Reviews of our favourite fiction and non-fiction books about Berlin. These books can generally be ordered via Amazon and Buecher.de, but we recommend you support Berlin's fantastic local bookshops by ordering there - they can have any title ready for you within a day or two, at no extra cost. Kulturkaufhaus Dussmann on Friedrichstrasse is the ultimate temple for book nerds - but try spreading the love by ordering at any small Kiez bookshop.
 

Mauer

East German photographer Manfred Paul was always fascinated by forgotten corners of Berlin - in the 1980s he liked to take pictures of run-down residential courtyards, knowing that one day they would all be changed, renovated, or demolished. The fall of the Wall (Mauer in German) took everyone by surprise, and the process of removing the physical evidence of decades of deadly separation was very fast. Between November 1989 and December 1990, Paul documented the remnants of the Wall as they were being dismantled, resulting in this impressive collection of black and white images of abandoned border posts, watchtowers, patrol roads and the gaping void between east and west. By now, this gash through the city has all but vanished, making these images valuable reminders of how the Cold War determined this city. 

'Mauer' (2019, ISBN 9783959053518) by Manfred Paul is for sale for €36 at Dussmann, other major bookshops and via www.spectorbooks.com.
 

Berlin – Damals und Heute

The exceptional changes that Berlin has gone through since the fall of the Wall are very nicely portrayed in “Berlin – then and now”, where black and white street scenes from the late 1980s are placed beside the full-colour modern-day views. Gerd Danigel, a professional photographer who grew up in the GDR and has been snapping Berlin since 1978, returned to the exact locations of his older photos, revealing a transformed city. Gone are the scars of the war, the gaps between buildings and the neglect of the GDR years – renovated buildings and bridges returned to their former lustre. Residential streets void of life are bustling with traffic again, tired-looking shops are rejuvenated, selling things nobody thought they needed in the eighties. Even individual trees that have grown tall in the three intermediate decades can be recognised. Locals and regular visitors to Berlin have of course been witness to these slow changes – but seeing the two eras so starkly juxtaposed on paper is something of a shock to even the dedicated Berlin-fans.  

'Berlin – Damals und Heute' (2018, ISBN 9783957970770) by Gerd Danigel is for sale for €15 at Dussmann and other major bookshops. 
 

On Tempelhofer Feld 

Tempelhofer Feld, Berlin's former city-centre airport that's now a beloved park with strict restrictions on what can be done there, is regularly in the news as politicians eye the potential for building tens of thousands of apartments there in order to relieve Berlin's housing crisis a little. The "On Tempelhofer Feld" project, the result of an academic workshop and photography project, consists of a interview booklet with architects (many of them eager to start building), geographers and city planners, accompanied by a charming photo book showing how Berliners use the park on a sunny day - for kiting, biking, practicing fly-fishing or just lazing around. Most informative is social scientist Andrej Holm who focuses on how the park can play an important role in bringing the fragmented and gentrified social scenes of the surrounding neighbourhoods together - he argues that instead of just the authorities and investors, these residents should be involved in any future decisions. 

'On Tempelhofer Feld' (2016, ISBN 9783944669649) edited by Benjamin Deboosere and Wouter De Raeve is for sale for €26 at Dussmann, other major bookshops and via spectorbooks.com.

Berlin Alexanderplatz

When convicted murderer Franz Biberkopf is released from Berlin's Tegel prison, he's determined to become a respectable citizen and behave well, this time. Unfortunately, after initial success in keeping clean, fate intervenes and the temptations and pitfalls of the rough area around 1920s Alexanderplatz square soon entangle Biberkopf, dragging him down. Alfred Döblin's legendary novel from 1929 is one of the best novels about Berlin and the ill-fated Weimar Republic, and is particularly hard to render in English, with its local Berlinerisch vernacular. Now wonderfully translated for the first time in almost 90 years by award-winning poet Michael Hoffman, the novel is finally made accessible to English speakers, with sparkling conversations and memorable insights into the workings of the humans inhabiting 1920s Berlin. 

"Berlin Alexanderplatz" (1929, New York Review Books Classics, ISBN 9781681371993) by Alfred Döblin, new 2018 translation by Michael Hoffmann, is for sale online and at major bookshops from €14.