Walter Fendrich, Hauptfigur dieser Liebesgeschichte in den Wirtschaftswunderjahren, hat eine wechselvolle Geschichte hinter sich. Nach dem Krieg begann... er ziellos mehrere Berufsausbildungen, versuchte sich erfolglos als Banklehrling, Tischler und Verkäufer, und auch seine Elektrikerlehre schloß er ohne Begeisterung ab. Schließlich findet er ein einträgliches Auskommen als Waschmaschinen-Mechaniker, ohne jedoch mit seinem Leben zufrieden zu sein. Das ändert sich, als sein Vater ihn in einem Brief bittet, die Tochter eines Kollegen vom Bahnhof abzuholen. Die Begegnung mit der zwanzigjährigen Hedwig, einer flüchtigen Bekannten aus Kindertagen, wird für Walter zum Wendepunkt. Er setzt alles daran, die junge Frau zu gewinnen, und legt dabei eine Entschlossenheit an den Tag, die ihn an seine Kindheit erinnert. Er wuchs auf in ärmlichen Verhältnissen und war von einem gierigen, geradezu zwanghaftem Verlangen nach Brot besessen. Die Hartherzigkeit seiner Umgebung trieb ihn in den Diebstahl, und schließlich ging es Walter nur noch um Geld. Es wurde zum einzigen Lebenszweck, und erst die Macht, mit der ihn die Liebe zu Hedwig erfasst, führt ihn zu lange vergessenen Wertmaßstäben zurück. Informieren Sie sich auch über das größte editorische Unternehmen in der Geschichte des Verlags Kiepenheuer & Witsch: Heinrich Böll, Werke 1 - 27 Kölner Ausgabe

This fascinating exploration of a work that was the epitome of German literary modernism illuminates in chilling detail the death of the Weimar... Republic's left-leaning culture of innovation and experimentation. Peter Jelavich examines Alfred Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929), a novel that questioned the autonomy and coherence of the human personality in the modern metropolis, and traces the radical discrepancies that came with its adaptation into a radio play (1930) and a film (1931). Jelavich explains these discrepancies by examining not only the varying demands of genre and technology but also the political and economic contexts of the media--in particular, the censorship practices in German radio and film. His analysis culminates in a richly textured discussion of the complex factors that led to the demise of Weimar culture, as Nazi intimidation and the economic strains of the Depression induced producers to depoliticize their works. Jelavich's book becomes a cautionary tale about how fear of outspoken right-wing politicians can curtail and eliminate the arts as a critical counterforce to politics--all in the name of entertainment.

This fascinating exploration of a work that was the epitome of German literary modernism illuminates in chilling detail the death of the Weimar... Republic's left-leaning culture of innovation and experimentation. Peter Jelavich examines Alfred Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929), a novel that questioned the autonomy and coherence of the human personality in the modern metropolis, and traces the radical discrepancies that came with its adaptation into a radio play (1930) and a film (1931). Jelavich explains these discrepancies by examining not only the varying demands of genre and technology but also the political and economic contexts of the media--in particular, the censorship practices in German radio and film. His analysis culminates in a richly textured discussion of the complex factors that led to the demise of Weimar culture, as Nazi intimidation and the economic strains of the Depression induced producers to depoliticize their works. Jelavich's book becomes a cautionary tale about how fear of outspoken right-wing politicians can curtail and eliminate the arts as a critical counterforce to politics--all in the name of entertainment.

Berlin in the 1920s. Franz Biberkopf has just been released from prison after serving four years for violence that resulted in the death of a... girlfriend. He returns to his old neighbourhood, Alexanderplatz, vowing to live a decent life. What he finds are unemployment lines, gangsters, prostitutes, petty thieves, and neophyte Nazis. In this sordid world there are new women: devoted Eva, vulnerable young Mieze and the dangerous, near psychotic Reinhold, who befriends him. As Franz struggles to survive, fate teases him with a little luck, a little pleasure, then cruelly turns on him. "Berlin Alexanderplatz" is one of the masterpieces of European literature. The first German novel to adopt the technique of James Joyce, it excited and overwhelmed critics and readers everywhere as it was translated into other languages. One of its greatest admirers was a brilliant young German director. Rainer Fassbinder saw in the novel "a huge part of myself, decisive into determining the course of my life." One of Fassbinder's last projects was an impressive fifteen-hour film version of Berlin Alexanderplatz. Some of the stills from that epic adaptation - remarkably faithful to the Doblin novel - are included here.

In Berlin at War, acclaimed historian Roger Moorhouse provides a magnificent and detailed portrait of everyday life at the epicenter of the Third Reich.... Berlin was the stage upon which the rise and fall of the Third Reich was most visibly played out. It was the backdrop for the most lavish Nazi ceremonies, the site of Albert Speer’s grandiose plans for a new “world metropolis,” and the scene of the final climactic battle to defeat Nazism. Berlin was the place where Hitler’s empire ultimately meet its end, but it suffered mightily through the war as well; not only was the city subjected to the full wrath of the Soviet ground offensive and siege in 1945, but it also found itself a prime target for the air war, attracting more raids, more aircraft, and more tonnage than any other German city. Combining groundbreaking research with a gripping narrative, Moorhouse brings all of the complexity and chaos of wartime Berlin to life. Berlin at War is the incredible story of the city—and people—that saw the whole of this epic conflict, from start to finish.

Step into Ernst Wolzogen's Motley Theater, Max Reinhardt's Sound and Smoke, Rudolf Nelson's Chat noir, and Friedrich Hollaender's Tingel-Tangel. Enjoy... Claire Waldoff's rendering of a lower-class Berliner, Kurt Tucholsky's satirical songs, and Walter Mehring's Dadaist experiments, as Peter Jelavich spotlights Berlin's cabarets from the day the curtain first went up, in 1901, until the Nazi regime brought it down. Fads and fashions, sexual mores and political ideologies--all were subject to satire and parody on the cabaret stage. This book follows the changing treatment of these themes, and the fate of cabaret itself, through the most turbulent decades of modern German history: the prosperous and optimistic Imperial age, the unstable yet culturally inventive Weimar era, and the repressive years of National Socialism. By situating cabaret within Berlin's rich landscape of popular culture and distinguishing it from vaudeville and variety theaters, spectacular revues, prurient "nude dancing," and Communist agitprop, Jelavich revises the prevailing image of this form of entertainment. Neither highly politicized, like postwar German Kabarett, nor sleazy in the way that some American and European films suggest, Berlin cabaret occupied a middle ground that let it cast an ironic eye on the goings-on of Berliners and other Germans. However, it was just this satirical attitude toward serious themes, such as politics and racism, that blinded cabaret to the strength of the radical right-wing forces that ultimately destroyed it. Jelavich concludes with the Berlin cabaret artists' final performances--as prisoners in the concentration camps at Westerbork and Theresienstadt. This book gives us a sense of what the world looked like within the cabarets of Berlin and at the same time lets us see, from a historical distance, these lost performers enacting the political, sexual, and artistic issues that made their city one of the most dynamic in Europe.

Begun in Poveromo, Italy, in 1932, and extensively revised in 1938, Berlin Childhood around 1900 remained unpublished during Walter Benjamin's... lifetime, one of his "large-scale defeats." Now translated into English for the first time in book form, on the basis of the recently discovered "final version" that contains the author's own arrangement of a suite of luminous vignettes, it can be more widely appreciated as one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century prose writing. Not an autobiography in the customary sense, Benjamin's recollection of his childhood in an upper-middle-class Jewish home in Berlin's West End at the turn of the century becomes an occasion for unified "expeditions into the depths of memory." In this diagram of his life, Benjamin focuses not on persons or events but on places and things, all seen from the perspective of a child--a collector, flaneur, and allegorist in one. This book is also one of Benjamin's great city texts, bringing to life the cocoon of his childhood--the parks, streets, schoolrooms, and interiors of an emerging metropolis. It reads the city as palimpsest and labyrinth, revealing unexpected lyricism in the heart of the familiar. As an added gem, a preface by Howard Eiland discusses the genesis and structure of the work, which marks the culmination of Benjamin's attempt to do philosophy concretely.

Berlin: City of Stones presents the first part of Jason Lutes' captivating trilogy, set in the twilight years of Germany's Weimar Republic. Kurt... Severing, a journalist, and Marthe Muller, an art student, are the central figures in a broad cast of characters intertwined with the historical events unfolding around them. City of Stones covers eight months in Berlin, from September 1928 to May Day, 1929, meticulously documenting the hopes and struggles of its inhabitants as their future is darkened by a glowing shadow.

The secret diaries of a twenty-three-year-old White Russian princess who worked in the German Foreign Office from 1940 to 1944 and then as a nurse,... these pages give us a unique picture of wartime life in that sector of German society from which the 20th of July Plot -- the conspiracy to kill Hitler -- was born.

By the acclaimed journalist and bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, this day-by-day, eyewitness account of the momentous events... leading up to World War II in Europe is now available in a new paperback edition.CBS radio broadcaster William L. Shirer was virtually unknown in 1940 when he decided there might be a book in the diary he had kept in Europe during the 1930s—specifically those sections dealing with the collapse of the European democracies and the rise of Nazi Germany. Berlin Diary first appeared in 1941, and the timing was perfect. The energy, the passion, the electricity in it were palpable. The book was an instant success, and it became the frame of reference against which thoughtful Americans judged the rush of events in Europe. It exactly matched journalist to event: the right reporter at the right place at the right time. It stood, and still stands, as so few books have ever done—a pure act of journalistic witness.

Thermodynamics deals with energy levels and the transfer of energy between states of matter, and is therefore fundamental to all branches of science. ... This new edition is specifically tailored to the interests of the Earth sciences, and emphasizes throughout the use of thermodynamics to construct mathematical simulations of real systems. Many computer programs are mentioned and used throughout the text, especially SUPCRT92, a widely used source of thermodynamic data. An associated website includes links to useful information sites, computer programs and problem sets.