Historical books from Germany
Recommended historical books (25)
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you are into historical here are some historical books from Germany for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
12.
If This Is a Woman : Inside Ravensbruck: Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women by Sarah Helm EN
Description:
On a sunny morning in May 1939 a phalanx of 800 women - housewives, doctors, opera singers, politicians, prostitutes - were marched through the woods fifty miles north of Berlin, driven on past a shining lake, then herded through giant gates. Whipping and kicking them were scores of German women guards. Their destination was Ravensbruck, a concentration camp designed specifically for women by Heinrich Himmler, prime architect of the Nazi genocide. For decades the story of Ravensbruck was hidden behind the Iron Curtain and today is still little known. Using testimony unearthed since the end of ... continue
13.
Madgermanes by Birgit Weyhe EN
Description:
‘Madgermanes’ is what the Mozambican workers once contracted out to East Germany are called today. At the end of the 1970s, some 20,000 of them were sent from the People’s Republic of Mozambique to the GDR to labour for their socialist sister country. After the Berlin Wall fell, almost all of them lost their residency status. Decades later, they are still waiting for most of their wages to be paid.
Birgit Weyhe depicts their search for belonging and a place to call home, caught between two cultures and two states that no longer exist. Based on extensive interviews, she cre... continue
14.
Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht EN
Description:
Widely considered one of the great dramatic creations of the modem stage, Mother Courage and Her Children is Bertolt Brecht s most passionate and profound statement against war. Set in the seventeenth century, the play follows Anna Fierling ( Mother Courage ), an itinerant trader, as she pulls her wagon of wares and her children through the blood and carnage of Europe s religious wars. Battered by hardships, brutality, and the degradation and death of her children, she ultimately finds herself alone with the one thing in which she truly believes her ramshackle wagon with its tattered flag and ... continue
15.
Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder by Bertolt Brecht DE
Description:
Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder, eine Chronik aus dem Dreißigjährigen Krieg. »Was eine Aufführung von Mutter Courage«, schrieb Brecht einmal, »hauptsächlich zeigen soll: Daß die großen Geschäfte in den Kriegen nicht von den kleinen Leuten gemacht werden. Daß der Krieg, der eine Fortführung der Geschäfte mit anderen Mitteln ist, die menschlichen Tugenden tödlich macht, auch für ihre Besitzer. Daß er darum bekämpft werden muß.«
16.
Nightmare in Berlin by Hans Fallada EN
Description:
Available for the first time in English, here is an unforgettable portrayal by a master novelist of the physical and psychological devastation wrought in the homeland by Hitler’s war. Late April, 1945. The war is over, yet Dr Doll, a loner and ‘moderate pessimist’, lives in constant fear. By night, he is haunted by nightmarish images of the bombsite in which he is trapped — he, and the rest of Germany. More than anything, he wishes to vanquish the demon of collective guilt, but he is unable to right any wrongs, especially in his position as mayor of a small town in north-east Germany that has ... continue
17.
On War by Carl von Clausewitz EN
Description:
This abridged edition of On War by Beatrice Heuser, using the acclaimed translation by Michael Howard and Peter Paret, selects the central books in which Clausewitz's views on the nature and theory of war are developed.
18.
Perfume : The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind EN
Description:
'Born in sweaty, fetid eighteenth-century Paris, Genouille is distinctive even in infancy. He has "the finest nose in Paris and no personal odour". With wit, a Gothic imagination and considerable originality, Suskind has developed this simple idea into a fantastic tale of murder and twisted eroticism controlled by a disgusted loathing of humanity . . . Clever, stylish, absorbing and well worth reading' Literary Review
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20.
Tauben im Gras : Roman by Wolfgang Koeppen DE
Description:
»Koeppens Werk besteht, wie das von allen Schriftstellern, aus Büchern von sehr unterschiedlicher Bedeutung. Ich schätze besonders den frühen Roman Eine unglückliche Liebe, den Roman Der Tod in Rom und das Fragment Jugend. Für das allerwichtigste Buch von Koeppen halte ich den herrlichen Roman Tauben im Gras, veröffentlicht 1951 und nach wie vor viel zu wenig bekannt. Wer diesen Roman nicht gelesen hat, der solle nicht glauben, er kenne die deutsche Literatur nach 1945.« Marcel Reich-Ranicki