German Politics

Emerging from a collection of disparate city states 150 years ago, no other country has had as turbulent a history as Germany or enjoyed so much prosperity in such a short time frame. Today, as much of the world succumbs to authoritarianism and democracy is undermined from its heart, Germany stands as a bulwark for decency and stability. Mixing personal journey and anecdote with compelling empirical evidence, this is a searching and entertaining exploration of the country many in the West still love to hate.

For nearly a century, historians have depicted Germany as a rabidly nationalist land, born in a sea of aggression. Not so, says Helmut Walser Smith, who, in this groundbreaking 500-year history, challenges traditional perceptions of Germany's conflicted past, revealing a nation far more thematically complicated than 20th-century historians have imagined.

In Berlin, Kurt Müller, an Abwehr signalman, discovers a colleague lying dead at his radio receiver. The criminal police dismiss the death as suicide, but Kurt is not convinced. Kurt follows a trail of mysteries, witnessing several atrocities that expose the Nazi regime for what it truly is. When the trail leads him to the German resistance, he faces the most difficult choices of his life. He must choose between his duty and his conscience, between his country and his family, between love and death.

First published in 1955, They Thought They Were Free is an eloquent and provocative examination of the development of fascism in Germany. Milton Mayer's book is a study of 10 Germans and their lives from 1933-45, based on interviews he conducted after the war when he lived in Germany.

In the wake of white nationalist attacks, the ongoing debate over reparations, and the controversy surrounding Confederate monuments and the contested memories they evoke, Susan Neiman's Learning from the Germans delivers an urgently needed perspective on how a country can come to terms with its historical wrongdoings. Neiman is a white woman who came of age in the civil rights-era South and a Jewish woman who has spent much of her adult life in Berlin.

The German Revolution of November 1918 is nowadays largely forgotten outside Germany. It is generally regarded as a failure even by those who have heard of it, a missed opportunity that paved the way for the rise of the Nazis and the catastrophe to come. Robert Gerwarth argues here that to view the German Revolution in this way is a serious misjudgment. Not only did it bring down the authoritarian monarchy of the Hohenzollern, it also brought into being the first ever German democracy in an amazingly bloodless way.

Die lange erwarteten Erinnerungen von Angela Merkel. 16 Jahre trug Angela Merkel die Regierungsverantwortung für Deutschland, führte das Land durch zahlreiche Krisen und prägte mit ihrem Handeln und ihrer Haltung die deutsche und internationale Politik und Gesellschaft. Doch natürlich wurde Angela Merkel nicht als Kanzlerin geboren. In ihren gemeinsam mit ihrer langjährigen politischen Beraterin Beate Baumann verfassten Erinnerungen schaut sie zurück auf ihr Leben in zwei deutschen Staaten – 35 Jahre in der DDR, 35 Jahre im wiedervereinigten Deutschland.

Tauche ein in eine unvoreingenommene und umfassende Analyse der Legalisierung von Cannabis, von ihren Anfängen bis hin zu ihren sozialen, wirtschaftlichen und gesundheitlichen Auswirkungen.

Geheimdienstchef M schickt Bond auf eine Mission, um einen russischen Agenten namens "Le Chiffre" auszuschalten. Er soll ihn am Baccarat-Tisch ruinieren und so seine sowjetischen Auftraggeber zwingen, ihn in den "Ruhestand" zu schicken. Zunächst scheint es so, als ob das Glück Bond hold ist - Le Chiffre hat eine Pechsträhne. Doch manche Leute weigern sich einfach, nach den Regeln zu spielen...

In postwar Vienna, the term peace is relative - the Americans, British and Russians govern the city in an uneasy truce, and the main difference is that now it's the Soviet secret police making people disappear rather than the Nazis. When Bernie is asked by a high-ranking Soviet official to clear an old Kripo colleague's name of the murder of an American officer, he quickly realises he's in over his head.

Selbst in Slough House, dem belanglosesten Außenposten des mi5, fordert der Brexit seinen Tribut: Das ganze Haus wurde aus den offiziellen Akten gelöscht – mitsamt seinen Insassen. Mehr noch, plötzlich sterben ehemalige Mitglieder wie die Fliegen. Kein Wunder, dass Jackson Lambs Mannschaft etwas paranoid wird. Es wäre klug, sich einen sicheren Ort zu suchen. Aber für kluge Entscheidungen sind die Slow Horses nicht gerade bekannt.

Als das berühmte Model Lula Landry von ihrem schneebedeckten Balkon im Londoner Stadtteil Mayfair in den Tod stürzt, steht für die ermittelnden Beamten schnell fest, dass es Selbstmord war. Der Fall scheint abgeschlossen. Doch Lulas Bruder hat Zweifel - ein Privatdetektiv soll für ihn die Wahrheit ans Licht bringen.

An explosive World War Two adventure from the author of The Eagle Has Landed set on the eve of D-Day. A routine mission ends in icy terror for OSS agent Craig Osborne, as he floats helplessly in the sea off the coast of Brittany. The rumble of engines should signal rescue.... But it is a German warship which appears out of the fog - hauling Osborne to safety and preparing him for the fight.

It is sometimes difficult to remember that in war there are innocents on all sides who suffer. German citizens who had no connection to the atrocities committed by their countrymen nonetheless endured great hardships because of them.

Una defensa sin precedentes del poder hispano en el tablero geopolítico mundial Pedro Baños invita a toda la comunidad hispana a unir fuerzas para afrontar en posición ventajosa el cambio de paradigma geopolítico y los desafíos de la reconfiguración de poderes en el contexto mundial. Se trata de una visión de largo alcance que levanta las barreras nacionales y proyecta un espacio atlántico igualitario y panhispánico. La idea es construir un ámbito colectivo que permita tener una voz propia, poderosa e influyente en el mundo. De ello depende la futura prosperidad de nuestros países.

From the end of the Baroque age and the death of Bach in 1750 to the rise of Hitler in 1933, Germany was transformed from a poor relation among Western nations into a dominant intellectual and cultural force more influential than France, Britain, Italy, Holland and the United States. In the early decades of the 20th century, German artists, writers, philosophers, scientists and engineers were leading their freshly unified country to new and undreamed of heights, and by 1933, they had won more Nobel prizes than anyone else and more than the British and Americans combined.

Weihnachten ist das größte jährliche Ereignis auf dem Planeten, eine Zeit des Fröhlichseins, der Übertreibung, des Friedens, des guten Willens und des gelegentlichen Familienstreits. Dieses Fest ist so bequem und vertraut wie ein altes Paar Schuhe und dabei trotzdem noch immer voller Glitzer und Aufregung. Aber was wissen wir wirklich darüber? Weihnachten ist vollgestopft mit Traditionen und Ritualen, die die meisten von uns schon unser ganzes Leben lang beobachten, ohne die geringste Ahnung zu haben, woher sie kommen.

Wolfgang Schäuble war eine politische Ausnahmeerscheinung. Nur wenige haben die Bundesrepublik in vergleichbarem Maße geprägt. Die unmittelbar vor seinem Tod fertiggestellten »Erinnerungen« bieten einen einzigartigen Einblick in die Geschichte unseres Landes und in die verborgenen Mechanismen des politischen Betriebs. Sie sind die Bilanz eines politischen Lebens, ein Vermächtnis der Werte und Haltungen, für die Wolfgang Schäuble ein Leben lang stand.

In 1945, Germany lay in ruins, morally and materially. The German people stood condemned by history, responsible for a horrifying genocide and a war of extermination. But by 2015 Germany looked to many to be the moral voice of Europe, welcoming almost one million refugees. At the same time, it pursued a controversially rigid fiscal discipline and made energy deals with a dictator. Many people have asked how Germany descended into the darkness of the Nazis, but this book asks another vital question: how, and how far, have the Germans since reinvented themselves?

1943: Kurt Muller and a young colleague parachute into southern Germany to rescue a British-Canadian agent. The Allies have won the battle of the Atlantic, and German forces are retreating on all major fronts. The war in Europe is effectively over, but the Nazis will never accept defeat. An Abwehr deserter and member of the German resistance - the Black Orchestra - with a price on his head, Kurt quickly finds himself in a deadly race to prevent the Nazis from developing the first atomic bomb and changing the outcome of the Second World War.