Death in Berlin
From Weimar to Divided Germany

Death in Berlin traces rituals and perceptions surrounding death from the Weimar Republic to the building of the Berlin Wall.

Monica Black (Author)

9780521118514, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 May 2010

326 pages, 24 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.65 kg

'The history that Black outlines [in Death in Berlin] is … one in which much changed, but in which all sorts of surprising continuities also operated, continuities that demonstrate anew that the history of cultural practices cannot be reduced to expressions of politics but rather have a life and rhythm of their own. [This] exceptional book stimulates many fascinating thoughts and questions and deserves a wide readership.' Neil Gregor, American Historical Review

We tend to think of death as a basic and immutable fact of life. Yet death, too, has a history. Death in Berlin traces the rituals, practices, perceptions, and sensibilities surrounding death in the context of Berlin's multiple transformations over the decades between Germany's defeat in World War I and the construction of the Berlin Wall. Evocatively illustrated and drawing on a rich collection of sources, Monica Black reveals the centrality of death to the evolving moral and social life of one metropolitan community. In doing so, she connects the intimacies of everyday life and death to events on the grand historical stage that changed the lives of millions - all in a city that stood at the center of some of the twentieth century's most transformative events.

Introduction
1. Death in Berlin, ca.1930
2. Nazi ways of death
3. Death in everyday life
4. Death and reckoning
5. Death in socialism
6. Death and the West
Conclusions.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]