BERLIN: PORTRAIT OF A CITY THROUGH THE CENTURIES is not a traditional history book, it is more like a biography of the city viewed through the eyes of those who have made Berlin what it is today. BERLIN: PORTRAIT OF A CITY THROUGH THE CENTURIES is a voyage through time, from the late Middle Ages to the present, using various landmarks, myths and artists to illustrate the ever-changing face of the historical city.
BERLIN: PORTRAIT OF A CITY THROUGH THE CENTURIES is a very imaginative way of presenting a city by the way of artistic or political figures, German natives or not, and their contributions. As I already know quite a bit about the Berlin from WWII until today, it those chapters didn't hold as much interest for me as others. Among my favourites are Chapter three featuring Frederick the Great, and the Making of Prussia: it is positively enthralling as is Chapter eighteen Bill Harvey, and the Tunnel. Chapter nine, Fritz Haber, and the Geography of Evil left me absolutely flabbergasted. Although I knew of Haber's unfortunate contribution to history, I did not know this story, and I found this episode both riveting and horrifying. Another chapter I particularly enjoyed is Chapter five: Lilli Neuss, and the Owl, based upon a myth where no actual records exist; it is mostly imagined by the author and based on lore; it's a beautiful and lyrical story.
It is interesting that the author chose to write his book in this particular fashion. Mr. MacLean, a Canadian by birth who resided in the UK for several years and now makes his home in Berlin, obviously knows the city very well. And instead of merely relating dry facts, it is through the lives of others that he lets Berlin breathe and live. BERLIN: PORTRAIT OF A CITY THROUGH THE CENTURIES is extremely well-researched and documented, as demonstrated by the exhaustive bibliography; the author also used his personal diaries, and there is a useful index at the end. I was a bit surprised at the lack of photographs in BERLIN: PORTRAIT OF A CITY THROUGH THE CENTURIES. There is only a two page layout introducing each chapter, and I would have liked to see a corresponding picture of the landmark today, when it is the case.
What impressed me the most is how exceptionally well- written is BERLIN: PORTRAIT OF A CITY THROUGH THE CENTURIES. Mr. MacLean's writing style is very accessible, concise and yet very beautiful, expressive, and as previously mentioned often lyrical, and best of all, the style always fits the subject at hand. BERLIN: PORTRAIT OF A CITY THROUGH THE CENTURIES is a different sort of history book for a city that resembles no other; very fitting and very well done!
Why are we drawn to certain cities? Perhaps because of a
story read in childhood. Or a chance teenage meeting. Or
maybe simply because the place touches us, embodying in
its tribes, towers and history an aspect of our
understanding of what it means to be human. Paris is about
romantic love. Lourdes equates with devotion. New York
means energy. London is forever trendy.
Berlin is all about volatility.
Berlin is a city of fragments and ghosts, a laboratory of
ideas, the fount of both the brightest and darkest designs
of history's most bloody century. The once arrogant
capital of Europe was devastated by Allied bombs, divided
by the Wall, then reunited and reborn as one of the
creative centers of the world. Today it resonates with the
echo of lives lived, dreams realized, and evils executed
with shocking intensity. No other city has repeatedly been
so powerful and fallen so low; few other cities have been
so shaped and defined by individual imaginations.
Berlin tells the volatile history of Europe's capital over
five centuries through a series of intimate portraits of
two dozen key residents: the medieval balladeer whose
suffering explains the Nazis rise to power; the demonic
and charismatic dictators who schemed to dominate Europe;
the genius Jewish chemist who invented poison gas for
First World War battlefields and then the death camps; the
iconic mythmakers like Christopher Isherwood, Leni
Riefenstahl, and David Bowie, whose heated visions are now
as real as the city's bricks and mortar. Alongside them
are portrayed some of the countless ordinary Berliners who
one has never heard of, whose lives can only be imagined:
the Scottish mercenary who fought in the Thirty Years War,
the ambitious prostitute who refashioned herself as a
baroness, the fearful Communist Party functionary who
helped to build the Wall, and the American spy from the
Midwest whose patriotism may have turned the course of the
Cold War.
Berlin is a history book like no other, with an
originality that reflects the nature of the city itself.
In its architecture, through its literature, in its movies
and songs, Berliners have conjured their hard capital into
a place of fantastic human fantasy. No other city has so
often surrendered itself to its own seductive myths. No
other city has been so shaped and defined by individual
imaginations. Berlin captures, portrays, and propagates
the remarkable story of those myths and their makers.
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