon of the 20's and 30's who was Vicki Baum.

I used to read a lot in the family library when I was a boy. I remember that my father had in very high esteem the collected works of Vicki Baum. There were four volumes of them in a beautiful Madrid de luxe Edition, with leather and everything. I was very curious about a writer who had been able to write so many novellas (she wrote like 50).

To put it shortly, I decided to study chemical engineering because of her novel WEEPING WOOD (A history of the Rubber Tree). And also, HEADLESS ANGEL (a romantic novel about the Mexican years of the Colony) made me long for adventures.

Many years have elapsed and I always wanted to re-read those books, but with more information at hand, so I could savour what was before me.

I found that information in the essay BEST SELLERS BY DESIGN by scholar Lynda King. She didn't write a biography in strict sense, but rather went very succesfully to explain why Vicki Baum was such an exceptional literary phnomenon in the Berlin of the 20's and 30's. According to her exhaustive survey, Ms King says that Germany in those years was (because of the economic depression with an inflation of 5000%- people had to carry money in wheelbarrows) hungry for reading things that the man-in-the-street -like the enormous majority of the population was-, could achieve in life. The House of Ullstein (Germany's largest editorial Firm) found in the person of Vicki Baum the writer who could address the hearts of the ordinary people. And so and with the fashion of the epoch of delivering chapters each month in Ullstein's different publications destined to housewives, workers, even professional people, they were able to read a whole story on woman emancipation (THE STORY OF HELENE WILLFEUER) which produced antagonistic reactions. But it was Baum's first best-seller. And then came the quintessence of dreams-come-true, her most famous novel GRAND HOTEL in which Baum takes pains to show that an ordinary man as the heroe who comes to Berlin from a small town manages to be admitted into the exclusive and aristocratic Grand Hotel and mingles with all sorts of important people before he dies (he's terminally ill). Grand Hotel has been used to explain what a best-seller is, but Ms King has written a very comprehensive allegory of it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this essay with b/w rare photographs of Baum. And yes, it helped to recreate in my spirit those scenes of boyhood. It also helped to understand that Baum was a very talented writer, deep and skillful, and that the accusations of her being a writer of TRIVIALLITERATUR were not shared by all literary critics of the day. Even today, says Ms King, opinion is divided. Baum chose otherwise because she needed the money and decided to write best-sellers. But what is true is that she remains a fascinating writer who can get you into the plot of her rich imagination.

In short this is an essay which will appeal to all those interested in the making of a best-seller and some desription of that most fastidious of cities which is Berlin.

Half a century after the Holocaust, surely it is time for those of us who are Christian to face, acknowledge, and examine the truly horrifying streams of anti-semitism that have been part of even "main stream" Christianity for so long. This is a virtually untold history that will shock almost all readers who think of themselves as Chritians, and it should. It is probably the least well known aspect of the Third Reich, and raises very sensitive issues about Christian theologies (and theologians) which have been unable or unwilling to learn from this history. From the startling photograph on the cover, to the last page, this book is a powerful wake-up call!

This book is an excellent scientific study about the situation of outsiders in a medieval city. The study is based on written sources available in Germany (mostly Cologne).
Outsiders in a medieval study were not only beggars, lepers, sick persons, gypsies, artists, magicians, prostitutes or executioners, but also barbers and doctors.
The author managed to follow the course of life of some of these outsiders (beggars and prostitutes) from their birth to the grave.
He gives also excellent examples of discrimination.
He clearly proves that some of the medieval taboos are still not eradicated today.
A very interesting and important sociological study.