novel three

A history of Berlin

A History of Berlin aims to chronicle the history of Germany through the microcosm of its most dramatic city. Alexandra Richie's thousand page tome spans from the time of Nero to Helmut Kohl. Richie debunks many of Berlin's myths and leads the reader through a historic panorama. the flowering of Romanticism around the Napoleonic occupation; the city's evolution into a grim imperial capital after 1871; the hypernationalism of World War I; the Weimar turmoil and the horrors of Nazi rule; the equally appalling horrors of the Soviet conquest; the dramas of the Cold War and the Wall; East Germany's police state and West Germany's Ostpolitik; and Berlin's massive transformation into a new capital. Richie does not believe that the Berlin Republic will subordinate itself willingly to Brussels bureaucrats. She calls for Germany to build on the Federal Republic's legacy and regain a sense of national identity without succumbing to the worst elements of the German national identity. Her book attempts to remind Berliners of their troubled past, so that they will "accept its consequences" and avoid its excesses, faults, and crimes.

In the book Richie describes Berlin as the ultimate "border city," on the frontline of the dueling Weltanschauungs of the Cold War. The tone is familiar in describing the changing face of the city, and her enthusiasm evident as the book moves into the modern era. Filled with the insights of its unique and myriad residents, Faust's Metropolis recounts Berlin's culture, providing the reader with a thorough history and authoritative analysis. Richie doesn't romanticize Berlin, early on, her views of the city as capitalistic, and rude. she often says that the metropolis in Faust has always been a bad place. She commented by saying that "It is neither an ancient gem like Rome, nor an exquisite beauty like Prague, nor a geographical marvel like Rio. It was formed not by the gentle, cultured hand which made Dresden or Venice but was wrenched from the unpromising landscape by sheer hard work and determination." By placing her historical account in a world-encompassing perspective, the culture described in Faust's Metropolis comments on the whole of Germany and its people.