Berlin history books will help you get the most out of your trip, whether you’re traveling on an airplane or in your armchair.
We collected these recommendations during our visit to Berlin in April 2023. Read on for what to read before you go, recommendations from our tour guides and other contacts, what we hope to read next, and books to read with children.
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Before You Visit Berlin
I know everything is on the internet, but before I visit any new place I like to spend some time with a paperback travel guide and a little language book. I find it’s worth buying the book to get information I can trust, to save eye strain where I can, and just to enjoy flipping through.
1. Rick Steves Berlin
I enjoy Rick Steves’ travel guides. The “Past and Present” sections are generally around twenty pages and really help me to get my historical bearings quickly.
If you’ll be primarily in one city, I recommend getting the city guide rather than the full country guide.
2. Lonely Planet Fast Talk German
I took one semester of German language in college, which was enough to help me read some signs. I didn’t end up using much of my paltry German. I’m not fluent, and it seemed just to confuse people if I tried to sprinkle in a few phrases. However, I like knowing a little bit of the language wherever I am. This is an approachable little introduction.
Related: Books About Ireland: 15 Favorites From My Family’s Bookshelves
Berlin History Books Recommended by Our Tour Guide
Good tour guides read constantly to keep up with their area of expertise. Our guide for our Berlin history walking tour made many recommendations. If you have a World War II buff on your Moms, Dads, and Grads gift list (and who doesn’t?), check out these choices.
Many will also help answer the perennial question about the rise of Hitler and the Holocaust: how did this happen?
3-4. Ian Kershaw’s 2-Volume Biography of Hitler
This two-volume biography includes Hitler: 1889-1936: Hubris and Hitler: 1936-1945: Nemesis. The following link is just for the first volume as the second is not currently available on Bookshop, though you can probably find it elsewhere.
5. Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil by Ron Rosenbaum
6. Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen
Our guide noted that many of the author’s conclusions are disputed by other academics, but what else is new?
7. Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher R. Browning
8. What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany, An Oral History by Eric Johnson and Karl-Heinz Reuband
9. Nazi Terror: The Gestapo, Jews, and Ordinary Germans by Eric Johnson
10. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson
Berlin History Books on My TBR
I learned a lot about Berlin history on our trip. When I learn a lot, it usually leaves me wanting to learn more. These are some books I’ve added to my own To-Be-Read list.
11. Frederick the Great by Nancy Mitford
Y’all, Nancy Mitford wrote a biography of Frederick the Great! I’m so excited that I’m moving this straight to the top of my TBR list. Mitford is famous as the eldest of the six Mitford sisters, the one who essentially packaged their upper-crust lives for public consumption in books like her best known work, Love in a Cold Climate (1949).
Knowing her and knowing him, Nancy Mitford was the perfect biographer for Frederick the Great. I bet this book is a delight. I’ll read it and report back.
12. Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment by James R. Gaines
There are many reasons I am drawn to the 18th century. One is that it’s really a meeting of two worlds, a place where the classical world rises again and pushes against the modern world struggling to be born. This book claims to capture that spirit.
13. All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler by Rebecca Donner
14. The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America’s Finest Hour by Andrei Cherny
15. Forty Autumns: A Family’s Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall
Related: 10 History Book Recommendations from My Shelves
Berlin History Books to Read with Children
16. The House By the Lake: The True Story of a House, Its History, and the Four Families Who Made It Home by Thomas Harding (author) and Britta Teckentrup (illustrator)
This is how you write hard history in a children’s book. 5 stars.
I collect children’s books from the places we visit. I was able to find this one in English and am so thrilled that it turned out to be so good. It’s in English because the author’s great-grandparents and grandparents fled the Nazis and resettled in London.
*Bonus Berlin History Book: The House By the Lake: One House, Five Families, and A Hundred Years of German History
Read the book that inspired the children’s version. Now that I’ve read the children’s book, I’m curious to know more details–and why this book lists five families while the children’s version lists four.
17. What Was the Berlin Wall? by Nico Medina
I’m a big fan of this series in general.
18. Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift’s Chocolate Pilot by Michael O. Tunnell
Berlin History and Historical Memory
How do you live your life in a place haunted by the ghosts of what came before? These books offer answers to that question.
19. The Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape by Brian Ladd
This is one for the architecture fans.
20. Learning From the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil by Susan Neiman
Neiman examines the problem posed by Confederate memorial practices in the United States through the lens of German history and memory of the Nazi period. It’s definitely one to read if you’re interested in those debates.
Susan Neiman lives in Berlin and graciously agreed to meet us for dinner while we were there. It was an amazing opportunity to chat with her about this important work, among other things. A fellow friend of Narnia, she actually said she was interested in meeting with us after reading my post about Irish history in Prince Caspian. What a compliment!
Learn Berlin History in Books
Which of these books pique your interest? Did you get any ideas for yourself or for gifts?
Let me know in the comments!
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12 comments
I loved Berlin! I am so glad you were able to go and experience it! Great reading suggestions.
I loved it too! It’s a very interesting city.
Lots of interesting books! I am interested in Fourty Autumns. I love history and have always been interested in Germany. Thanks for this list!
Yes, I’m interested in that one too. I get a lot out of books that narrow momentous events down to a smaller story.
I love your advice to search out a location with some good books and guides before visiting – like with your Berlin trip. These Berlin history books really set the stage for a great trip.
I find it always makes a trip so much richer if I know a bit of background before I go.
As always, you nailed it on this article. So easy to navigate and making me want to travel to Berlin and experience what you did! Thank you also for the tip about Rick Steves’ resource books!
It was truly an amazing experience! I hope you get to go at some point–when you do, this list will be there for you.
Very interesting collection of books! I also had no idea that Nancy Mitford wrote a book about Frederick the Great. The Mitford sisters are an incredibly interesting subject in their own right, so I’m excited to check it out!
I know! Mitford is such an entertaining author and he is such a fascinating subject that I’m sure it’s wonderful. You might like The Six by Laura Thompson, which is a group bio of the Mitford sisters, if you haven’t read it.
Thank you for the great list of Berlin history books. These are great recommendations for travelers and with so many choices – there’s something for everyone!
I hope you found something for you!