Faust's metropolis : a history of Berlin

In Berlin, history is tangible. The sense of the past; of Europe, of Germany, and of the 20th century's myths, depravities, idealism and horror, hangs in the air around the old Hinterhofs and deserted railway stations.

No other city has played such a part in the tides of twentieth-century European affairs. This is the rich and inspiring history of the city: from the revolutionary fervour of its teeming slums, the insufferable pomp of Imperial Berlin, and the frantic modernism of Weimar to the brutality of the Nazis and the symbolic defeat of communism as the Wall came down.