Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Can you recommend a book or two about modern Germany?
I am planning a trip to Germany later this year to visit friends and I should like to read three or four books by way of preparation. I have spent less than seven nights there in the last 40 years and I feel that a bit of post war German writing (in English translation) would greatly improve my appreciation and probably make me a better guest. Can you recommend a book? A film?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Julie on
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Many years ago, I really enjoyed The Tin Drum by Günter Grass. I'm not suggesting it's representative of German society though! It's post war, although it seems Grass was originally from Danzig/Gdansk, moving to West Germany as a refugee in his teens. I studied German in the mid nineties and really enjoyed the literature, but having checked, most of the books/plays I liked are pre-war (or from around that time) - says something about the curriculum of the time...
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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
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Post War is surely a bit vague.. that only covers about 67 years .. roughly the same as the period from the 1848 revolutions, Bismarck's wars of 1864, 1866 & 1870, the creation of the Reich in 1871, Kaisers one, two and three, right through to the First World War.
Do you mean the Cold War period 1948-1989 (seen from a western or eastern point of view) or perhaps the period 1967-1976 visit of the Shah, murder of Benno Ohnesorg and the the 68er demonstrations and Brandt's liberalising government, RAF etc.
Or the period running up to the fall of the Wall or again post-re-unfication Germany 1990 - 2012.
What are you actually looking for? Political or Social commenteries or just comfirmation of Germany being a modern liberal democratic country?
Julie's Tin Drum is a more thoughtful version of 'Cabaret' - Unemployment in 20s, disillusionment of Germany unfairly being made solely responsible for WW1 by the allies, the hardships and unemployment that brought with it and the slip into Nazism.. The second thirty years war of 1914 - 1945.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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And also one of the greatest post-war novels in any language, although I do agree not much use as a way of understanding contemporary Germany unless you want to shatter windows in the Stockturm by screaming at them!
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Amazon UK are worth checking out for their hundreds of books with "Modern Germany" in the title
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I also enjoyed Wim Wenders' film Wings of Desire, although again more as a classic of modern cinema than anything else. You could probably order a copy from the library?
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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" Three Men on the Bummel " - Jerome K Jerome. Rather old but national characteristics don't change that much
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Permalink Reply by Dick Harris on
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Thanks for the responses so far. Perhaps I should have said post 1945 (which happens to be the year of my birth).
I would prefer things by an enlightened novelist/journalist/commentator rather than academic analysis. Something that sheds light on the nation in its time such as Josef Roth does for wider Austria in the first third of the 20th century, as Ivo Andric did for Yugoslavia/Bosnia in in 1940s, as Ivan Klima does for the Czechs from 1970 onwards, as Ismael Kadare does for Albania, as Dido Sotiriou does for mid 20th century Greece, as Orhan Pamuk does for modern Turkey. I have read enough history for central Europe and read enough about the wars themselves. I am especially interested in what has come up since then that illuminates the Germans, say in the last twenty or thirty years. Of course, this can include re-interpretation of past events.
The Tin Drum and the Wings film seem possible fits. I am asking friends elsewhere too and will summarise what comes up.
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Permalink Reply by KatyT on
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I too am heading to Germany this summer. I saw this recently and thought it might be an interesting pre holiday read - not sure if it fits your purposes or not? Might be a bit 'lite'!!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/09/keeping-up-with-germans...
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Many thanks for putting me on to this book which is now a Times best seller. I am only halfway through and it is not at all 'lite' (at least, not for me). It covers a great deal of very interesting ground in an immensely impressive style. I am hoping that before the end of the book Guardian readers will not all have been condemned as Bildungsbergers!
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Oh great - glad you're enjoying - been meaning to get it myself but haven't gotten around to it yet. Will definitely order it now!
Enjoy your holiday!
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Dick, if you are Joseph Roth fan and are in Berlin, I'd recommend the Joseph-Roth-Diele on Potsdamer Straße .. a restuarant full of Roth memorabilia ..
I was there last week..
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Permalink Reply by Geoff Brown on
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I suggest Heinrich Boll. Perhaps 'The Safety Net' is his best, a story of Germany in the 1970s.
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