Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Whatever Happened to the Berlin Wall? It is Not Gone

On November 9, 1989, nearly 25 years ago, the Berlin Wall was brought down by the people trapped behind it for decades. In the following months, city authorities took down slabs of the Wall to reconnect streets, parks, and subways. Berliners and tourists hammered away pieces of the Wall for keepsakes. Soon, the Wall was gone. Or was it?

Not only is it not gone, there are new remainders of the Wall every year: Wall slabs in front of Berlin hotels, churches, and museums, steles and signs, and the ever-growing cobble stone path tracing the Wall. The Wall Memorial Museum at Bernauer Strasse has a new outdoor exhibit,  including a chapel where the Church of Reconciliation had been. There is even a whole new museum devoted to the Wall, the Palace of Tears, located at the Friedrichstrasse train station.

And there are other places in Berlin where you can still see parts of the Wall, or remainders, such as watch towers, artwork, or memorials: The Berlin Wall Park, the Bernauer Strasse Memorial Museum, the Veteran's Cemetery, the area around the Reichstag and Potsdamer Platz, Checkpoint Charlie, the Topography of Terror Museum, the Museum of Forbidden Art, and the East Side Gallery.

You can find all these places and more in our full-color picture book The Berlin Wall Today. Ruins, Remnants, Remembrances, by Michael Cramer. The book is now out as a newly updated fall 2015 edition with more pages, more pictures, more maps, and more Wall remainders. In the weeks towards the anniversary, we will show you a collection of those pictures on Facebook and on our blog.



Your publisher, Eva C. Schweitzer

Monday, October 5, 2015

Leipzig: The City of Bach, Luther, and Faust

Leipzig, located in the middle of Germany, is the city of books and music. Johann Sebastian Bach composed his cantatas in the St. Thomas Church; Martin Luther disputed the future of Christianity at Germany’s second oldest university, and Faust, a character created by Leipzig resident Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, got into a brawl at Auerbach’s Keller. In Leipzig, Richard Wagner was born, Clara met Franz Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy rediscovered Bach, Erich Kästner wrote his children’s books at the coffee house, and Kurt Masur directed the Gewandhaus Orchestra.

Leipzig is the site of one of the world’s oldest and largest trade fairs, and also the Leipzig book fair. It is located at the crossroads of the Via Regia and the Via Imperia, the historic routes from Paris and Moscow, and from Rome to the Baltic Sea. In 1989, Leipzig became the city of heroes, whose rallies at the St. Nicholas Church led to the downfall of Communism. Since then, Leipzig has been splendidly rebuilt, including new fair grounds and new museums.

Leipzig turns one thousand years on December 2015. To that occasion, Berlinica Publishing has a new book out: Leipzig: One Thousand Years of German History. Bach, Luther, Faust: The City of Books and Music. It is written by Leipzig novelist and tour guide Sebastian Ringel. This book brings to life the stories of ordinary and famous Leipzigers.

You can get the book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and at independent book stores in every town. The book has 230 full color pages, 6.69’’ x 6.61’’, with 170 pictures; it retails for $24.95.




You can also get it at Barnes&Noble and at any independent bookstore:

Zazzle


Make a personalized gift at Zazzle.