Berlin is the capital of Germany and the second most populous city in Europe. From 1961-1989 the city was divided by a wall with a West Berlin occupied by England, USA, and France and East Berlin occupied by the Soviets. During this time, West Germany relocated the capital to Bonn, while East Germany maintained their capital city in Berlin. And this just paints a drop of the complexity of the city’s history.

Top pick for books set in Berlin

Berlin has become my home over the past couple of years. Although it’s notoriously an open and welcoming city, as a foreigner, I’ve had to grapple with my status as an outsider more than ever. This is a bit of a funny statement in Berlin, since it’s a city of outsiders - Germans who fled the strict and rule-abiding nature of other cities made their homes here, immigrants from all over the world have made their homes here, and artists have fueled this counter-culture spirit even to today. Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck is a great portrayal of how modern-day Berlin interacts with the once divided Berlin. We see the city through the eyes of a German professor, as he recounts his experiences with a new immigrant group: African migrants.

Community picks for books set in Berlin

Below we’ve captured some classics like Berlin Alexanderplatz, some historical texts like The Ghosts of Berlin, which although a bit of dense read, illustrates how the city has come to be, and some books for those younger travelers - Going Over is a great Young Adult novel and Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot tells the story of the famous candy bomber.