Berlin Now

The City After the Wall

Peter Schneider, Sophie Schlondorff

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780374712105
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: German History
• Index: History

A smartly guided romp, entertaining and enlightening, through Europe 's most charismatic and enigmatic city It isn't Europe's most beautiful city, or its oldest. Its architecture is not more impressive than that of Rome or Paris; its museums do not hold more treasures than those in Barcelona or London. And yet, when citizens of "New York, Tel Aviv, or Rome ask me where I'm from and I mention the name Berlin, " writes Peter Schneider, "their eyes instantly light up."
Berlin Now is a longtime Berliner's bright, bold, and digressive exploration of the heterogeneous allure of this vibrant city. Delving beneath the obvious answers—Berlin's club scene, bolstered by the lack of a mandatory closing time; the artistic communities that thrive due to the relatively low (for now) cost of living—Schneider takes us on an insider's tour of Germany's rapidly metamorphosing metropolis, where high-class soirees are held at construction sites and enterprising individuals often accomplish more without public funding—assembling a makeshift club on the banks of the Spree River—than Berlin's officials do.
Schneider's perceptive, witty investigations on everything from the insidious legacy of suspicion instilled by the East German secret police to the clashing attitudes toward work, food, and love held by former East and West Berliners have been sharply translated by Sophie Schlondorff. The result is a book so lively that readers will want to jump on a plane—just as soon as they've finished their adventures on the page.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Notice
• Contents
• Cinderella Berlin
• The Great Awakening
• Clash of the Architects
• Potsdamer Platz
• Berlin Schloss Versus Palace of the Republic
• West Berlin
• A “Wessi” Attempts to Find Berlin’s Soul
• Berlin: Emergence of a New Metropolis
• City West Versus Capital City (East) and Vice Versa
• Love (and Sex) in Berlin
• Love in Divided Berlin
• Love After the Fall of the Wall
• Clubs
• What Happened to the Wall Anyway?
• The American Sector Is Leaving You
• The Ghost of BER International Airport
• The Stasi Legacy
• An “Enemy of the State” Becomes Boss
• The New Racism
• Vietnamese in Berlin
• Anetta Kahane and the Amadeu Antonio Foundation
• The New Barbarism
• Turks in Berlin
• A Mayor Flouts Political Correctness
• Yes, You Can: The Rütli School
• Help, the Swabians Are Coming!
• A Belated Cemetery Visit
• The Man Who Gave Nefertiti Away
• Jewish Life in Berlin
• Spring in Berlin
• Notes
• Acknowledgments
• Also by Peter Schneider
• A Note About the Author / A Note About the Translator
• Copyright