Germania: In Wayward Pursuit of the Germans and Their History

Simon Winder

Mar 2010 · Sold by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

About this ebook

A UNIQUE EXPLORATION OF GERMAN CULTURE, FROM SAUSAGE ADVERTISEMENTS TO WAGNER


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: "So: why are you here?"

This book is an attempt to answer that question. Why spend 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 1945, 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.

Ratings and reviews

I couldn't get past the introduction before I became angry that Farrar, Straus, and Giroux would release such trash. Winder states up front that "...I will bore or alienate some readers..". Yes, he certainly did this reader. Stating that: "Germany is sort of a Dead Zone today"; and as he ends the introduction referring to Germany as a "lost country". No wonder only The Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle chose to review the work, together with a hand-full of British pubs. J.P. Miller. Cambridge, MA

This book is something of a "Dave Barry does German History", it's generally organized as the author traipses through both history and Germany as Winder intersperses reminiscing about (sometimes) pertinent personal experiences in the country. As a fellow scholar of German history, Winder's book is essentially the book I would write: a historical exposition of flaws, mistakes, monumental idiocies, and preposterous hilarities. Despite the largely negative view of the subject as a whole, Winder is nevertheless and seemingly inexplicably attracted to and fascinated by the people and culture.

About the author

Simon Winder has spent far too much time in Germany, denying himself a lot of sunshine and fresh fruit just to write Germania. He is the author of the highly praised The Man Who Saved Britain (FSG, 2006) and works in publishing in London.