Berlin

In Berlin, you’ll find history everywhere and plenty of high-culture museums and galleries, but also street art, jazz and currywurst. The city is a living textbook on architecture, with plenty of palaces and memorials, but also easily accessible forests and lakes.

The 18 episodes in our City Break Berlin series bring you all the background history and culture you need to fully understand this fascinating city. In short, here is all the research you’d do yourself if only you had the time.

Each episode centres around a podcast, available here or on all the usual providers. The blog posts here on the website include a summary of the main information, plus pictures, useful links and ideas for further reading. So, let’s go, or as the Germans say ‘Los geht’s!’

BERLIN : HISTORY & CULTURE

The Reichstag (German Parliament) , Berlin

berlin: links and reading

2 useful websites for tourists
Berlin Tourist Information
Inspiring Germany Travel Information

Most useful and comprehensive guidebook
Lonely Planet Berlin by Andrea Schulter-Peevers

2 more guidebooks which provide all the basics
Eyewitness Berlin
The Pocket Rough Guide to Berlin

2 useful books which focus more on where to eat, drink and shop
Berlin like a Local by the people who call it home
Wanderlust in Berlin by Julian Tompkin

History and biography
The House by the Lake by Thomas Harding
Stasiland by Anna Funder
Tunnel 29 by Helena Merriman
Red Love by Maxim Leo

8 Novels set in Berlin
Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane
The Luminous Life of Lily Aphrodite by Beatrice Collin
Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
Fatherland by Robert Harris
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré
Friedrichsstrasse 19 by Emma Harding
Book of Clouds by Chloe Aridjis