The first major biography about the GDR's most fascinating author. Carsten Gansel's comprehensive biography provides an exciting reassessment of a writer's life in its ups and downs and a complex work that is currently being discovered and celebrated internationally.

To the large exhibition in the German Historical Museum, curated by Dr. Monika Boll, this special volume is published about one of Germany's most famous songwriters: Wolf Biermann.

The book contains for the first time memories of the Russian Soviet front-line poet, translator David Samoilov (1920-1990). The collection includes memoirs of the poet’s relatives, students, and friends: Veniamin Smekhov, Evgeny Yevtushenko, Igor Guberman, Alexander Gorodnitsky, Alexander Davydov, Viktor Perelygin, Lydia Libedinskaya, Mikhail Kozakov, Yuliy Kim, Tamara Zhirmunskaya, etc. The...

Mit Florian Illies kann man Vergangenheit plötzlich als Gegenwart erleben. In »Zauber der Stille« breitet er erstmals die abenteuerlichen Geschichten Caspar David Friedrichs vor uns aus. Eine wilde Zeitreise zu dem Mann, der für die Deutschen die Sehnsucht erfand.

Die Lagerkommandantin verkündet das Todesurteil. Da schneidet sich die Gefangene Mala Zimetbaum mit einer Rasierklinge in die Pulsadern. Ein SS-Mann packt sie am Arm. Mala reißt sich frei, schlägt ihm ins Gesicht und ruft: »Mörder, bald werdet ihr bezahlen müssen.« Und zu den Tausenden jüdischen Frauen, die im Lager Auschwitz-Birkenau gezwungen sind, Malas Ermordung mitanzusehen: »Habt keine...

In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation’s history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo’s firsthand account of the raid that led to his...

After the revolution and Civil War, the large Burliuk family became divided—some members left Soviet Russia forever, while others remained in their homeland. The same happened with the family and wide circle of friends of Sonia Delaunay. Despite the seemingly closed borders, correspondence between the two families continued for years. The main theme of these endless letters was the debate...

A narrative book about the most famous Prague native, Franz Kafka, brings his life and work closer to everyone who wants to get to know his world in more detail. The world of Prague German-written literature, the world of his interests, family and friends, and also the world of very special stories come to life, which still puzzle readers and experts at their word. The author of the text is the...

On February 24, 2022, Valery Zaluzhny, while giving orders, uttered the words that became a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance: ‘This country rests on our shoulders.’ An iron general, a legendary figure, Hero of Ukraine, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (2021–2024), a military leader who will be remembered by history as the man who thwarted the Russian ‘blitzkrieg’ plan and...

On the fiftieth anniversary of Churchill’s death, Boris Johnson celebrates the singular brilliance of one of the most important leaders of the twentieth century. Taking on the myths and misconceptions along with the outsized reality, he portrays—with characteristic wit and passion—a man of contagious bravery, breathtaking eloquence, matchless strategizing, and deep humanity.

Muse, Sekretärin, Ehefrau – es gibt viele Bezeichnungen für Frauen, deren Einfluss aus der Geschichte radiert wurde. Für deren Leistungen Männer die Auszeichnungen und den Beifall bekamen: Wissenschaftlerinnen, deren Errungenschaften, im Gegensatz zu denen ihrer männlichen Kollegen, nicht anerkannt wurden. Autorinnen, die sich hinter männlichen Pseudonymen versteckten. Oder Künstlerinnen, die...

From the moment they met in 1940 in Ravensbrück concentration camp, Milena Jesenska and Margarete Buber-Neumann were inseparable. Czech Milena was Kafka’s first translator and epistolary lover, and a journalist opposed to fascism. A non-conformist, bi-sexual feminist, she was way ahead of her time. With the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, her home became a central meeting place for Jewish...