Berlin in the Twenties

Resumen del libro

In the brief period between the twentieth century's two cataclysmic world wars, Berlin was a vibrant metropolis a place filled with intrigue and decadence, where vice and virtue abounded in equal measure. It became the centre of European intellectual life where the arts and sciences met and flourished.

Engaging and eminently readable, here is a compelling portrait of this astonishing cultural melting pot and its most important protagonists personalities such as Max Reinhardt, Mies van der Rohe, Bertolt Brecht, Leni Riefenstahl and Walter Benjamin and less-known yet equally remarkable figures Count Harry Kessler, Gisèle Freund, Hannah Höch and many more.

With chapters on the key movements and creative spirits of the era, this book traces and illustrates the rise of an artistic and cultural milieu that bloomed brightly but all too briefly. It was here that the modernist dream of art and life being one came closer to reality than anywhere else, before or since.

Biografía del autor

Rainer Metzger estudió Historia del Arte, Historia Moderna y Literatura Alemana Moderna en Múnich y Augsburgo. Se doctoró en 1994 con una tesis sobre Dan Graham y trabajó como redactor de arte y arquitectura para el periódico vienés Der Standard. Ha escrito numerosos libros de arte, entre los que se encuentran títulos sobre Van Gogh y Chagall. Desde 2004 es profesor de Historia de Arte en la Academia de Bellas Artes de Karlsruhe.