Herzland

Der Bestseller jetzt in einer überarbeiteten PaperbackausgabeKaum ein Engländer betritt freiwillig deutschen Boden, ohne dafür berufliche Gründe zu haben. Ein Fehler, meint Simon Winder. Er selbst ist regelrecht besessen von Deutschland. Mit feinem Gespür fürs Skurrile und Abseitige durchstreift er für uns die deutsche Geschichte, mit ihren dunklen Wäldern, ihren wackeren Helden und schlimmen Schurken. Stets gut gelaunt und höchst unterhaltsam zeigt er uns die spannendsten Städte mit ihren Geschichten, führt uns in Burgen, Museen, Kirchen und Gaststätten und erzählt von Goethe und Germanen, von Gräbern und Gemüse.

A Sunday Times History Book of the Year<BR>Shortlisted for The Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award<BR><BR>'No Briton has written better than Winder about Europe' - Sunday Times<BR><BR>In AD 843, the three surviving grandsons of the great Emperor Charlemagne met at Verdun. After years of bitter squabbles over who would inherit the family land, they finally decided to divide the territory and go their separate ways. In a moment of staggering significance, one grandson inherited what became France, another Germany and the third Lotharingia: the chunk that initially divided the other two. The dynamic between these three great zones has dictated much of our subsequent fate.<BR><BR>In this beguiling, hilarious and compelling book Simon Winder retraces how both from west and from east any number of ambitious characters have tried and failed to grapple with these Lotharingians, who ultimately became Dutch, German, Belgian, French, Luxembourgers and Swiss. Over many centuries, not only has Lotharingia brought forth many of Europe's greatest artists, inventors and thinkers, but it has also reduced many a would-be conqueror to helpless tears of rage and frustration.<BR><BR>Joining Germania and Danubia in Simon Winder's endlessly fascinating retelling of European history, Lotharingia is a personal, wonderful and gripping story.

Die unglaubliche Geschichte der Habsburger: mit Witz und Charme erzähltKeine andere Herrscherfamilie in Europa war über einen derart langen Zeitraum so mächtig wie die Habsburger. Simon Winder erzählt die Geschichte dieser legendären Dynastie und die ihrer eigenwilligen Untertanen. Er führt uns an die Schauplätze der versunkenen Donaumonarchie, mit feinem Sinn auch für Abseitiges und Bizarres. Uns begegnen Hexenmeister und Teufelspuppen, Juwelen und Skelette, Bergvölker und Piratennester, unglückliche Ehen - und ein Meerschweinchendorf. Ohne nostalgische Verklärung macht Winder die Vielfalt der k. u. k. Monarchie lebendig und zeigt uns, wie ihr Erbe die mitteleuropäische Gegenwart prägt.Dieses Buch ist erstmals 2014 unter dem Titel 'Kaisers Rumpelkammer' erschienen.

The Sunday Times Bestseller and insipration behind David Mitchell's Unruly.<BR><BR>'Entertaining and informative . . . Delightful' - Independent<BR><BR>There are many reasons to be fascinated by Germany: forests, architecture and fairy tales, not to mention its history and inhabitants' penchant for very peculiar food. Our distant and often maligned cousin, this is a place in which innumerable strange characters have held power, in which a chaotic jigsaw of borders have moved about seemingly at random, and which at the dark heart of the 20th century fell into the hands of truly terrible forces. And now Simon Winder is here to tell us everything else there is to know about this mesmerizing, tortured and endlessly fascinating country.<BR><BR>Germania is also a personal guide to the Germany that Simon Winder loves. In this startlingly vibrant account, Winder describes Germany's past afresh, starting with the shaggy world of the ancient forests, all the way up to the present day - and in doing so, he sees and begins to understand a country much like our own: Protestant, aggressive and committed to betterment.<BR><BR>Joining Danubia and Lotharingia in Winder's endlessly fascinating retelling of European history, Germania is a brilliant, vivid and enthusiastic insight to the hidden wonders of Germany.