An Introduction to 20th Century BerlinLike this list

24 items

• Downfall

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  Based on several diaries of individuals who experienced Hitler's last days. It's also a bravura performance by Swiss actor Bruno Ganz. In German with English subtitles.

• A Woman in Berlin

  Eight Weeks in the Conquered City : a Diary

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  The movie version of this book is also phenomenal, but alas, we don't own a copy here in Evanston!

• Wings of Desire

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  This film is extraordinarily emotional. Bruno Ganz plays an angel who brings comfort to suffering mortals, including some who are about to die. This is all very touching until . . . he falls in love with one of them. One of the highlights of the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Good bye Lenin!

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  A poignant comedy about an East Berlin woman devoted to the Communist regime who comes out of a coma just as the Wall comes down. Her family has been told that if she endures another shock, she could die. So they do their best to keep her convinced…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Wings of Desire

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• The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

  Le Carré, John, 1931-2020.

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• The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

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  The classic East-West spy movie, based on an early novel by John LeCarre--the first of his Cold War spy thrillers. This is usually regarded as the best role Richard Burton ever played.

• Das Leben der Anderen

  The lives of others

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  An Oscar winner. A Stasi agent's job is to listen in on private phone calls, hoping to identify people subverting the state. He gets to know one couple especially well: a theater director and his wife who indeed are revulsed by the GDR state. But…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Fabian

  going to the dogs

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  Based on a novel by Erich Kastner from the 1930s, this book was burned by the Nazis as being degenerate. (The author hid in the mob watching the fire!) It's about a young and naive man trying to make his way in the big city. Inevitably, he ends up…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Constant Gardener

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  Like _The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," this film is based on a novel by John LeCarre. But the similarity ends there. Berlin is a modern (and unified) city in this film, and there is not a Russian spy to be seen. It is about polluters of the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Constant Gardener

  a Novel

  Le Carré, John, 1931-2020,

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• Berlin Alexanderplatz

  Döblin, Alfred, 1878-1957,

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  The classic Berlin story of the 20s, Alfred Doblin was a serious contender for the Nobel Prize, in no small measure because of this novel. Berlin Alexanderplatz follows the life of a typical Berliner, exceptional in no way whatsoever, as he muddles…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Berlin Alexanderplatz

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  The classic Berlin story of the 20s, Alfred Doblin was a serious contender for the Nobel Prize, in no small measure because of the novel which became this movie.

• In the Garden of Beasts

  Love, Terror, and An American Family in Hitler's Berlin

  Larson, Erik, 1954-

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  This is non-fiction that reads like fiction. But much of the "plot" is almost incredible to believe: the daughter of the American ambassador has affairs both with the head of the Gestapo _and (separately)_ with a Soviet spy. But everything has been…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• "This Is Berlin"

  Radio Broadcasts From Nazi Germany

  Shirer, William L. (William Lawrence), 1904-1993

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  Beginning with the Anschluss--Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938--and continuing through the Battle of Britain in the summer and autumn of 1940, William Shirer reported from Berlin on Europe's descent into World War II. The transcripts of his…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Bridge of Spies

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  Owes a lot to the grim spy novels of LeCarre.

• Bridge of Spies

  a True Story of the Cold War

  Whittell, Giles,

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• Cabaret

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  Fabulous music, fabulous acting, and a pretty accurate rendering of what Berlin by Night was all about--until the Nazis brought it down.

• The Berlin Stories

  Isherwood, Christopher, 1904-1986

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  With these stories, Isherwood created the world that became Cabaret.

• Babylon Berlin. Season 1

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