Travel
Heinrich Heine
Deutschland: A Winter's
Tale (Angel; also
included in the Complete
Poems ). This
magisterial verse
travelogue describes
Heine's journey from
exile in Paris to his
family home in Hamburg.
It's full of insight...
read more >>
History
Roland Bainton Here I
Stand (Lion/NAL). The
best and liveliest
biography of Martin
Luther, one of the
undisputed titans of
European history.
Geoffrey Barraclough
Origins of Modern
Germany ...
read more >>
Nazism and World War
II
Alan Bullock Hitler: A
Study in Tyranny
(Penguin). Ever since it
was published, this
scholarly yet highly
readable tome has ranked
as the classic
single-volume biography
of the failed Austrian
artist and discharged
army corporal whose...
read more >>
Postwar society and
politics
John Ardagh Germany
and the Germans
(Penguin). The most
comprehensive
English-language
characterization of the
country and its people,
taking into account its
history, politics and
psyche, and covering
almost every aspect of
national...
read more >>
Germany in
English-language fiction
Elizabeth von Arnim
Elizabeth and her German
Garden (Virago),
Elizabeth in Rügen
(Virago). Although
billed as novels, these
are effectively
autobiographical works
by Katherine Mansfield's
cousin, an Australian
who married a...
read more >>
German fiction
classics
Theodor Fontane Before
the Storm (OUP). Set in
Prussia during the
period of the Napoleonic
wars, this epic is the
greatest German
historical novel of the
second half of the
nineteenth century,
dealing with the
conflict between
patriotism...
read more >>
German fiction since
1900
Heinrich Böll The Lost
Honour of Katharina Blum
(Minerva/Penguin).
Winner of the Nobel
Prize for Literature in
1972, Heinrich Böll is
the most popular postwar
German novelist - at
least with non-Germans.
This is the harrowing
story of a...
read more >>
Poetry
Anon Carmina Burana
(Penguin). A wonderful
collection of
(originally) dog-Latin
songs and poems from
thirteenth-century
Bavaria. In spite of
their monastic origin,
the texts are often
bawdy and erotic. Many
were used by Carl Orff
in his...
read more >>
Drama
Bertolt Brecht Plays
(Eyre Methuen/Random
House). Brecht's short
but fruitful
collaboration during the
Weimar Republic with the
composer Kurt Weill -
The Threepenny Opera,
The Rise and Fall of the
City of Mahagonny and
...
read more >>
Legends and folklore
Anon The
Nibelungenlied
(Penguin). Germany's
greatest epic was
written around 1200 by
an unknown Danubian
poet; the story varies
greatly from Wagner's
Ring , which draws
equally heavily on
Nordic sources of the
legend. It's...
read more >>
The visual arts
Peter Adam The Arts of
the Third Reich (Thames
& Hudson). Engrossing
and well-written account
of the officially
approved state art of
Nazi Germany - a subject
that for many years has
been ignored or
deliberately made
inaccessible....
read more >>
Guidebooks
Karl Baedeker The
Rhineland, Northern
Germany, Southern
Germany, Berlin
(Baedeker). The old
Baedekers, all long out
of print, are still
indispensible classics.
They covered a Germany
which was considerably
more extensive than
today,...
read more >>
