Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Cheerful Holidays, and a Very Good New Year.

Berlinica Publishing wishes everybody a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Cheerful Holidays, and a very good New Year. Please enjoy this picture from the Berlin Dome at night (and the music).

... and listen to Oh Du Fröhliche!

Your Publisher, Eva C. Schweitzer

The Berlin Wall: Twenty-Five Years After

Twenty-five years ago, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall came down—and The Boss had something to do with it. Berlinica now has a new, updated hardcover edition of our bestselling book Bruce Springsteen: Rocking the Wall: The Berlin Concert that Changed the World, with 20 more pages of color pictures from the concert, original Stasi files, and a preface by former E Street band hornist Mike Spengler, who was in Berlin with Bruce. You can get it at Amazon and Barnes&Noble, and also, every bookstore can order it.

Rocking The Wall explores the epic Bruce Springsteen concert in East Berlin on July 19, 1988, and how it changed the world. Erik Kirschbaum spoke to scores of fans and concert organizers on both sides of the Berlin Wall, including Jon Landau, Springsteen's long-time friend and manager. With lively behind-the-scenes details from eyewitness accounts, magazine and newspaper clippings, TV recordings, and even Stasi files, as well as photos and memorabilia, this gripping book transports you back to those heady times before the Berlin Wall fell and gives you a front-row spot at one of the most exciting rock concerts ever. It takes you to an unforgettable journey with Springsteen through the divided city, to the open air concert grounds in Weissensee, where The Boss, live on stage, delivered a speech against the Wall to a record-breaking crowd of more than 300,000 delirious young East Germans full of joy and hope. 

Erik Kirschbaum a native of New York City and long-time Springsteen fan, has lived in Germany for more than twenty-five years and in Berlin since 1993. He is a correspondent for the Reuters international news agency. He is also a devoted father of four, an enthusiastic cyclist, and a solar power entrepreneur. Rocking the Wall is his third book.


Your publisher, Eva C. Schweitzer

Berlin 1945. World War II: Photos of the Aftermath

We are proud to announce that Berlin 1945. World War II: Photos of the Aftermath, by Michael Brettin, is now for sale on Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com, and can be ordered by every bookstore.

Berlin 1945. World War II: Pictures from the Aftermath is a large-size book with harrowing black-and-white photos taken by Soviet soldiers, mostly army photographers such as Mark Redkin and Jewgenij Chaldej, but also by German war photographers in their employ, most notably Otto Donath (who died 1971 in East Berlin after a long career). They walked the bombed-out streets of Berlin and took pictures of shelled rubble, rotting corpses, and lost children, sometimes defying Soviet military censorship, which cracked down on what could be shown.

          

The Soviets ruled Berlin for two months before being joined in July 1945 by American, British, and French troops. At that point, the corpses had been buried, the fires quenched, and the Red Cross had set up soup kitchens. The Soviet Military Administration (SMAD) licensed Berliner Zeitung, just two weeks after the capitulation of Berlin, followed by the tabloid BZ am Abend on July 15, 1945. The SMAD also had its own army paper, Tägliche Rundschau. All three papers printed these photos. In 1973, Berliner Zeitung and BZ am Abend moved into a new building near Alexanderplatz, taking the photo archive with them. Somehow, the Tägliche Rundschau’s archive ended up there as well, presumably after the paper ceased publication in 1955. 

These photos—many rumpled, stained, scratched, and printed on pulpy, low-quality paper—were stored in drawers on long rows of metal shelving on the second floor. Eventually, they were forgotten. Then the Berlin Wall was torn down, and both newspapers were sold. One day in the late 1990s, Peter Kroh, then photo editor of the BZ am Abend had a look in those drawers. Kroh sifted through thousands of photos, many of them not properly categorized or credited. Nevertheless, Kroh knew that he had found a treasure trove and soon decided to publish them in a book. Berlin nach dem Krieg (Berlin After the War) was published in German in 2005. Below are some pictures.

This new book, Berlin 1945, contains these photos, along with some additional images, shown for the first time in the United States. The author is Dr. Michael Brettin, managing editor of the Sunday issue of Berliner Kurier. Born in 1964, Michael studied history, politics, and Slavic studies, and graduated with a Ph.D. in History from Hamburg University about the nationality question in the Soviet Union under General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. He is also a graduate of the Hamburg School of Journalism, the Henri-Nannen-Schule. The preface is written by former New York Times Bureau chief in Berlin in the years when the Wall fell, Stephen Kinzer.

Your publisher, Eva C. Schweitzer

Espresso, Espresso

How do you get a Berlinica book? On Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com, of course. And also, every book store can order it. However, that might take a few days, but now this will be slimmed down to a few minutes only: You can get Berlinica books at the Espresso machine. This is, as you probably have been thinking, a huge machine that prints out books in front of your very eyes upon ordering. So far, the Espresso machine can only reproduce black-and-white, softcover books (with full-color-covers), but this is developing. So, basically, you walk up to the counter, ask for the book, and you can take it home ten minutes later (after you have paid).

Espresso machines have been around for a while; McNally Jackson Books on 52 Prince St in New York has one, for instance, but now also Barnes and Noble got into the game. Its first machine is at the flagship store at New York's Union Square, and two more are in Paramus, N.J, and Willow Grove, Pa. Also, Books-A-Million, affiliated with Wal-Mart, has bought two Espresso machines.

What else is new? Berlin 1945. World War II: Pictures of the Aftermath will come out later this month. It is a 8.5 by 11 inches book with harrowing black-and-white pictures taken in the aftermath of WWII by Soviet soldiers and German war photographers in their employ. They are shown for the first time in the U.S. The text is written by Dr. Michael Brettin, the history editor of Berliner Kurier in whose archive the pictures were found. The preface is written by former New York Times Bureau chief in Berlin, Stephen Kinzer. We will keep you posted.

And also, the Steuben Parade is on in New York, the largest German-American Parade. It will take place next Saturday on September 20. I will be walking down Fifth Avenue with German Pulse, a Chicago-based cultural organization and be handing out postcards. See you all there!

Your publisher, Eva C. Schweitzer

My Last Afternoon in Berlin

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

As many of you know, the 53rd anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s construction was about three weeks ago, on August 13. At the moment, there are all manner of special events on to commemorate the occasion, in addition to the permanent Wall Museum at Checkpoint Charlie. The best one that I had the opportunity to see during my last week in Berlin was by far the Wall Panorama (also at Checkpoint Charlie) by Yadegar Asisi.

Asisi, who lived in Kreuzberg in the 1980s, has constructed for this exhibition a large-scale panoramic view of everyday life on both sides of the Wall, complete with an artificial scaffolding platform. Leading into the panorama room, one sees a series of photographs collected from people who lived in or visited Berlin while the Wall was up. The aim here is to impart a sense of the quotidian during this period—one cannot, Asisi claims, truly understand what life was like without understanding the minute details of der Alltag. Of particular importance to the artist was also to communicate the normalization of the Wall: it was always there and it, strangely, became a part of the natural landscape for Berlin residents on both sides of it. No one was surprised to walk by it; it became part of the landscape. To hear that one could get used to such circumstances, that one could really forget the kind of oppression implied by such a structure, was amazing to me.

The panorama itself is also breathtaking. Asisi removed and shifted a few buildings in order to allow views of Berlin landmarks, like the Marienkirche, but otherwise the view is totally accurate, complete with images of citizens performing everyday tasks. The image is almost life-size and there is even an elevated platform from which viewers can get a better angle. It’s a truly stunning project that really delivers on an interesting intention, namely giving visitors a real glimpse into the reality of life in Berlin during the 1960s, ’70s, and ‘80s.

Another interesting aspect of the introductory photos was that so many of them came from people who were just visiting the city. The images themselves varied, but one thing was always the same: every one of them mentioned that they fell in love with the city and wanted to move there immediately. On my last afternoon in Berlin, this was particularly affecting.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Wall, be sure to check out the panorama as well as Berlinica’s related publications, including The Berlin Wall Today by Michael Cramer and Rocking the Wall by Erik Kirschbaum!

It’s been a privilege to share my summer experience with you all, and I hope you continue to enjoy everything that Berlin has to offer!

So long, Vanessa

Black Box Checkpoint Charlie

Another exciting offer this week: in addition to the final copies of Berlin for Young People, the last few copies of Berlin in the Cold War are also on sale for only $1 on Amazon!

In honor of this auspicious occasion, I went over to Checkpoint Charlie to see the Black Box, a current installation on the Cold War. The multimedia exhibit includes an extensive timeline of the peaks and valleys of political tension between the end of World War II and the most recent NATO assembly. The scope of information leaves you with an excellent idea not only of the Cold War itself, but with a full sense of the events leading to it and its far-reaching implications. It’s refreshing to see such a comprehensive overview of the Cold War, which dominated the global political landscape for almost half a century.

Of course, Berlin was among the places most affected by that tension, and to see an installation here in Germany’s capital is an interesting experience. On one hand, the entire city is an installation of sorts, still bearing the scars of the division. Berlin is a city perpetually under construction, much more changeable than most other European metropolises. 

The photos of Cold War Berlin were the most striking for me; I recognized many of them from my own copy of Berlin in the Cold War. Seeing images of streets I’ve walked down myself during that period is almost surreal, particularly major centers like Potsdamer Platz and the Friedrichstraße area. You can see several photos from our book on our Pinterest page and click over to Amazon to get the full volume! If you get a chance, also check out the Black Box at Checkpoint Charlie, and look forward to the opening of the Cold War Museum on the same site, which is set to happen sometime next year!

Until next time, Vanessa

Berlin for Young People

Berlin for Young People—now on Amazon for just $1!

Hi! Vanessa here, with some exciting news:

The final copies of our city guide, Berlin for Young People, are now available for just $1 on Amazon! Snag yours today, as there are only a few left!

Included in this great guide is information on local sights, events, restaurants, bars, and clubs, as well as useful addresses, maps, and much more. The book is divided into three main sections on transportation, Berlin culture, and places—which are sorted by neighborhood—and also includes chapters on Potsdam and assorted useful tips.

As I’ve said before, Berlin is an amazing city with something for absolutely everyone. That’s wonderful, of course, but it can also be a little overwhelming sometimes. With this guide, you’ll be able to find exactly what you’re looking for. Get yours while they last!

Until next time, Vanessa

The Great War in Berlin

Hello, everyone! Vanessa here, writing to share some thoughts on the World War I exhibit currently on display at the Deutsches Historisches Museum and Prayer After the Slaughter, our new book of short stories and poetry on the First World War by German satirist Kurt Tucholsky.

August 2014 was the 100th anniversary of Great War’s beginning. The word century tends to carry a certain weight and distance with it—especially for someone like me, who hasn’t yet been alive for a quarter of one—but in discussions of world-shattering events like World War I, it suddenly takes on a disturbing air of immediacy. Walking through an exhibition on the myriad ways in which the Great War affected each and every corner of the world, I found myself thinking things like, “This was only a hundred years ago?” And if those photos and accounts are so shocking to a person whose concept of war has been colored from the start by the nuclear weapons debate and graphic, 24/7 news coverage, I can only imagine the effect it must have had on people back then, for whom automatic weapons were a wholly new and terrifying idea.

Der Erste Weltkrieg at Berlin’s Deutsches Historisches Museum, is a fascinating mixture of information and artifacts, which creates a beautiful (while harrowing) portrait of one of history’s greatest tragedies. Of particular interest to me as a student of art and culture were some great Expressionist paintings, which manage to convey a very personal and compelling account of the violence and chaos in an unusual way. This unconventional approach brought to mind Kurt Tucholsky, one of Germany’s greatest satirists after the Great War.

Tucholsky, who himself served as a soldier in World War I, has been described by Anne Nelson (author of The Red Orchestra) as having “the acid voice of Christopher Hitchens [and] the satirical whimsy of Jon Stewart, combined with the iconoclasm of Bill Maher.” It’s easy, then, to imagine his writing—which was eventually banned by the Nazis—causing a stir, as humor isn’t necessarily the first approach one might take to dealing with something as devastating as World War I. But reading the stories and poems in Prayers After the Slaughter, one realizes that Tucholsky’s wit is anything but improper; his distinct voice, full of insight and nuance, provides a unique account of those years, especially in light of his perspective as an artist and pacifist with firsthand experience at the front. I encourage all of you to check it out in commemoration of this 100-year anniversary. You can get your very own copy here!

Until next time, Vanessa

An Anniversary in Berlin, and: Meet Our New Intern

Hello, out there! My name is Vanessa, and I’m a 20-year-old university student from California spending the summer in Berlin. I’m delighted to be joining the Berlinica team and to have the opportunity to share my experience of this wonderful city with you all.

I first came to Berlin in January of this year to complete a German course at the Goethe Institut before spending the spring semester at the University of Vienna. In just eight short weeks I absolutely fell in love with the German capital and was devastated to be leaving so soon. Sure, Vienna is a beautiful city—and a perfect one, theoretically, for a German Studies major interested in arts and culture—but it’s definitely no Berlin, so I made up my mind to come back once classes ended.

What sets Berlin apart is that there truly is something here for everyone. In the past couple months, I’ve convinced several friends to visit and always tailored our itinerary to their individual interests; so far, not one has been disappointed. All sorts of exhibitions, shows, and events are on every day: history, media, architecture, literature, politics—enthusiasts in any or all of these fields are guaranteed to be satisfied.
         
It’s my goal to bring a few of these great events and places to Berlinica readers’ attention, in particular those with interesting connections to what we’re currently working on. Coming up next week, I’ll be writing about a World War I exhibition at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in conjunction with our recently published collection of poetry and short stories from Kurt Tucholsky on World War I, Prayer After the Slaughter. Stay tuned!

Until next week, Vanessa

Prayer After the Slaughter: Poems From World War I

One hundred years ago the first shots were fired in what would become World War I. The Great War started when a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife in Sarajevo. A month later, on July 28, 1914, Austria sent troops to Germany, setting a war machinery in motion that engulfed Russia, Germany, and France. On August 4, 1914, Great Britain declared war on Germany. The war would take 37 million lives; two million young German soldiers (and nearly a million German civilians, mostly children), died.

One of the young Germans sent to the battlefields of World War I was Kurt Tucholsky, an upcoming journalist in Berlin who had just published his first novel, Rheinsberg. A Storybook for Lovers. Tucholsky was sent to the Baltics and was later transferred to Romania. He was a poet, not a fighter; at one point, he left his gun behind so he did not have to shoot anybody. What he saw left him deeply scarred, and turned him into a committed anti-militarist and anti-fascist.

Tucholsky would become one of the most brilliant German writers of the 20th century, biting and satirical, much like Heinrich Heine. Berlinica has now published Prayer After the Slaughter, an ebook with a collection of ten poems about World War I — among them Two Clubbed to Death; about the murder of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg — and seven short stories, starting with The Cat Plays With the Mouse, the observation of a small killing in midst of the big.

The book has been translated by Peter Appelbaum, Emeritus Professor of Pathology at Pennsylvania State University who wrote Loyalty Betrayed: Jewish Chaplains in the German Army During the First World War; and James Scott, Emeritus Professor of German at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania, whose scholarly presentations have ranged from Rilke’s prose and Kafka’s short fiction to cabaret in East Germany and communicative testing. Additional translations have been done by Cindy Opitz, who translated Tucholsky's Berlin! Berlin! Dispatches From the Weimar Republic.

The short stories in this anthology are all in English translation, while the poems are bilingual. They all are representative of Tucholsky's style and passion. The book also contains links to two short videos with raw footage of 1918, and a few pictures. Prayer After the Slaughter is available with all ebook retailers, including Amazon and Barnes&Noble.

Slow Travel Berlin—News and Travel Tips from Berlin

Exiting news! We have teamed up with our friends from Slow Travel Berlin, a Berlin based group of expats mostly from America, Great Britain, and Ireland, to distribute their news stories and travel tips from Berlin.

Here is more in their own words: "Slow Travel Berlin was founded in January 2010 by British guidebook author, travel journalist and photographer Paul Sullivan. The aim is to establish a repository of eclectic information about the city from a range of perspectives to encourage deeper, more varied exploration and promotion of small, locally-minded businesses and services. The site features regular contributions from city residents on subjects ranging from food and literature to photography and personal experiences or memoirs. We aim to facilitate any quest to get beneath the skin of the city a little, or discover it at a more leisurely pace. We offer an insider’s view that will doubtless overlap from time to time with other Berlin travel sites, but will ultimately provide a unique and above all reliable resource that gives a broader, deeper perspective. We love this city and we want you to love it too."

So, please check in on their Berlin stories, which are thoroughly researched and weekly updated, and also, check out the new Slow Travel book, 100 Favorite Places.

What else is new: Our website has been redesigned, it's is now easier to navigate and, more importantly, to like on Facebook and Twitter. We will keep you posted on new books on the website, and on our blog.

Your publisher, Eva C. Schweitzer

Tucholsky in the Times

A great day for Kurt Tucholsky! In May, we have released Rheinsberg. A Storybook for Lovers, our second book by the great German writer and satirist, with a party at the German House of NYU. And now, it has been reviewed by William Grimes in The New York Times, as well as Berlin! Berlin! Dispatches from the Weimar Republic. The story is titled Giving a Satirist of the Third Reich the Last Laugh.

In Weimar Germany, Tucholsky (pronounced too-HOLE-skee) was big, the most brilliant, prolific and witty cultural journalist of his time. He remains big in Germany, a widely read author, with sales in the millions. In the English-speaking world, however, he barely exists.

Well, that will hopefully change now! The books has shot up to No. 910 on Amazon on the weekend, and to No 2 for books on Germany (it's still in the four-figures now)

Also, I would like to thank everybody who has contacted me, written to me, or bought one of the books. I will get back to everybody. And here is more on Tucholsky. 

Tucholsky was one of the most important journalists of the Weimar Republic. As a politically engaged journalist and temporary co-editor of the weekly magazine Die Weltbühne he proved himself to be a social critic in the tradition of Heinrich Heine. He was simultaneously a satirist, an author of satirical political revues, a songwriter and a poet. He saw himself as a left-wing democrat and pacifist and warned against anti-democratic tendencies – above all in politics, the military and justice – and the threat of National Socialism. 

In other news, we have modernized our website. The last kinks are being worked out right now. But you can now like and link every one of our books easily by clicking on the buttons on the left.

And upcoming: Berlin 1945. World War II: Photos from the Aftermath, by Michael Brettin and Peter Kroh. The books was supposed to come out in July; we have pushed it back a little, because starting in August, better paper will become available. We will keep you posted.

Your publisher, Eva C. Schweitzer

Books, Books, Books

Back from the BEA, America's largest book fair, in New York City, feeling like I have walked ten miles per day; and I probably have, also due to the fact that walking back home was faster that taking a bus stuck in traffic (the subway has not opened yet because the escalators are not working; what is this, Berlin?) ...so, what else is new?

Metadata! The big new thing is metadata, i.e. how to make sure the information about your book in catalogues contains every detail that might possibly be relevant for searches. Because, especially for small publishers, its not about distribution any more, its about discoverability.

Social Media! So, after having told us for years that publishers and authors have to be all over Social Media all the time, new advice from the hilarious panel, "Worst Social Media Marketing Tips," with Ron Hogan, Bill Barnes, Maureen Johnson, and the really funny John Scalzi, author of Redshirts, who later also signed his newest book Look In. To sum it up, re-tweet everything! Re-post everything! Every 15 minutes, if you have to! Never read anything, though. And: Win every argument by badgering everybody, especially if you are a straight white male!

Yet, distribution! After years of having watched Ingram's subsidiary LightningSource cater to PoD-publishers, Baker and Taylor has teamed up with a Short-run and PoD-provider, who will get books into libraries; Bookmaster Inc. Details to follow. Speaking of LightningSource, the company will now offer standard color 70lb paper, starting in July. This is huge progress, and I will use it for our next book, Berlin 1945, which is heavy in black-and-white pictures.

Translation! While the American herd at the BEA seems to be thinning, there were quite a few international booths, not as Frankfurt, but still, such as Saudi-Arabia, Korea, Russia, Turkey, Mexico, France, and, of course, Germany, evidently the only country that still can afford to offer free chocolate. Translation grants were also a big thing, not only from German (and Austrian) into English, also from French, Russian, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Arabic, mostly for fiction. Also presenting: Amazon Crossing, a translation subsidiary of that Seattle-based Voldemort lookalike.

Yes, Amazon! Not physically present at the BEA — after all, they are busy building their own alternative book planet — , but much talked about, especially with the Amazon-Hachette fight. I can understand the wailing and I'm outraged as anybody about the Justice Department siding with Amazon against the Big Five publishers. However, at the end of the day, publishers will need to find a competitive way of selling books, since Barnes & Noble, sadly, can't be counted on.

And, finally, who reads books? This I can tell you: Young girls. The by far biggest and most enthusiastic crowds were young girls lining up for (mostly) female YA authors. So there is hope.

Kurt Tucholsky and Rheinsberg: A Few Hours To Launch!

Rheinsberg. A Storybook for Lovers, by Kurt Tucholsky, will be presented today, May 13, at the Deutsches Haus at NYU; 42 Washington Mews, at 7pm, with Noah Eisenberg, Jack Wetherall, any myself. Tucholsky was one of the great writers of the Weimar Republic, a brilliant satirist, poet, storyteller, lyricist, pacifist, and Democrat; a fighter, lady’s man, reporter, and early warner against the Nazis who burned his books, and drove him out of Germany. Erich Kaestner called him a “small, fat Berliner,” who “wanted to stop a catastrophe with his typewriter.”

Rheinsberg, a blueprint for love for an entire generation. was his first novel and a great literary success—with the help of unorthodox marketing: A book bar in Berlin. He is how Tucholsky himself explains it in the preface for a new edition after the 50.000 copy was sold.

We had opened up the “Book Bar” on Kurfürstendamm, student nonsense that annoyed people half to death, because the shop had a polyglot sign in all languages, dead or alive—including mumbling—that cheap books were available within. The genteel clientele received schnapps. The press went beserk. Breslauer Zeitung was against it, whereas Vossische Zeitung endorsed it; Prague and Riga were neutral—we still have the clippings—and the St. Petersburg Herald wrote on December 18, 1912, that those who purchased a Wilde received a whiskey soda, and those who bought an Ibsen got a Nordic corn.

And this will be recreated at Deutsches Haus: Buy the book, get a drink (on us). Bring your friends!

Revisiting Rheinsberg: Love Before the Great War

Fans and friends of Berlinica, we have exciting news: Rheinsberg, Kurt Tucholsky's first novel comes out in English; it will be presented on May 13 at 7pm at the Deutsches Haus at NYU in New York at 42 Washington Mews. See more here. The presenter will be Noah Isenberg, Professor of Culture and Media at the New School for Liberal Arts. When the book came out in 1912, Tucholsky, together with his friend Kurt Szafranski openend a “Bücherbar” (book bar) on Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, where the lucky buyers of Rheinsberg also received a free shot of schnapps. Not breaking with tradition, Deutsches Haus at NYU will stage a reenactment of this historic precedent.

Here is more about the book: One summer before World War I, a young couple escapes the daily drudgery of their life in Berlin for a romantic weekend getaway to the town of Rheinsberg. They spend three days in the midst of a rural landscape filled with country houses and castles, cobblestone streets, lush forests, and dreamy lakes. The story of Wolfie and Claire told with a fresh, new style of ironic humor, became Tucholsky’s first literary success and gave an entire generation a new blueprint for love. Kurt Tucholsky was one of the most renowned journalists and satirists of the Weimar Republic and a pacifist who sounded an early warning against the growing threat of National Socialism. 

Berlin–mon amour

Here is some exciting news: Chanteuse Adrienne Haan will be performing in New York City on May 6, at 6pm, at the German Consulate, at 871 United Nations Plaza, which is at First Avenue and East 48th Street. There is a $5 fee. Here is more from the program:

Berlin, Mon Amour - A tour de force of sensuality and elegance will take you through 1920s Berlin, the Ghetto of Warsaw and the lonesome alleys of 1950s Paris. Adrienne Haan is a German singer, known for her historically accurate and deeply emotional Night Club Acts sung in English, German, Yiddish and French. She has performed throughout Europe earning acclaimed reviews from some of the Continent‘s most esteemed newspapers. Her long-time accompanist and arranger, Richard Danley will be on piano.

Adrienne's CD, with songs from the 1920s, is available with Berlinica:  Berlin, mon amour (English version)–

Mark Twain And The German Language

Here is a story on our Mark Twain book A Tramp in Berlin on German Pulse:

Mark Twain’s love-hate relationship with the German language is well-known, but often misunderstood. After the author visited Germany in 1878 — Heidelberg, Baden-Baden, the Black Forest —, he wrote the book, “A Tramp Abroad,” with the now-famous appendix, “The Awful German Language”. Here, Twain gripped with the confusing gender of nouns, long-long sentences and long-long-long words.

This is why many people believe that Twain did not like German, let alone spoke it. Nothing could be more untrue. ....

More at:

http://www.germanpulse.com/2014/01/17/mark-twain-berlin-loved-german-language/

by Eva C. Schweitzer