the best books to read on Germany

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There are scores of books about Germany and its history. Here is a small selection of recent titles, as recommended by FT specialists, that are available in English as well as some pointers to those in the original German.

A History of Germany 1918-2020: The Divided Nation by Mary Fulbrook (Wiley-Blackwell)
An authoritative and balanced textbook survey of modern German history by award-winning historian Fulbrook. From Weimar to the closing days of Angela Merkel’s chancellorship, it spans the political, social and cultural trends and tensions of the past 100 years. The latest edition brings readers up to date on the “Berliner Republik” and its evolving role in Europe.

Kaput: The End of the German Miracle by Wolfgang Münchau (Swift Press)
In a merciless, at times polemical, reckoning, Münchau, a former FT columnist, picks apart Germany’s “neo-mercantilist” model — from its over-reliance on exports and the predominance of the car industry to its humbled banks and feeble analogue political leadership. No one emerges unscathed. Writing in the FT, the historian Harold James described the book as an “eloquent and comprehensive deconstruction of the German model”, although he added that the story was not as bleak as Münchau suggests. Münchau’s book might be read as a counterpoint of sorts to Why the Germans Do It Better: Notes from a Grown-Up Country by John Kampfner (Atlantic), a celebration of postwar Germany and its efforts to establish “a new paradigm for stability”.

Freedom: Memoirs 1954-2021 by Angela Merkel with Beate Baumann (Macmillan/St Martin’s Press)
These days the former chancellor is blamed for many of Germany’s woes, from the sharp increase in immigration and underspending on defence to over-reliance on Russian energy. Readers expecting any acknowledgment of past mistakes, however, will be disappointed by this heavyweight memoir. The FT’s reviewer found it at times “self-righteous” but also “essential reading”. Merkel’s remarkable journey from childhood under communism to the summit of international politics is also “a testament to liberal values . . . that once seemed self-evident and are now under threat”.

Germany’s Russia Problem: The Struggle for Balance in Europe by John Lough (Manchester University Press)
An account of the long and complex history between Germany and Russia that highlights the consequences of decades of wishful and misguided thinking among policymakers in Berlin towards Moscow. Lough, a former Nato official, argues that Germany’s “stubborn” pursuit of a “strategic partnership” saw it inadvertently “supporting the emergence of a Russian regime hostile to its interests and values”. Published before Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which heralded the Zeitenwende (epochal change) in Germany’s relations with Russia, it has proved terribly prescient.

A companion volume might be Germany and China: How Entanglement Undermines Freedom, Prosperity and Security by Andreas Fulda (Bloomsbury Academic), which considers the increasing reliance of German manufacturing on China, arguing that this relationship has changed from one of lucrative engagement to one of threatening entanglement that has, in the words of the FT reviewer, seen some of Germany’s premier corporations now fighting for their commercial future in the face of China’s rapid technological advance.

Money Men: A Hot Start-Up, a Billion-Dollar Fraud, a Fight for the Truth by Dan McCrum (Penguin)
In its heyday, Wirecard was pitched as Germany’s own Silicon Valley-like disrupter, a fintech start-up that stormed its way into the Dax, overtaking established financial behemoths such as Deutsche Bank. Then came the denouement: an FT investigation exposed a multibillion-dollar fraud that spanned continents and also revealed the weaknesses in the German financial system. Dan McCrum, the journalist who led the investigation, tells the thrilling story.

Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Michael Hofmann (Granta)
The story of a love affair between a young woman and a fiftysomething writer in the dying days of communist East Germany explores the personal realities and generational divides in times of geopolitical upheaval. The FT review heralded Erpenbeck’s novel, which scooped the 2024 International Booker Prize, as “one of a clutch of recent books adding nuance to the narrative of reunification by fleshing out an East German perspective”.

The Granddaughter by Bernhard Schlink, translated by Charlotte Collins (Weidenfeld & Nicolson/HarperCollins)
Once again the long shadow of history plays a central role in this latest novel by Schlink, who found international acclaim with The Reader (1995). This book moves between 1960s East Berlin and the rural neo-Nazi scene of today, which Schlink explores through the granddaughter of his main character, in what the FT’s review described as a complex and poignant narrative. Le Figaro called it “the great novel of German reunification”.

Beyond the Wall: East Germany 1949-1990 by Katja Hoyer (Allen Lane)
More than 30 years after the reunification of Germany, the former East Germany still has a distinct cultural and political identity. Hoyer’s readable history of the realities of daily life in the German Democratic Republic argues that the communist state had strengths, alongside the regime’s well-known flaws — and provides an indirect explanation for some of the tensions in contemporary Germany.

Where You Come From by Saša Stanišić, translated by Damion Searls (Jonathan Cape)
In this award-winning novel Stanišić draws heavily on his own experience of coming to Germany as a child refugee from former Yugoslavia, exploring issues such as the immigrant experience, language, homelands and contemporary politics.

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