Located at the epicentre of modern Europe's most significant and
turbulent events, Berlin has long held a magnetic attraction for
writers. From nineteenth-century authors recording the city's dramatic
transition from Prussian Hauptstadt to German capital after 1871 and the
modernist intellectuals of the Weimar period, to the resistance writers
brave enough to write during the dark years of the Nazi era and those
who captured life on both sides of the divided city, a body of
literature has emerged that reveals Berlin's ever-shifting identity.
Since 1989, Berlin has yet again become a crucible of creativity,
serving as both muse and sanctuary for a new generation of writers who
regularly claim it as one of the most exciting cities in the world.
Berlin: A Literary Guide for Travellers illuminates some of the finest
writing in and about Berlin. Spanning more than 200 years of local life
and literature, it features German authors as diverse as Goethe,
Nietzsche, Marx, Hermann Hesse and Joseph Roth and a kaleidoscope of
famous international names such as Mark Twain, Philip Hensher, Walter
Benjamin and Christopher Isherwood. It is also a singular guide to some
of the best sights, most vibrant neighbourhoods and best-kept local
secrets that this unique city has to offer.