Throughout its history, Berlin has been a city of tensions: geographical, political, religious, and artistic. A multicultural artistic mecca, Berlin was slow to embrace Kaiser Wilhelm II and Adolf Hitler, yet the city suffered disproportionately in the wars that they initiated. Taking a close look at the many dualities of Berlin, Barney White-Spunner also profiles such figures as Frederick the Great, Karl Marx, Gustav Mahler, Thomas Mann, Marlene Dietrich, and Bertold Brecht.

"White-Spunner unfolds a municipal history that illuminates the full complexity of this metropolis' thousand-year evolution. Thoroughly engrossing!"—Booklist (starred review)