history / europe / germany

Tells the story of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, from her life growing up in East Germany to her political rise and success as the Chancellor.

"A total re-assessment of the life of Adolf Eichmann that reveals his activities and notoriety amongst a global network of National Socialists following the collapse of the Third Reich, and permanently undermines Hannah Arendt's often-cited notion of the "banality of evil.""--Provided by publisher.

"...a narrative exploring two harrowing attempts to rescue East Germans by tunneling beneath the Berlin Wall, the U.S. television networks who financed and filmed them, and the Kennedy administration's unprecedented attempt to suppress both films."--Provided by publisher.

"... examines Adolf Hitler's time in Munich between 1918 and 1926, the years when Hitler shed his awkward, feckless persona and transformed himself into a savvy opportunistic political operator who saw himself as Germany's messiah. The story of Hitler's transformation is one of a fateful match between man and city. After opportunistically fluctuating between the ideas of the left and the right, Hitler emerged as an astonishingly flexible leader of Munich's right-wing movement. The tragedy for Germany and the world was that Hitler found himself in Munich; had he not been in Bavaria in the wake of the war and the revolution, his transformation into a National Socialist may never have occurred."--Provided by publisher.

The Berlin Wall went up in 1961. A year later a group of young West Germans risked prison, Stasi torture, and even death to liberate friends, lovers, and even strangers in East Berlin by digging tunnels under the Wall. When American channels NBC and CBS heard about it, they funded two separate tunnels in return for the right to film the escapes, planning spectacular prime-time documentary specials. President John F. Kennedy was not in favor of the plan because he was worried that the Soviets might take offense. As he said, "a wall is better than a war." In an era of escalating nuclear tensions, he approved unprecedented maneuvers to halt both documentaries, testing the limits of a free press.

"As a young man, Joseph Goebbels was a budding narcissist with constant need of approval. Through political involvement, he found personal affirmation within the German National Socialist Party. In this comprehensive volume, Peter Longerich documents Goebbels' descent into antisemitism and ideology and ascent through the ranks of the Nazi party, where he became an integral member Hitler's inner circle and where he shaped a brutal campaign of Nazi propaganda. In life and in his grisly family suicide, Goebbels was one of Hitler's most loyal accolytes. Though powerful in the party and in wartime Germany, Longerich's Goebbels is a man dogged by insecurities and consumed by his fierce adherence to the Nazi cause. Longerich engages and challenges the careful self-portrait that Goebbels left behind in his diaries, and, as he delves deep into the mind of Hitler's master propagandist, Longerich discovers first-hand how the Nazi message was conceived. This complete portrait of the man behind the message is sure to become a standard for historians and students of the holocaust for years to come"--.

"True tales from history [that] delve into the little-known stories from the past, covering everything from adventure, war, murder and slavery to espionage"--Provided by publisher.

Gerda Hartwich Robinson narrates her story as a German survivor of World War II. She tells how her life's journey included hunger, fear, neglect, and physical and emotional abuse, and how she carried these injustices in her mind and body for many years, leading to debilitating back pain, headaches, panic attacks, depression, and feelings of inadequacy. Robinson shows that the tragedies of war don't end when the last bomb is dropped or the last prisoner freed; they continue in subtle but devastating ways. Like many German citizens during and after the war, Robinson was simply trying to survive a terrifying situation.

"The English translation of the letters of Heinrich Himmler and his wife, recently authenticated by the Bundesarchiv and serialized in Die Welt"--.

"... historian Mary Elise Sarotte shows that the opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, was not, as is commonly believed, the East German government's deliberate concession to outside influence ... Drawing on evidence from archives in multiple countries and languages, along with dozens of interviews with key actors, 'The Collapse' is [an] ... account of the event that brought down the East German Politburo and came to represent the final collapse of the Cold War order"--Provided by publisher.