Ralph Blumenthal

Our West Berlin The beloved urban island where bars and pubs were open all night so the locals could plot the revolution Where beer was cheap and sausage on a roll was considered dinner. Where the tenements still bore bullet holes from World War II, and the draft did not exist. Where the city government regularly stumbled over some real estate scandal and where the Communist-controlled S-Bahn train did not run (mostly). Where old-timers, Turkish immigrants, and students from West Germany lived side by side without much talking to each other, where winter smelled like coal, and summer smelled like weed. This book is devoted to this half-city, surrounded by the Wall, which ceased to exist in 1989. Two dozen authors who are, or were living in Berlin have contributed stories, from JFK touring Checkpoint Charlie to squatters at the Wall. It is a book for those who remember, and for those who wish they did. Berlinica Publishing LLC offers English-language books from Berlin, German; fiction, non-fiction, travel guides, history about the Wall and the Third Reich, Jewish life, art, architecture and photography, as well as travel guides and cookbook. It also offers documentaries and feature films on DVD, as well as music CDs. Berlinica caters to history buffs, Americans of German heritage, travelers, and artists and young people who love the cutting-edge city in the heart of Europe. Berlinica cooperates with Berlin-based publishing houses. Berlinica's current and upcoming titles include "Our West Berlin," by various authors, also five translated books by famed Weimar author Kurt Tucholsky as well as Harold Poor's landmark biography of Tucholsky, two translated plays by Ernst Toller, and two American travel stories by Alfred Kerr and Roda Roda, soon to be followed by Egon Erwin Kisch's "Paradise America". In the non-fiction department, we have "Rocking the Wall," the Bruce-Springsteen-book and "Burning Beethoven," about German Americans in World War I, both by Erik Kirschbaum, also "Mark Twain in Berlin," by Andreas Austilat, "Berlin 1945: World War II: Photos of the Aftermath," by Michael Brettin, "The Berlin Wall Today," a full-color guide to the remnants of the Wall, by Michael Cramer, "Berlin in the Cold War," about post-World War II history, the comprehensive guide "Jews in Berlin," by Andreas Nachama, Julius Schoeps, Hermann Simon, and "A Place they Called Home," edited by Donna Swarthout about Jews returning to Germany. We also offer "The Berlin Cookbook," a full-color collection of traditional German recipes by Rose Marie Donhauser, the picture book "Wings of Desire," by Lothar Heinke, "Martin Luther's Travel Guide," by Cornelia D mer, "Leipzig The City of Books und Music," by Sebastian Ringel, and "Berlin For Free," a guide for the frugal traveler by Monica Maertens.

UFOhs! Mysteries in the Sky is the first book to explore the strange, exciting, and unknown world of unidentified aerial phenomena for kids. UFOhs! cuts through speculation and pseudo-science to describe real phenomena as observed and documented by pilots, ship captains, scientists, and ordinary men, women, and children from around the world. Playful, probing, and beautifully illustrated, UFOhs! Mysteries in the Sky prompts kids and their parents to talk about the moon, the stars, the planets, and all the things they see in the sky, and to wonder about those we can't yet explain.

The Believer is the weird and chilling true story of Dr. John Mack. This eminent Harvard psychiatrist and Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer risked his career to investigate the phenomenon of human encounters with aliens and to give credibility to the stupefying tales shared by people who were utterly convinced they had happened.Nothing in Mack's four decades of psychiatry had prepared him for the otherworldly accounts of a cross section of humanity including young children who reported being taken against their wills by alien beings. Over the course of his career his interest in alien abduction grew from curiosity to wonder, ultimately developing into a limitless, unwavering passion.Based on exclusive access to Mack's archives, journals, and psychiatric notes and interviews with his family and closest associates, The Believer reveals the life and work of a man who explored the deepest of scientific conundrums and further leads us to the hidden dimensions and alternate realities that captivated Mack until the end of his life.

The Believer is the weird and chilling true story of Dr. John Mack. This eminent Harvard psychiatrist and Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer risked his career to investigate the phenomenon of human encounters with aliens and to give credibility to the stupefying tales shared by people who were utterly convinced they had happened.Nothing in Mack's four decades of psychiatry had prepared him for the otherworldly accounts of a cross-section of humanity including young children who reported being taken against their wills by alien beings. Over the course of his career his interest in alien abduction grew from curiosity to wonder, ultimately developing into a limitless, unwavering passion.Based on exclusive access to Mack's archives, journals, and psychiatric notes and interviews with his family and closest associates, The Believer reveals the life and work of a man who explored the deepest of scientific conundrums and further leads us to the hidden dimensions and alternate realities that captivated Mack until the end of his life.

Kurt Tucholsky was a brilliant satirist, poet, storyteller, lyricist, pacifist, and Democrat; a fighter, lady's man, reporter, and early warner against the Nazis who hated and loathed him and drove him out of Germany after his books were burned in 1933. His contemporary Erich Kaestner called him a "small, fat Berliner," who "wanted to stop a catastrophe with his typewriter." The New York Times hailed him as "one of the most brilliant writers of republican Germany. He was a poet as well as a critic and was so versatile that he used five or six pen names. As Peter Panter he was an outstanding essayist who at one time wrote topical sketches in the Vossische Zeitung, which ceased to appear under the Nazi regime; as Theobald Tiger he wrote satirical poems that were frequently interpreted by popular actors in vaudeville and cabartes, and as Ignatz Wrobel he contributed regularly to the Weltb hne, an independent weekly that was one of the first publications prohibited by the Hitler government." Tucholsky, who occupied the center stage in the tumultuous political and cultural world of 1920s Berlin, still emerges as an astonishingly contemporary figure. As an angry truth-teller, he pierced the hypocrisy and corruption around him with acute honesty. Imagine a writer with the acid voice of Christopher Hitchens and the satirical whimsy of Jon Stewart, combined with the iconoclasm of Bill Maher. That's Tucholsky in a nutshell. Like Hitchens, Tucholsky wrote a mixture of literary essays, social observations, and political commentary. His irony made the line between his "serious writing" and his "entertainments" almost invisible. The fashionable outsider watched the political "center" disappear, and, in the end, he found himself catapulted out of society altogether. His career was sandwiched between the two most deadly events of his century: the bloodbath of World War I and the scourge of Nazism. Just as the first war launched Hemingway's lifelong career as a wounded tough guy with a soft spot for guns and broads, Tucholsky discovered the reflexes of an escape artist. He was equally elusive as a writer. In today's world, a journalist isn't supposed to write plays, and a playwright isn't welcomed as a novelist. But in 1920s Berlin, Tucholsky was dealing with postwar realities that required shouting from the rooftops, and any rooftop would do. Kurt Tucholsky is one of Weimar Germany's most celebrated literary figures, loved by his many readers and hated by the Nazis. The poet, journalist, and satirist who was at the center of the tumultuous political and cultural world of 1920s Berlin still emerges as an astonishingly contemporary figure. But he was more than just an angry truth-teller; he was also one of the funniest satirical writers of his era, depicting everyday lives during the rise of modernity.The iconic translation of Harry Zohn, a literary figure from Vienna himself, presented Tucholsky to an American audience for the first time. Long out of print, Zohn's book is now being republished in a new edition.

Kurt Tucholsky is one of Weimar Germany's most celebrated literary figures, loved by his many readers and hated by the Nazis. The poet, journalist, and satirist who was at the center of the tumultuous political and cultural world of 1920s Berlin still emerges as an astonishingly contemporary figure. But he was more than just an angry truth-teller; he was also one of the funniest satirical writers of his era, depicting everyday lives during the rise of modernity.The iconic translation of Harry Zohn, a literary figure from Vienna himself, presented Tucholsky to an American audience for the first time. Long out of print, Zohn's book is now being republished in a new edition. Kurt Tucholsky made his name as one of the Weimar era's most acid, incisive satirists; but to read this panoramic selection of essays, monologues, dialogues and aphorisms is to be reminded that he was also a brilliant literary shape-shifter, able to take on the persona of an embryo, a squirrel, a suite of pulp novels, or a prophet of post-apocalyptic hope with equal felicity. "In Europe, a man is a citizen once and an alien twenty-two times. A wise man is an alien twenty-three times," he wrote. His words sound alarmingly poignant today. -- George Prochnik, author of "Stranger in a Strange Land: Searching for Gershom Scholem and Jerusalem" Tucholsky's wit and his courage, his extraordinary sensitivity to language, and the timeliness of his writing have not waned a bit, even eight decades later.-- Noah Isenberg, Professor of Culture and Media at The New School for Liberal Arts, New York City Imagine a writer with the acid voice of Christopher Hitchens and the satirical whimsy of Jon Stewart, combined with the iconoclasm of Bill Maher. That's Tucholsky in a nutshell.-- Anne Nelson, author of "The Red Orchestra" and "The Guys" In Weimar Germany, Tucholsky was big, the most brilliant, prolific and witty cultural journalist of his time. He poured scorn on the reactionary institutions of the old regime, the follies of the Weimar Republic, and the peculiarities of the German character.-- William Grimes, The New York Times Tucholsky's writing is similar to that of Heinrich Heine, his role model, in that it appears superficially simple but is replete with hidden meanings. His works are touching, stirring, and precisely to the point.-- Peter Appelbaum MD, PhD, Emeritus Professor, Pennsylvania State University "Kurt Tucholsky was one of the most brilliant German Jewish writers and satirists of his time. The world has yet to discover his genius."--Peter Schneider, author of The Wall Jumper and Eduard's Homecoming

The enthralling, definitive account -- with guns, diamonds, and champagne that never stops -- of the world's most storied nightspot, where starlets stalked millionaires, where Jack wooed Jackie, and where Walter Winchell snubbed the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.