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Berlin Now: The Rise of the City and the Fall of the Wall by Peter Schneider, Sophie Schlondorff
riotsquirrrl's review against another edition
4.0
Three quarters of this book is exactly the kind of backstory drama I didn't know I wanted to read. Although as this book is from 2014 I don't know how much it can be described as Berlin Now. The other quarter is the author bemoaning how Muslim residents of Berlin aren't assimilating like he thinks they should. I definitely interpreted it as a "old man yells at clouds" situation until I read the author's Wikipedia page and saw he was active in leftist politics when younger. Then again I also know American liberals who handwring like this about immigration as well. I find the author's moral panic to be a huge blot on the rest of the book.
The other major flaw: this book desperately needs one or more maps and a whole bunch of photographs, even if the author had to take his own photos to reduce costs. I definitely had to use my phone extensively to Google places and buildings referenced, especially when reading the chapter about the rebuilding of the Potsdamer Platz.
The book was definitely helpful to gain some insight into the Berlin I visited and to see how different what I experienced was from how it had been, even a decade ago. Even the Humboldt Center that the author grumbles will never going to be built is now open. I did appreciate getting the entire backstory of the Holzmarkt 25 and how it relates to issues of gentrification in former East Berlin.
In general it was helpful to see the ways in which Berlin is grappling with the same issues as New York City, and how it succeeds and how it doesn't. I definitely came to better understand why some people think the two cities are similar even if they look very different.
The other major flaw: this book desperately needs one or more maps and a whole bunch of photographs, even if the author had to take his own photos to reduce costs. I definitely had to use my phone extensively to Google places and buildings referenced, especially when reading the chapter about the rebuilding of the Potsdamer Platz.
The book was definitely helpful to gain some insight into the Berlin I visited and to see how different what I experienced was from how it had been, even a decade ago. Even the Humboldt Center that the author grumbles will never going to be built is now open. I did appreciate getting the entire backstory of the Holzmarkt 25 and how it relates to issues of gentrification in former East Berlin.
In general it was helpful to see the ways in which Berlin is grappling with the same issues as New York City, and how it succeeds and how it doesn't. I definitely came to better understand why some people think the two cities are similar even if they look very different.
tucholsky's review against another edition
4.0
Some of the early parts are not that good but from about 50 pages in all worth reafing and interesting observations
rhona123's review
2.75
For someone who has written two books about Berlin, Schneider appears to hold a lot of contempt for the city.
orangesloth1's review against another edition
4.0
For my first step into post-Wall Germany, this book was a great start.
kiminohon's review against another edition
4.0
I finished about half of this book before a trip to Berlin. The essays I had read were fascinating and while walking around the city, I was able to point out places I had read about and offer my husband interesting bits of history, context, politics, and trivia. Schneider does an excellent job of describing the culture of the city. I’m only just starting to delve into the unique history of Berlin and this was a great starting point.
emkat1997's review against another edition
5.0
Five stars might be pushing it, but for me this book deserves all five. I lived in Berlin for a semester and loved every moment of it. I find myself thinking about that time of my life on a weekly, if not daily, basis and Berlin Now brought back all of those memories for me. I found myself nodding in agreement as I read about the history of anti-semitism in the city and how it has affected the current inhabitants. Reading about how living in East Germany (I also lived in the Eastern part of the city) was bland and drab compared to the Western side and how the Ossi's reacted once the wall came down made me feel like I was there, even though I wasn't born until 8 years later. Schneider's writing transported me back in time. The ending line hit me hard. "I feel sorry for anyone who can't live here (Berlin)". I'd never really thought about it, but I feel the same way. Berlin, specifically living there, is something I think everyone should experience.
nicoleisalwaysreading's review against another edition
5.0
I didn’t love Berlin when I visited. I was tired, and I was led on long walking tours throughout the city. It was strangely sunny, and the sun beat down on me with unfamiliarity. It wasn’t until the day I left, when I walked past the S-Bahn tracks and to little shops, that I began to appreciate the life that hummed under its greyness. Later that summer, I read The Wall Jumper and revisited Berlin in my mind, albeit a past version of what I had seen. I began to fall in love with its pace and the young people drinking beer on patios in Mitte and old women with head scarves and grocery bags and all the other things I had seen. I more fully felt the force of history and memorialization that defines Berlin. Reading Berlin Now had the same intimate, lyrical power of Schneider’s fictional work. Each chapter was a treasure trove of facts that seemed to uncover corners of the city. I fell in love, and I can’t wait to travel back soon.
left_coast_justin's review against another edition
3.0
Peter Schneider made his reputation in the early 1980's and 90's, a well-placed journalist explaining both divided and reunified Germany to the outside world. The idea here is to explain how Berlin has evolved since the momentous events of 1989 -- a doomed project, really, as it quickly grew obsolete since its 2014 publication. Schneider himself, aged about seventy when it was published, may not have been the right guy to write this. The essay collection has some nice moments but seems jumbled, random and often self-congratulatory.
I've spent some time in Berlin, both East and West, pre- and post-unification, and never warmed up to the place. Germans are almost without peer in building towns and small cities, but big cities seem to be beyond their skillset. As Schneider would have it, it most appeals to the young, who can't really afford to live in the nicer areas of the country; in its very wretchedness lies its appeal. Except it sounds much better when he writes it! He is a professional, after all.
No sense writing a full review here, since virtually nobody will be reading this book anymore.
I've spent some time in Berlin, both East and West, pre- and post-unification, and never warmed up to the place. Germans are almost without peer in building towns and small cities, but big cities seem to be beyond their skillset. As Schneider would have it, it most appeals to the young, who can't really afford to live in the nicer areas of the country; in its very wretchedness lies its appeal. Except it sounds much better when he writes it! He is a professional, after all.
No sense writing a full review here, since virtually nobody will be reading this book anymore.
psr's review
4.0
This is Schneider's anecdotal and opinionated portrait of his adopted city. It's winding and arbitrary, to an extent, yet brings the city to life in a way that a conventional 'modern history' could never do. Anyone looking for such a history or a Berlin guidebook will be disappointed. Otherwise, the reader is in for a treat.
Schneider gives us a mixture of research, personal experience and interviews to build up his picture of postwar Berlin. Along the way, we gain insights into the experience of the Turkish and Jewish communities, the changes in the built landscape, the relationships between Ossis and Wessis (pre and post Wall) and the lives of the city's bohos and radicals. Among other things, he takes us clubbing with his girlfriend (he's several decades older than his fellow clubbers, but no one seems to mind) and to meet a politically incorrect but highly effective district mayor. One deeply disturbing chapter deals with the rise in senseless and extreme violence visited by young men upon innocent citizens. All of this is told with an accomplished novelist's touch, which makes us feel engaged in both the highs and lows.
I finished reading Berlin Now this morning, 9th November 2019, precisely 30 years to the day since the Wall fell. How apposite. I had intended to travel to Berlin for the occasion but work commitments made that impossible. Schneider's highly enjoyable guided tour was my substitute.
Schneider gives us a mixture of research, personal experience and interviews to build up his picture of postwar Berlin. Along the way, we gain insights into the experience of the Turkish and Jewish communities, the changes in the built landscape, the relationships between Ossis and Wessis (pre and post Wall) and the lives of the city's bohos and radicals. Among other things, he takes us clubbing with his girlfriend (he's several decades older than his fellow clubbers, but no one seems to mind) and to meet a politically incorrect but highly effective district mayor. One deeply disturbing chapter deals with the rise in senseless and extreme violence visited by young men upon innocent citizens. All of this is told with an accomplished novelist's touch, which makes us feel engaged in both the highs and lows.
I finished reading Berlin Now this morning, 9th November 2019, precisely 30 years to the day since the Wall fell. How apposite. I had intended to travel to Berlin for the occasion but work commitments made that impossible. Schneider's highly enjoyable guided tour was my substitute.
raehink's review against another edition
3.0
Fun to revisit the city I stayed in for four months back in 1978. I was especially interested in how the East and West have and have not merged since 1989. Translated from the German.
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