An edition of Berlin for Jews (2016)

Berlin for Jews

a twenty-first-century companion

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Last edited by MARC Bot
December 19, 2022 | History
An edition of Berlin for Jews (2016)

Berlin for Jews

a twenty-first-century companion

What is it like to travel to Berlin today, particularly as a Jew, and bring with you the baggage of history? And what happens when an American Jew, raised by a secular family, falls in love with Berlin not in spite of his being a Jew but because of it? The answer is Berlin for Jews. Part history and part travel companion, Leonard Barkan's personal love letter to the city shows how its long Jewish heritage, despite the atrocities of the Nazi era, has left an inspiring imprint on the vibrant metropolis of today. Barkan, voraciously curious and witty, offers a self-deprecating guide to the history of Jewish life in Berlin, revealing how, beginning in the early nineteenth century, Jews became prominent in the arts, the sciences, and the city's public life. With him, we tour the ivy-covered confines of the Schönhauser Allee cemetery, where many distinguished Jewish Berliners have been buried, and we stroll through Bayerisches Viertel, an elegant neighborhood created by a Jewish developer and that came to be called Berlin's "Jewish Switzerland." We travel back to the early nineteenth century to the salon of Rahel Varnhagen, a Jewish society doyenne, who frequently hosted famous artists, writers, politicians, and the occasional royal. Barkan also introduces us to James Simon, a turn-of-the-century philanthropist and art collector, and we explore the life of Walter Benjamin, who wrote a memoir of his childhood in Berlin as a member of the assimilated Jewish upper-middle class. Throughout, Barkan muses about his own Jewishness, while celebrating the rich Jewish culture on view in today's Berlin. A winning, idiosyncratic travel companion, Berlin for Jews offers a way to engage with German history, to acknowledge the unspeakable while extolling the indelible influence of Jewish culture. --Amazon.com

Publish Date
Language
English
Pages
191

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Berlin for Jews
Berlin for Jews: a twenty-first-century companion
2016
in English
Cover of: Berlin for Jews
Berlin for Jews: A Twenty-First-Century Companion
2016, University of Chicago Press
in English

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Book Details


Table of Contents

Prologue: me and Berlin
Places: Schönhauser Allee
Places: Bayerisches Viertel
People: Rahel Varnhagen
People: James Simon
People: Walter Benjamin
Epilogue: recollections, reconstructions.

Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references.

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
943/.155004924
Library of Congress
DS134.3 .B37 2016, DS134.3.B37 2016

The Physical Object

Pagination
191 pages, 30 unnumbered pages of plates
Number of pages
191

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL27226278M
Internet Archive
berlinforjewstwe0000bark
ISBN 10
022601066X
ISBN 13
9780226010663
LCCN
2016005824
OCLC/WorldCat
937999042

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History

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December 19, 2022 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
August 24, 2020 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
July 19, 2019 Created by MARC Bot import new book