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Berlin is a party in a graveyard. It is Europe´s youth capital, and its guilty war conscience. It is a disputed construction site, built on the ruins of regimes. Today´s diversity - refugees, immigrants, arty expats, East and West - emerges from a history of violence. Berlin is as cutting-edge and contemporary as it is wary of its extreme past. Berlin is a comprehensive short history and portrait of the German capital today. The story of Berlin´s vagaries over nine centuries - from a dry place in a bog to the control centre of modern Europe - is expertly portrayed by historian Joseph Pearson.

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