In a Cold Crater: Cultural and Intellectual Life in Berlin, 1945-1948

Although the three conspicuous cultures of Berlin in the twentieth century—Weimar, Nazi, and Cold War—are well documented, little is known about the years between the fall of the Third Reich and the beginning of the Cold War. In a Cold Crater is the history of this volatile postwar moment, when the capital of the world's recently defeated public enemy assumed great emotional and symbolic meaning.

This is a story not of major intellectual and cultural achievements (for there were none in tho...