Berlin
Darkness, desolation and disarray in Germany
In Geoffrey Household’s adrenalin-quickening 1939 thriller Rogue Male, a lone English adventurer takes a potshot at Hitler and then runs…
Russian spies and the return of the Cold War
Last week’s arrest of a security guard employed at the British embassy in Berlin, on suspicion of spying for Russia,…
Should locals be allowed to work at British embassies?
It is just short of 30 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union and suddenly there comes a reminder…
Leni Riefenstahl is missing: The Dictator’s Muse, by Nigel Farndale, reviewed
Leni Riefenstahl was a film-maker of genius whose name is everlastingly associated with her film about the German chancellor, Triumph…
Billy Wilder — the making of a great film director
Before Billy Wilder became the celebrated director of films such as Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot and The Apartment…
Ignore the activists – Humboldt’s Enlightenment project deserves celebrating
Ignore the activists, says Tristram Hunt, Alexander von Humboldt’s Enlightenment project, embodied in a flash new Berlin museum, deserves celebrating
Breakdown in Berlin: Red Pill, by Hari Kunzru, reviewed
‘I was what they call an “independent scholar”’, confides the narrator of Hari Kunzru’s Red Pill, a middle-aged writer from…
As immersive art goes, nothing can compete with Berghain
In Geoff Dyer’s Jeff in Venice, the protagonist, at the Venice Biennale, muses on installations. ‘Ideally, the perfect art installation…
Superbly convincing: Unorthodox reviewed
When I lived briefly in Stamford Hill I was mesmerised by the huge fur hats (shtreimel) worn by the local…
Hiding from the Gestapo in plain sight in Berlin
Of the many bleak moments that have lodged in my mind since reading this extraordinary book the most unshakeable is…
Farewell Bernie Gunther: Metropolis, by Philip Kerr, reviewed
Philip Kerr’s first Bernie Gunther novel, March Violets, was published 30 years ago. From the start, the format was a…
The fall of Daniel Barenboim
A few years ago, I hooked up with a BBC team in Berlin to record a programme with Daniel Barenboim.…
What is a serious film festival doing opening with Hail, Caesar!
What is a serious film festival doing opening with Ethan and Joel Coens’ turkey Hail, Caesar!? James Woodall reports from Berlin
Nick Robinson’s diary: What dog will donate its vocal cords to me?
Scientists are experimenting with growing replacement vocal cords in the lab, as well as transplanting them from dogs. That was…
The swastika was always in plain sight
Ordinary Germans under the Third Reich did have wills of their own, argues Dominic Green. Most actively embraced Nazi ideology, and were aware of the extermination of the Jews. As the war worsened for them, what did they think they were fighting for?
For William Boyd's war-photographer heroine, life is a series of accidents
Amory Clay, photographer and photo-journalist, was born in 1908, only two years after Logan Mountstuart, writer, poseur and ‘scribivelard’. Amory…
What really happened in the Berlin Philharmonic election
The morning after the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra failed to elect a music director, I took a call from Bild-Zeitung, Berlin’s…
The long and disgraceful life of Britain's pre-eminent bounder
In his time, Gerald Hamilton (1890–1970) was an almost legendary figure, but he is now remembered — if at all…
Hannah Höch – from Dada firebrand to poet of collage
I suspect I am not alone in finding it surprising to encounter at the close of this exhibition an unexpected…
When a Chinese and a Japanese visit Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine
What does freedom mean to you? That’s the question the BBC World Service has been asking of us through its…
The best thing to come out of Davos
William Cook visits the Kirchner Museum in Davos, the Alpine town where the German Expressionist found refuge and inspiration
Interview David Chipperfield: It is better to be fond of architecture than amazed by it
William Cook talks to the architect David Chipperfield, whose work has made him a star in Germany
Has Germany confronted its Nazi past? Not where art is concerned
The discovery of a hoard of lost paintings is a reminder that denial still exists in the German art world
Hitler didn't start indiscriminate bombings — Churchill did
‘I cannot describe to you what a curious note of brutality a bomb has,’ said one woman who lived through…
Germany's war on Barbie
She’s loathed by topless German neo-feminists. But isn’t it time to cut her some slack?
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