Why a Booktrail?
1982: A mysterious Scottish historian travels to East Berlin..but why?
Winter in Berlin
What you need to know before your trail
A mysterious Scottish historian travels to East Berlin to make a study of the historiographical treatment of Bismarck by East German scholars. But this is not his only reason. It is a time of serious unrest in Poland, barely 50 miles to the east, where the workers organised into the Solidarity union are challenging the Stalinist government. A secret socialist sympathiser, politically opposed to what he sees as the pseudo-socialism of the Stalinist GDR regime, the historian struggles to distribute socialist leaflets, smuggled from Britain, among the workers of East Berlin. Meanwhile he becomes embroiled in a passionate and complicated love affair with a young Bulgarian student. Closely monitored in all of his activities – legal and illegal – by both the East German authorities and the British Cultural Mission, it is only a matter of time before he is captured.
Travel Guide
Berlin
The Frederichstrase station is the opening scene of the novel and a frightening one at that. Close to the Eingang sigh is a metal plaque where the SS has hung two youths for refusing to fight the Red Army in the Battle of Berlin
Alltagsleben (one of the phrases documented at the back of the book) means Everyday life and this is certainly not the usual kind of everyday at all, in any stretch of the imagination.
There is also a list of historical figures at the back of the book. Otto von Bismarck was the first Chancellor of the German Empire.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: Winter in Berlin
Author/Guide: Ian R. Mitchell Destination: Berlin Departure Time: 1982
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