""Delightfully original, brilliantly conceived, witty and poignant"" —Brenda Wineapple, award-winning author of Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy and the Trial that Riveted a Nation

Berlin is more than a city; it’s a survivor, an enigma, and a mirror to the world.

In 1929, Berlin stood at a precipice--alive with art, literature, and radical politics, yet already trembling under the weight of economic instability and the shadows of extremism. A century later, the city bears the scars and triumphs of everything that followed: dictatorship, devastation, division, and ultimately, reunification. Today’s Berlin is both haunted by and inseparable from its past, a metropolis where every street corner, memorial, and glass-walled parliament carries the echoes of history.

A seasoned chronicler of cities and culture, Lesser reveals Berlin as a place that refuses to forget, a living reminder of both catastrophe and resilience. In its transformations lie urgent lessons for the rest of the world, and particularly for America today.

At once history, travelogue, cultural study, and personal reflection, Berlin Before and After captures the essence of a city that has lived through extremes and offers hope that the past need not dictate the future.