Although the three conspicuous cultures of Berlin in the twentieth century - Weimar, Nazi, and Cold War - are well documented, little is known about the years between the fall of the Third Reich and the beginning of the Cold War. In a Cold Crater is the history of this volatile postwar moment, when the capital of the world's most recently defeated public enemy assumed great emotional and symbolic meaning.

This is a story not of major intellectual and cultural achievements (for there were none in those years) but of enormous hopes and plans that failed. It is the story of the once famous volcano-dancing Berlin intelligentsia, torn apart by Nazism and exile, now reencountering one another. All of them were eager to rebuild a neo-Weimar republic of letters, arts, and thought. Some were highly qualified and serious. Many were classic opportunists. A few came close to being clowns.

After three years of "carnival," recreated by Schivelbusch in all its sound and fury, they were driven from the stage by the Cold War.