24 Frames per Second, The Ticketless Traveler, Paperless Research

Babylon Berlin : A Reading List

Babylon Berlin book cover

Certain TV dramas allow vievers to indulge in that unfullfilled longing for a perilous, reckless and glamorous life they never had, while  educating them about a historically significant time period. Based on a series of novels written by Volker Kutscher, the series Babylon Berlin offers a didactive escape from reality. 

Set against the political turmoil of the Weimar Republic, the story has all the ingredients of a great noir. An intense, damaged police detective is introduced to Berlin though his encounters with rampant corruption, political conspiracies, conniving Russian revolutionaries, ruthless criminal gangs, beguiling widows, feminist flappers, and one very determined femme fatale. 
 

Clad in fedoras, cloche hats, and trenchcoats, unflinching  characters  continuously betray each other while escaping death by drowing , poison gas, and explosives. When not plotting the next assasination, revolutionaries and detectives attend wild Jazz Age parties. 

Co-written and co-directed by Tom Tykwer, Henk Handloegten and Achim von Borries, the show features 5,000 extras, 300 shooting locations, and is made for a budget of $40 million. While the  nonstop action and beautiful cinematography will secure your space on the the edge of your couch, the titles below will provide factual information on this fascinating historical period. 

For a full German immersion experience, check out some of our cookbooks and travel guides, too. If you can't get to the library, you can always borrow our ebooks, while chewing on a brawurtst . This blog would not be complete without mentioning one very special item in ourcollections, a book titled Schottenfreude: German Words for the Human Condition .

Berlin In History 

Berlin Metropolis book cover

Before the Deluge; A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920's by Otto Friedrich 

Berlin Metropolis 1918-1933 edited by Olaf Peters

Berlin Calling : A Story of Anarchy  Music, the Wall, and the Birth of the New Berlin by Paul Hoskenos

 
Berlin by David Clay Large
 
 
Hitler's Berlin: Abused citby Thomas Friedrich
 
 

Berlin in Fiction

Berlin Alexanderplatz book cover
Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Dolbin
 
Every Man  Dies Alone by Hans Fallada 
 
The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood
 
Fatherland : a novel by Robert Harris
 
Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov 
 
Berlin Stories by Robert Walser (ebook) 
 
Three Comrades by Erich Maria Remarque
 
Berlin Noir by Philip Kerr 
 

Weimar Republic

Weimar Germany Promise and Tragedy book cover
 
 
 
Culture and Inflation in Weimar Germany by Bernd Widdig (ebook) 
 

German History

The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History book cover
The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History edited by Helmut Walser Smith
 
Events that Changed Germany by Frank W. Thackeray 
 
 
 
The Habsburg Empire: a New History by Pieter M. Judson 
 

New Titles in German History

 

German Food

 
 
 
 
New German Cooking: Recipes for Classics Revisited by Jeremy and Jessica Nolen with Drew Lazor
 

Travel

Germany  by Andrea Shulte-Peevers 
 
Rick Steves Germany 2018 by Rick Steves 
 
Frommer's Germany by Rachel Glassberg 
 
Eyewitness travel Germany by Joanna Egert-Romanowska 
 
Berlin by Andrea Shulte-Peevers 

 

Comments

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Babylon Berlin

Thank you for the fascinating list of Weimar Republic related reading recommendations. My wife and I dove head first into "Babylon Berlin" and rather than me boring her to death on the subject I'm going to forward her this list!

Hi WIlliam,

Hi WIlliam, Thank you for a thoughtful note. I hope you and your wife enjoy some of the books on this list ! Marianna

Further Reading Recommendations PLease

Hi, great reading suggestions here but I wonder if you (or anyone else) could suggest novels that deal specifically with the following: Stuart England, Weimar Germany, Germany post WW2, International relations between the wars?