The Sunday Times-bestselling author of Dresden returns with a monumental biography of the city
that defined the twentieth century - Berlin 'I loved this book . . . apposite and wise . . . To
anyone who knows Berlin a little and is fascinated by it but would like to understand it
better this is a wonderful aid' David Aaronovitch The Times Throughout the twentieth century
Berlin stood at the centre of a convulsing world. This history is often viewed as separate
acts: the suffering of the First World War the cosmopolitan city of science culture and
sexual freedom Berlin became steep economic plunges the rise of the Nazis the destruction of
the Second World War the psychosis of genocide and a city rent in two by competing
ideologies. But people do not live their lives in fixed eras. An epoch ends yet the people
continue - or try to continue - much as they did before. Berlin tells the story of the city as
seen through the eyes not of its rulers but of those who walked its streets. In this
magisterial biography of a city and its inhabitants bestselling historian Sinclair McKay sheds
new light on well-known characters - from idealistic scientist Albert Einstein to Nazi
architect Albert Speer - and draws on never-before-seen first-person accounts to introduce us
to people of all walks of Berlin life. For example we meet office worker Mechtild Evers who
in her efforts to escape an oncoming army runs into even more appalling jeopardy and Reinhart
Cruger a 12-year-old boy in 1941 who witnesses with horror the Gestapo coming for each of his
Jewish neighbours in turn. Ever a city of curious contrasts moments of unbelievable darkness
give way to a wry Berliner humour - from banned perms to the often ridiculous tit-for-tat
between East and West Berlin - and moments of joyous hope - like forced labourers at a jam
factory warmly welcoming their Soviet liberators. How did those ideologies - fascism and
communism - come to flower so fully here? And how did their repercussions continue to be felt
throughout Europe and the West right up until that extraordinary night in the autumn of 1989
when the Wall - that final expression of totalitarian oppression - was at last breached? You
cannot understand the twentieth century without understanding Berlin and you cannot understand
Berlin without understanding the experiences of its people. Drawing on a staggering breadth of
culture - from art to film opera to literature science to architecture - McKay's latest
masterpiece shows us this hypnotic city as never before. 'Remarkable . . . A majestic work of
non-fiction' Matthew d'Ancona'A masterful account of a city marked by infamy . . . If there is
a book that must be read this year this is it' Amanda Foreman 'Stunning . . . It's eye-opening
enlightening and wonderfully told' Norman Ohler author of Blitzed'An electrifying new account
of Berlin' Julia Boyd author of Travellers in the Third Reich'One of my favourite historians'
Dan Snow
