Berlin for Jews : a twenty-first-century companion / Leonard Barkan.

Author
Barkan, Leonard [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, [2016]
Description
191 pages, 30 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Availability

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Firestone Library - Faculty Publications DS134.3 .B37 2016 Browse related items Request
    Firestone Library - Stacks DS134.3 .B37 2016 Browse related items Request

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      Summary note
      • 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.
      • What is it like to travel to Berlin today, particularly as a Jew, and bring with you the baggage of historyAnd 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 itThe answer is Berlin for Jews. Part history and part travel companion, Leonard Barkan#x0;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#x0;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#x0;s (ىآتمىسم.ٌْٰفَلWe 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#x0;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.
      Bibliographic references
      Includes bibliographical references (pages 189-191).
      Contents
      • Prologue: me and Berlin
      • Places: Schönhauser Allee
      • Places: Bayerisches Viertel
      • People: Rahel Varnhagen
      • People: James Simon
      • People: Walter Benjamin
      • Epilogue: recollections, reconstructions.
      ISBN
      • 9780226010663 ((cloth ; : alk. paper))
      • 022601066X ((cloth ; : alk. paper))
      LCCN
      2016005824
      OCLC
      937999042
      Other standard number
      • 40027046253
      Statement on language in description
      Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage. Read more...
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