Berlin Calling

Paul Hockenos is an American journalist and author who writes regularly for the New York Times, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Foreign Policy, and many other publications. He has held fellowships with the American Academy in Berlin, the European Journalism College, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is the author of Free to Hate and lives in Berlin.

“Berlin Calling is an invaluable history of the divided and then reunified city. West Berlin, with its bars that never closed and hard narcotics practically on tap, beckoned and inspired Bowie, Iggy, Brian Eno, and Nick Cave. An untold tale until now is that of the punks, anarchists, dissidents and yes, even neo-Nazis, who rebelled against totalitarian rule in the east. I know of no other book that tells their story. Hockenos has made a vital contribution to the cultural history of post-WWII Europe. A must-read.” —Gillian McCain, co-author of Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk “No city has seen more tumult and disruption in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries than Berlin. Paul Hockenos takes a deep insider’s look at the cultural forces that have transformed and are transforming Berlin, and act on creative cities, for better and for worse, across the world. A must-read for anyone who is interested in the challenges posed by the reurbanization and gentrification of the world’s great cities.” —Richard Florida, University of Toronto, author of Rise of the Creative Class “An extraordinarily gripping insider’s guide to the past and present of this unique, shape-shifting city. Berlin Calling also offers savvy hints as to its intriguing possible futures. This is the book every Berlin aficionado needs to own.” —Frederick Taylor, author of The Berlin Wall “Can unruly artists change the world? Or do they just provide the soundtrack to history? The Berlin of the 1980s is famous for two things: a wild counterculture and the surprising end of the Cold War. Paul Hockenos, who knows the city inside out, brings them together in a fast-paced, sometimes astonishing story of underground clubs, squatters, and dissidents.” —Brian Ladd, author of The Ghosts of Berlin