European University Institute Library

Germania, a personal history of Germans ancient and modern, Simon Winder

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages [443]-450) and index

illustrationsmaps

index present

non fiction

Germania

bibliography

458730995

Simon Winder

a personal history of Germans ancient and modern

"Sitting on a bench at a communal table in a restaurant in Regensburg, his plate loaded with disturbing amounts of bratwurst and sauerkraut made golden by candlelight shining through a massive glass of beer, Simon Winder was happily swinging his legs when a couple from Rottweil politely but awkwardly asked: "Excuse me: but why are you here?"" "This book is an attempt to answer that question. Why spend so much time wandering around a country that remains a sort of "dead zone" for many foreigners, surrounded as it is by a force field of historical, linguistic, climatic, and gastronomic barriers? Winder's book is propelled by a wish to reclaim the brilliant, chaotic, endlessly varied German civilization that the Nazis buried and ruined, and that, since 145, so many Germans have worked to rebuild." "Germania is a very funny book on serious topics - how we are misled by history, how we twist history, and how sometimes it is best to know no history at all. It is a book full of curiosities: odd food, castles, mad princes, fairy tales, and horse-mating videos. It is about the limits of language, the meaning of culture, and the pleasure of townscape."--BOOK JACKET