Berlin: Life and Death in the City at the Center of the… (2024)

“Other European capitals acknowledge the dark past with elegantly aestheticized monuments; they seek to smooth the jagged edges of history. Not here.”

Covering the history of Berlin from 1919 to 1989, author Sinclair McKay chronicles the city’s socioeconomic rise and fall and rise and fall and rise. Starting with the post-WWI Weimar Republic, McKay guides us through a metropolis forever changed by the advent of Nazism, the maniacal vision of Adolf Hitler, and the terror of Kristallnacht.

When the tide of World War II turned decidedly against Germany (roughly 1943), Berlin, once thought imperishable, became the preferred landing zone of countless allied bombs and explosive artillery shells. In the aftermath the rubbled capital was quartered between the Soviets, the French, the British, and the Americans.

Ultimately socialist-capitalist frictions between the USSR and the US deteriorated into a near endless cycle of retributions and reprisals—culminating in the storied ’Berlin Wall’ which infamously went up in 1961 and famously came down in 1989. Through it all, Berlin and its people persevered.

“Every city has history, but Berlin has too much.” ~David Chipperfield, architect

I am impressed by Sinclair McKay’s ability to infuse new life into an era of world history that has been written about ad nauseam. This is an exquisitely composed account that should appeal to most every History Buff on the planet; ‘extensively researched and nicely written. 4 Stars.

This book is a highly detailed and meticulously researched history of the city of Berlin from the end of WWI to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

While I appreciate the detail and amount of time and energy the author put into this, the book was a very slow and meandering read. It took me 11 days to read because of the density of the information and the subject matter is quite heavy.

There is a lot of death and destruction as the author takes us through the lead up to World War II and Cold War years, which is a good portion of this book. There's also several instances of rape and sexusl assault, so be forewarned about that. I think this book is best for history teachers, history majors, or those with a deep interest in Germany in the 20th century. I wouldn't recommend this to those with just a casual interest in history.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, author Sinclair McKay, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book. My opinions are my own.

Received a copy of this book through Goodreads Giveaway - Wow! Magnificent prose. Thoroughly researched. Sucked me in from the Preface and told me things I never knew about Berlin, about Germany, about history - about us. Great book.

This book offered a unique way to examine Berlin's history. Each segment focused upon an individual and what that person experienced in the city and world in which they lived. I thoroughly enjoyed it -- and learned a ton.

Ausgezeichnet. I knew I would be in for something special with this, having read his Dresden book last year, but this surpassed all expectations. If only all history was written like this - he has this gorgeous lyrical, descriptive writing style.

I only just wish it had covered just a little more ground time-wise, but he writes with so much detail from so many perspectives that I guess anything longer would be way too unwieldy. Amazing as is!

I hope he covers Hamburg next. Please oh please!! More biographies of specific periods in German cities from him! They are perfection!

The author begins his chronicles of the City of Berlin in 1919, just after World War I
Berlin, was very modern for the times, in all that a city has to offer.

Hitler's rise to power has it's beginnings in Berlin and the final conquest in 1945 When Russia invaded the city; no woman felt safe with the Russian soldiers everywhere.
The city for the most part lay in ruins.
A conflict ensued by the two ruling parties. It started in 1948 to a final separation by the Berlin Wall in 1961.
The people of Berlin were first had witnesses t these terrifying years of a city divided. In 1989 the wall was torn down, giving the city it's freedoms.

This was such a great historical book.

I want to thank St. Martin's press for the book .

TITLE: Berlin: Life and Death in the City at the Center of the World
AUTHOR: Sinclair McKay
PUB DATE: 08.23.2022 Now Available

My Thoughts:

I love reading about history and learning about cities I plan to visit. I have not been to Berlin but is definitely in my list to visit sooner than later.

McKay deftly presents and takes the readers back to the golden era of Berlin, starting in 1919 when the city was beaming with modern art, cinema, architecture, industry, science, and politics of the time. McKay then continuous the accounts of the city through 1945, with the rise of Hitler, and the fall of the city with the Battle of Berlin.

What captured my attention was the real life accounts and personal stories of the people - the men, women, and children that lived through the rise and fall of a magnificent city. The writing was brilliant, and presents a powerful and compelling read, that doesn’t read like a history book filled with factual well researched information. It’s more than that - McKay’s rich imagery and prose, of this snippet in time in Berlin, was magnificent!

This would make for a wonderful gift for any historical buff, or anyone interested in historical reads.

This might be a good book if you only have a vague idea of Berlin, but for anyone else it is a rather disappointing book. It’s not really a book about Berlin in the 20th century as it’s advertised to be, but almost only about the three decades from 1920 to 1950 with a huge emphasis on the Nazi era. There’s a little about the Weimar era, almost nothing about the Kaiser era before and during WWI, very little about the last decades of the Cold War and nothing at all about Berlin in the last decade of the 20th century when the city truly transformed itself.

Moreover, the book is only somewhat about Berlin itself. True, there are chapters about the life of the ordinary Berliners, but, but most chapters are about politics or science with very little relevance for Berlin. An example is the chapter Uranium Club about some of the scientists working on finding ways to split the atom where Berlin only plays a very small role in the story. The extremely important and interesting period when the city was divided in East and West has only been dedicated a few chapters.

I think this book is aimed for an older British audience who loves to read anything concerning World War II, but if you buy this book to get a real understanding of Berlin and the influence it had the entire 20th century you will be disappointed.

Thorough and very well-researched. It’s a shame that, in shaping the century, McKay decides to devote 90% of the book to the most documented six years in all of human history. It glosses over Wilhelmine and Weimar Berlin and races through post-war Berlin (all 55 years of it) in about 50 pages. Imbalanced and imperfect, this is still interesting history but more well-worn than I’d hoped.

It kept going on tangents away from Berlin and I don’t feel like I know Berlin any better than I did before reading …

Life and Death in the City at the Center of the World

“Berlin”, explores the city’s human history from the end of the Great War to the Blockade, rise of the Wall and beyond. The author begins in 1919 when Berliner’s went through stages of deprivation, disorder, intolerance and inflation was crippling their economy. Berliners were nevertheless resilient even with all the constraints their creativity in cinema and literature was flourishing. Then, the Nazi came to power and by the end of 1945 Berlin was a city in rubble. The Nazi regime collapsed, Russian arrived and the city divided soon after the Berlin Wall went up and stood there till it was dismantled in 1989.

What an overwhelming and dissatisfying read this portrayed of one of the world’s great city turned out to be. The author devoted inordinate amount of details to the fall of the Third Reich and the action Red Army towards Berliners and raced through the years of the Weimar Republic between the construction of the wall till it was torn down. Nevertheless he did mention the American airlift, the Soviet blockade and the atomic research at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. Considering the years covered in this book it is to be expected that the author may have overlooked some major topics along the way.

I may not have enjoyed this book at its fullest it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be read. The style although I did find it to be quite heavy is nevertheless richly written to pique our interest in learning more about Berlin and her turbulent years..... Right, this book reads like a textbook....

I received a copy from the publisher St-Martin Press through NetGalley.

As a big fan of Berlin, this book was long and very high on my wish list. I do not regret reading it even though it did not match my expectations. I had thought and hoped that this book would be a biography of the city from its beginnings to the present. However, the author focuses - as is his right - on the period between 1919 and 1989, and especially on the end of the Nazi era. It is fluently written and contains nice angles and common threads such as the Berliners' passion for film and music. It is a pity, though, that the book is already two-thirds far before the BRD and GDR period begins. You get the impression that the author wanted to finish the last few decades at a trot. It is also remarkable that such a historical event as the fall of the wall only covers one page. These critical remarks, however, take nothing away from the merits of this book

First, this book has TONS of good info. Many reviews have talked about it like a textbook. I would honestly say that it is too detailed on what it covers, and too weak on interpretation, argument, and structure. That said, those traits make it good for early grad students and for those who need an overview of 20th-century Germany. I have already recommended it to a friend for that even.

That said, it is a SLOG. Although it's not really that long, and many sections are rushed, the overall lack of structure had me searching for a point. Therefore, it just felt like one fact after another, an avalanche of trivia rather than a narrative. And it's all sad, depressing stuff. If it were a movie it would be all grey and filled with death. Spoiler tho - not everyone dies! So that's something.

The Nazis and rebuilding after are the center here. There are chapters of introduction that cover from WWI to 1933. After, two chapters that skim through the early 1950s to 1989. Like many Eastern European narratives of WWII (I'm looking at you Katyn) the Soviet years are an extension of the Nazis, and the true liberation doesn't happen until after SSR. Surviving under the Nazis and then the Soviet "liberation," defined by widespread and indiscriminate rape and starvation, form the relentless story. Like the Berliners, your sense of time and desire for familiar structures will be lost. If you want that experience, read José Saramago's Blindness. It doesn't belong in nonfiction.

If you need good info about WWII and Berlin, pick this up. But only if you really need that info. And read other books in between chapters for sanity.

This book was both a joy — in terms of its depth of research, its tasty albeit oftentimes too esoteric vocabulary, its sharp analysis, among other features — and a sorrow — there be dragons here; cutting and personal accounts of mass rape and neverending trauma faced by Berliners, many of them caring not for Hitler — to read. I had forgotten what kind of writing (and real life figures!) lay outside of young adult and fantasy books, which have absorbed my reading habits more recently. McKay is a clear master of the written word, but even more, has a firm grasp on historical penmanship. There are surely fallacies at work here, but the book is unabashed in its storytelling none the less (see Sinclair, I wrote those word(s) just like you do). There is an obvious order to the book—before, during, and after the war—but within those sections I couldn’t always tell where he was going next or why he chose that direction. Regardless, I enjoyed it, and look forward to continue my study of Berlin (and of course the always staunch Berliners).

Iets te veel op WOII en nazisme gericht daar het de ambitie heeft om de 20ste eeuw in Berlijn te omvatten. Blokkade eind jaren 40, Berlijnse muur en koude oorlog allemaal in minder dan 100 pagina's bespreken valt wat tegen. Verder wel interessant dankzij feiten en anekdotiek van gemiddelde Berlijner in verhaal.

The best - informative, concise and easy-to-read - history of Berlin, from the post-Great War era to the end of the Cold War, that I have read to date. It left me wanting to learn more about the subject, which I consider a hallmark of a good book. I look forward to reading other books by the author.

This book is an interesting narrative history of Berlin mostly from the end of the First World War to the fall of the Berlin Wall. As well-written as it is, anyone looking for anything remarkably new will probably be disappointed.

very readable, and gave me a good personal account led insight into berlin around the years before, during and after wwii. i wanted a more broad history of berlin, but that's on me for not checking the span of the book before.

1e helft een wat stuurloos geheel, 2e deel maakt veel goed.

I think I was offered this ARC, I don’t remember requesting it. 🤔 It is meticulously researched and there is so much good information in this book. Anything and everything you ever wanted to know about the city of Berlin. I learned so much. If only it didn’t take me months to read. 🫣😵‍💫 This is the typical nonfiction book that reads like a textbook. To be completely honest, I only finished it to keep my Netgalley percentage going up. I wish it had been available in audio format because I love listening to nonfiction (even dry like this) on audio; it makes it so much more enjoyable.

So, in closing…if you love nonfiction, then pick this one up. If not, this probably isn’t the book for you. I highly recommend the publishers record an audio format because there is so much great information here!

I rarely give five stars, but this is absolutely fascinating. Amazing amount of research. Of course it helps that Berlin is one of my favorite cities, and if I were a young person, I would probably move there. This author takes Berlin step by step from the rise of the Nazis to the fall of the Wall, and what it was all like on a local level.

Expressive history of the city and people of Berlin from the 1920s through the 1980s with a heavy emphasis on World War II. Language really brings to light how Berliners forged the spirit of the city through their daily actions, and how the spirit affected those who came to Berlin from elsewhere.

My Thoughts:

I've read more books on World War II than after the war. This is what drew me to read this book. It is the main reason that held my interest.

Several reasons on what I learned or why I enjoyed this book:

The bombing raids over Berlin were filled with women and children. I have empathy for them. McKay is descriptive about the shelters, bombings; and later when the Russians are in Berlin at the close of the war, the raping of the women-women of all ages. Brief memoirs are given of people who lived in Berlin. These are not lengthy but serve a strong purpose to personalize the book rather than let it be academic in nature. Some of the memoirs are of Jews who hid during the entirety of the war. The Nazis used the poverty and sadness of the people after World War I for their agenda. Their agenda included the young people in Hitler youth groups. It is eye-opening and disturbing how people can be taken advantage of and misled to the extent of indoctrination to mass murders and war. I have empathy for the beginnings of how they must have felt after World War I. I cannot agree to decisions that were made. Several things I'd not heard of before about Berlin society and culture. For example, there was a craze to be a nudist. This happened right after World War I. I did not know that there were revolutionary demonstrations after World War I. I knew the Nazis began to rise and have demonstrations. I did not know about other political groups. There is a chapter with a focus on the history of film. There were 300 cinemas in Berlin at the time of World War II. Hitler loved film, and he chronicled his ideology and work. Berlin had been a place that was tolerant of the gay culture. There were doctors who had helped people transition. This changed during the Nazi years. I had mentioned this in number 1 above. There is a disturbing story of a young woman who worked in a grocery store during the time the Russians came into Berlin. She was raped on the counter during the time the store was open. This rape was public. It was done with the intention to dishonor and shame her in view of other people. By 1960 there were over 200,000 people who in East Berlin left to live in freedom on the other side. This is such an important chapter, to share memoirs about those who tried to escape.

I want to clarify. I do not have empathy for the Nazi machine. They were mass murderers and instigated a war that led to defeat. I have great empathy for those like the woman who was raped in a grocery store. I have empathy for any child who was abused and suffered. I am also not going to state something as equally hateful as "you got what you deserved." I am not that kind of person. However, the Nazis were despicable people. I believe many of them, civilians, were unaware of the consequences in believing Hitler was their savior.

I received a complimentary e-book copy from NetGalley. I am not required to write a positive review.

From a marvelously poetic introduction springs forth the history of the City of Berlin, starting in 1945. Most of the history of the bombing and wartime deprivations in the City are told anecdotally by civilians who were there. Throughout, it is a story by and of the people of Berlin.

This is a highly engrossing read starting with commentary going back and forth between 1919 and 1945. The beginning itself explains a lot of German history and HOW the Nazi Party rose to control the country by talking about previous events and personalities. Later, the story continues to move on through the end of the war and the post-war years. There is a lot covered about the Cold War years that I didn’t know.

The most notable aspect about this text is that it is really about the people who lived in Berlin, both celebrities and average citizens. That’s why it was so hard to put down as the people who were there were quoted as to feelings and events, and even when they weren’t, we learned so much about their lives.

Only a couple of quibbles about the technical aspects of the text. One is an issue at about 87% of the text which is about what a punk rocker’s hairstyle should be called. The style in which the head is shaved except for the ridge of hair running along the middle of the skull is called a “Mohawk,” NOT a “Mohican.” I’m of the age group that saw them in person (London) and won’t forget what a real one looked like (not a cute one on a female singer or model!). Maybe this terminology is different outside of the U.S.? Also, the author is very fond of the word “bathos;” that’s not one that you usually see in print in the U.S., or even the U.K. as I read a lot of books by U.K. authors. It stuck out a bit. Finally, there are some typos that I expect will be fixed prior to publication.

This is a great book and not at all what I expected. Engaging and interesting, I was very crabby when interrupted while reading it! Please DO read this history of Berlin.

A special thank you to Sinclair McKay, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a pre-publication eGalley of this work! I didn’t receive anything for reading or reviewing it except for knowledge and enjoyment. Cheers!

It is always interesting to read a book with most of the recommendations either 1 or 5 stars. This is one of those - and I understand exactly why. This history goes to great lengths to show us a picture of life in Berlin, after the Great War, through tumultuous peace, and into the second war, then on again into another peace that was anything but to the native Berliners. It is written with the distinct intention of seeing life through the eyes of those Berliners, basically demanding that we see those citizens as victims. And I would not. Could not. Until I did.

I have had family members actively serving in every conflict the United States of America has engaged in, from the Revolutionary War to Afghanistan and including Teddy's run on Cuba, the Mexican war of Independence, and the Faulklin Islands. Not every one of them was able to come home, and some, like my mother's Aunt Oma, a WAC who made it back, but suffered the rest of her short life from the damages she sustained in WWII.

It took an informed, honest look at the last 30 years in our White House for me to finally understand just how citizens can exist under the thumb of a despot, numb to their inhumane treatment of the world in general and their constituents in particular. How easy it is to overlook infringements on our rights and ignore the signs of tyranny slipping into our daily routines. Look sharp, people, at our options. Follow the money. And get out and VOTE!

I received a complimentary ARC of this special history from Netgalley, Sinclair McKay, and publisher St. Martin's Press. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read Berlin: Life and Death in the city, of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work.
Netgalley
pub date August 23, 2022
St. Martin's Press

Reviewed on August 27, 2022, at Goodreads, Netgalley, Barnes&Noble, BookBub, and Kobo. Amazon reviews limited to verified purchases.

History books are not my forte, but this account had my attention from the beginning. I was both appalled and impressed by the Berlinites (my word). It is easy for me to pass judgement for things done during this period, but it was a hard life lived by people in Berlin through the years. They suffered so much by everyone that made decisions for them and rolled over/through their city. This account had me crying for numerous reasons. These people had to rebuild multiple times. They had to be very resilient and resourceful. This book is an incredible account of people who were determined to stand the test of times and get through any trial. This book is a very well written unbiased account, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading about history.

It's safe to say that Berlin, Germany, has stood at the crossroads of history more than once during the previous century. From the Kaisers to the Wall, it is a city that has been marked by highs and lows, opulence and devastation, and everything in-between. The city exerted a huge influence on popular imagination, and continues to hold sway as a destination steeped in history. It is, for many, the center of the world.

"Berlin: Life and Death In the City At the Center Of the World," by Sinclair McKay, uses the endgame of 1945, as Soviet forces advance upon and attack Hitler's last bastion of Nazi forces, as the fulcrum for his examination of the city's history from 1919 (the fall of the Kaisers and the birth of the short-lived "Weimar Republic") to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 (when your humble reviewer was ten years old). Using anecdotal stories of people both famous (and infamous) in world history and those whose story is being told here for the first time, McKay paints a portrait of a city that never really belonged to Hitler, Stalin, or any of the other totalitarian forces that sought to control her.

The spirit of Berlin has always been more than enough to shake off the conservative nature of much of the rest of Germany. It was in Berlin that artistic circles were formed, sexual taboos embraced, and a certain sarcastic gleam shone in the eye of its residents. In the era preceding Hitler, the city was a mecca for creative risk-takers, and no amount of repression under Nazi rule could put out all the flames. But Berlin was also the seat of Nazi rule, and not blameless in its response to efforts to drive out its Jewish population. Some showed bravery in sheltering Jews, but many went along with the Nazis. When Russian forces stormed through the city, many accepted that Berlin and its residents would suffer mightily for Hitler's crimes across Europe.

The books is at its best in discussing the history of Berlin under the Weimar government, and of its uneasy relationship with the Nazis. The final section, on the city between 1945 and 1989, is not quite as extensive, but it's still just as compelling. This is history written not so much about the huge personalities but about those everyday people who made decisions (some brave, some cowardly) about how to navigate life in a city at the center of history. The story of Berlin, in a sense, is the story of the twentieth century, and Sinclair McKay captures that story with passion, wit, and skill.

To say that Berlin is a city of multitudinous cultural and historical layers is a massive understatement. But Berliners before, during and after the world wars have proven their resiliency and perseverance. Author Sinclair McKay has meticulously researched and gathered information to write this book which focuses on the people, culture, art, history, music, cinema and architecture from 1919 to just after the tearing down of the wall seventy years later.

Berlin is raw and open in spirit and mentality, cosmopolitan and fiercely proud. The monuments to the past are real and emotive, not glossed over or glorified as they can be elsewhere. Berliners have lived through heartache after heartache, the building of the infamous wall which severed families and friends, the Cold War and despicable propaganda. Yet Berlin remains.

We all know about indescribable atrocities of the Holocaust but this book also describes what led to it and what happened after. Amongst other things I learned more about the Spartakus League, brilliant minds such as Rosa Luxemborg and Leise Meitner, atomic fission discovery which led to atomic weaponry, Nazi worship of Hitler with the adding on of extra stanzas to hymns, the fate of Berlin zoo animals during WWII, "allotment colonies" and "Uncle Wiggle Wings". Also included are the aftermaths including Soviet rapes of women (some men took gifts to their victims later), Goering's intense greed of priceless art, Grosz's "Degenerate Art" and the world's discovery in 1945 of the heinous wholesale murder of Jews. It is the ordinary people whose stories are emotionally charged as desperate times in time of starvation which caused people to do unimaginable things such as the mother who killed her children in a barrel, the sixteen year-old boy who tender searched fresh corpses and a boy's International Detective Agency.

Those interested in learning more about Berlin and her turbulent history ought to read this compelling, emotional and important book. In ways it reads like a textbook with dense information yet grabs emotions in a thoughtful and caring way by drawing on written documents and anecdotes.

My sincere thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the privilege of learning more about incomparable Berlin.

German history and nonfiction readers, there’s a new book out that will be right up your alley!

“Every city has history — but Berlin has too much!”

“Berlin: Life and Death in the City at the Center of the World” by Sinclair McKay (also author of the hit “The Secret Life of Bletchley Park: The WWII Codebreaking Centre and the Men and Women Who Worked There”) came out late August from @stmartinspress @macmillanusa.

My note — In my view, this book is best suited for readers already aquatinted with German history or WWII buffs. The organization of the book isn’t for readers who aren’t ready to dive right into a text rich with detail and no consistent guideposts for what’s what.

That being said… the writing and research is great. McKay is an experienced writer and conveys a portrait of Berlin from 1919 and beyond. This covers aspects of anything from human history to the war, the Wall, socioeconomic factors, Hitler, occupation, women and children’s issues, the Soviets, and the modernity of Berlin and it’s resilience as a historic city.

Things You’ll Read About ⤵️

🌸 Architecture in “The Revolutionary Agony” — “Some of the factories (…) were more beautiful than the homes of the laborers who staffed the production lines”

🌸 Unrest in the 1930s in “Spilled Blood and Exultation” — “…were the city’s younger generation — young men who had been boys when their fathers returned silent and haunted eyed from the trenches ten years previously — fighting their own war to make up for the one that had been lost? It was not so simple…”

🌸 Einstein in “The Uranium Club” — “[he] frequently descended into trance-like states. On one occasion, he had spent so long in the bath that household members called through the door in alarm. He came to and answered sheepishly that he’d thought he was sitting at his desk.”

🌸 Women in “The Screaming Sky” or “Streets of Blood” — “for many of the women in Berlin, the very idea of planning for survival seemed an unattainable luxury; it was scarcely possible to anticipate the next load of rye bread. Yet they were not passive; quiet the reverse….”

It’s out now! Packed with facts with an artful presentation. 4 stars ✨ on GR.