Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Stasiland: True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall

Stasiland: True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall

by Anna Funder

In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell; shortly afterwards the two Germanies reunited, and East Germany ceased to exist. In a country where the headquarters of the secret police can become a museum literally overnight and one in 50 East Germans were informing on their fellow citizens, there are thousands of captivating stories. Anna Funder tells extraordinary tales from the underbelly of the former East Germany. She meets... (more)

George Smiley: Book 3

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

by John Le Carre

A new hardcover edition of the book Graham Greene called “the best spy story I have ever read.” On its publication in 1964, John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold forever changed the landscape of spy fiction. Le Carré combined the inside knowledge of his years in British intelligence with the skills of the best novelists to produce a story as taut as it is twisting, unlike any previously... (more)

The File: A Personal History (Vintage)

by Timothy Garton Ash

"Eloquent, aware and scrupulous . . . a rich and instructive examination of the Cold War past." --The New York Times In 1978 a romantic young Englishman took up residence in Berlin to see what that divided city could teach him about tyranny and freedom. Fifteen years later Timothy Garton Ash--who was by then famous for his reportage of the downfall of communism in Central Europe--returned. This time he had come to... (more)

Self's Murder (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

Self's Murder (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

by Bernhard Schlink

Gerhard Self, the seventy-something, sambuca-drinking, Sweet-Afton smoking sleuth returns in a riveting new mystery about money-laundering, murder, and mafiosi. Despite his failing health and his girlfriend's pleading, Gerhard Self won't stop doing what he does best—investigating. And his most recent case is one of the most intriguing of his career. Herr Welker desperately wants to write a history of his bank,... (more)

Do Not RefreezeMatthew Shaul, Sarah James, Katrin Blum

Do Not Refreeze

by Matthew Shaul, Sarah James, Katrin Blum

SED Design: 1949-1989 (25th Anniversary Special Edtn)

SED Design: 1949-1989 (25th Anniversary Special Edtn)

by Ernst Hedler

This eccentric collection of goods features East German consumer products daringly acquired before the breaking down of the wall. From foodstuffs to household appliances, East German packaging and product design--sober yet slightly kitsch--reveals a little-known side of German popular history.

Nikolaikirche

by Erich Loest

Text: German

The Playground

by Thomas Sanders

Der geduldete Klassenfeind: Als West - Korrespondent in der DDR

Der geduldete Klassenfeind: Als West - Korrespondent in der DDR

by Peter Pragal

Tales From the Berlin Wall

by M.S. Katona

Division of Berlin (Flashpoint)John Dudman

Division of Berlin (Flashpoint)

by John Dudman

What Difference Does a Husband Make? Women and Marital Status in Nazi and Postwar Germany (Studies on the History of Society and Culture)

What Difference Does a Husband Make? Women and Marital Status in Nazi and Postwar Germany (Studies on the History of Society and Culture)

by Elizabeth D. Heineman

In October 1946, seven million more women than men lived in occupied Germany. In this study of unwed, divorced, widowed, and married women at work and at home across three political regimes, Elizabeth Heineman traces the transitions from early National Socialism through the war and on to the consolidation of democracy in the West and communism in the East. Based on thorough and extensive research in German... (more)

Dissolution

by Charles S. Maier

Against the backdrop of one of the great transformations of our century, the sudden and unexpected fall of communism as a ruling system, Charles Maier recounts the history and demise of East Germany. Dissolution is his poignant, analytically provocative account of the decline and fall of the late German Democratic Republic. This book explains the powerful causes for the disintegration of German communism as it... (more)

The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949

The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949

by Norman M. Naimark

In 1945, when the Red Army marched in, eastern Germany was not "occupied" but "liberated." This, until the recent collapse of the Soviet Bloc, is what passed for history in the German Democratic Republic. Now, making use of newly opened archives in Russia and Germany, Norman Naimark reveals what happened during the Soviet occupation of eastern Germany from 1945 through 1949. His book offers a comprehensive look at... (more)

The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker

The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker

by Mary Fulbrook

What was life really like for East Germans, effectively imprisoned behind the Iron Curtain? The headline stories of Cold War spies and surveillance by the secret police, of political repression and corruption, do not tell the whole story. After the unification of Germany in 1990 many East Germans remembered their lives as interesting, varied, and full of educational, career, and leisure opportunities: in many ways... (more)

New Europe

by Michael Palin

Until the early 1990s, when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, travelling behind the iron curtain was never easy. In undertaking his new journey through Eastern Europe, breathing in its rich history, filming its exquisite sights and talking to its diverse peoples, Michael fills what has been a void in his own experience and that of very many of his own generation. As in all his series, Palin's New Europe takes... (more)

Germany from Partition to Reunification: A Revised Edition of The Two Germanies Since 1945

Germany from Partition to Reunification: A Revised Edition of The Two Germanies Since 1945

by Henry Ashby Turner

This is a revised edition of "The Two Germanies since 1945", which discussed the partitioning of Germany after World War II and the evolution of East and West Germany. The revised text covers unification - the exodus of East Germans to the Federal Republic, the breaching of the Berlin Wall and the overthrow of the Communist regime - in two new chapters and with additional illustrations.

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Tags: east germany