The house by the lake : Berlin, one house, five families, a hundred years of history
Title:
The house by the lake : Berlin, one house, five families, a hundred years of history
Author:
Harding, Thomas, 1968-
ISBN:
9780099592044
Publication Information:
London : Windmill Books, 2016.
Physical Description:
xxi, 442 p. : ill. ; 20 cm
General Note:
Includes index.
Abstract:
"In 2013, Thomas Harding returned to his grandmother's house on the outskirts of Berlin which she had been forced to leave when the Nazis swept to power. What was once her 'soul place' now stood empty and derelict. A concrete footpath cut through the garden, marking where the Berlin Wall has stood for nearly three decades. In the bid to save the house from demolition, Thomas began to unearth the history of the five families who had lived there: a nobleman farmer, a prosperous Jewish family, a renowned Nazi composer, a widow and her children, and a Stasi informant. Discovering stories of domestic joy and contentment, of terrible grief and tragedy, and of a hatred handed down through the generations, a history of twentieth-century Germany and the story of a nation emerged."-- Back cover.
Personal Subject:
Geographic Term:
Subject:
| Families -- Germany -- History -- 20th century. |
| Dwellings -- Germany -- Berlin -- History. |
| Germany -- History -- 1871- |
| Harding, Thomas, 1968- -- Family. |
Summary:
"In 2013, Thomas Harding returned to his grandmother's house on the outskirts of Berlin which she had been forced to leave when the Nazis swept to power. What was once her 'soul place' now stood empty and derelict. A concrete footpath cut through the garden, marking where the Berlin Wall has stood for nearly three decades. In the bid to save the house from demolition, Thomas began to unearth the history of the five families who had lived there: a nobleman farmer, a prosperous Jewish family, a renowned Nazi composer, a widow and her children, and a Stasi informant. Discovering stories of domestic joy and contentment, of terrible grief and tragedy, and of a hatred handed down through the generations, a history of twentieth-century Germany and the story of a nation emerged."--