Germania

In Wayward Pursuit of the Germans and Their History

By: Simon Winder

Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart

Length: 18 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Sitting on a bench at a communal table in a restaurant in Regensburg, his plate loaded with disturbing amounts of bratwurst and sauerkraut made golden by candlelight shining through a massive glass of beer, Simon Winder was happily swinging his legs when a couple from Rottweil politely but awkwardly asked, "So, why are you here"? This audiobook is an attempt to answer that question.

Why spend time wandering around a country that remains a sort of dead zone for many foreigners, surrounded as it is by a force field of historical, linguistic, climatic, and gastronomic barriers?

Winder's audiobook is propelled by a wish to reclaim the brilliant, chaotic, endlessly varied German civilization that the Nazis buried and ruined, and that, since 1945, so many Germans have worked to rebuild. Germania is a very funny audiobook on serious topics: how we are misled by history, how we twist history, and how sometimes it is best to know no history at all. It is a audiobook full of curiosities, odd food, castles, mad princes, fairy tales, and horse-mating videos. It is about the limits of language, the meaning of culture, and the pleasure of townscape.

©2010 Simon Winder (P)2018 Tantor

50 / 50

I am having a love-hate relationship with this book.

I love the droll, witty, almost sarcastic tone of the book; it’s fantastic!… but the narration is on and off. Yes a dry English narrator is a perfect fit, but he pauses in weird places and sometimes all sentences feel like declarations.

I love all the touristy leads I am getting for my next trip to Germany… but there are so many and I am not retaining ANYTHING

ARGH! I think this is one of those books one must re-read multiple times to truly absorb.

Phenomenal

Great story and a fantastic narrator. I could not stop listening to this book.

You’re going to have to work to enjoy

He’s very witty and very present in German cultures but makes so many in-jokes that Dennis Miller would probably rage quit at times. But if you bother to look up the places and people, it’s very rewarding.

Superb tour of Germany

It's not often a history book stops you in your tracks because you're laughing so hard, this book did it more times than should be possible.

A superb mix of anecdotes, self deprecation and insight, wrapped up in a remarkable method of making history fun and entertaining.

I wish Winder wrote children's books, in fact I wish Winder was in charge of all history teaching period.

More than the other parts of the series, the authors' love hate relationship with German history comes through and I occasionally found myself cringing at the too frequent references to Nazism, but these moments pass quickly.

Perhaps the most I can say is that Winder is the type of person who could turn 6 hour delay on public transport into a joy if you were lucky enough to be sitting next to him.

Great book

This is one of those truly rare books that takes a vast and often entangled history and not only untangles it but does it in an enjoyable and highly readable way. Kudos to Simon Winder

entertaining, full of good nuggets

enjoyed this but don't expect a linear history. also love the british accent but his pacing is odd. still, would recommend if you like history with unhidden personal opinions.

Good listen

Started out a bit too snarky, especially compared to Danubia. But seemed to relax into his normal enjoyable level of Brit humor. Interesting travel/history.

Bravo!

An eclectic and somewhat eccentric look at German history. German history is not a easy topic to summarize in a book. It’s a history that is complicated and, let’s face it, somewhat dour. The author does review this history of this fascinating country will humor that only an Englishman could do. This is not a Lonely Planet guide to Germany but it is a great to understanding the nuances of Germany. A great piece of work.

Brilliant if you can tolerate a sardonic tone

This is the way history should be written by historians: Without any pretensions of absolute objectivity, interspersed with travelogue and anecdotes that have informed the writer’s interpretation of history, and with a good dose of humor. Some may find the author’s wit, conveyed with excellence by the narrator, off-putting, perhaps even offensive. At times Winder comes across as derisive enough that I had to wonder whether he has any love for Germany at all. But his tone is consistent in descriptions of other countries as well. I advise listeners to take the tone with a grain of salt, embracing the parts you like and ignoring the parts you find irritating. I’m with you, Winder, in your obsession over cabinets of curiosities and your observations about solo traveling! I’m not with you in your dismissiveness of entire cities and regions because Nazis used to occupy them and your all too stereotypical descriptions of beer halls. Overall I found the listening experience, to use Winder’s favorite word, fun. Dry history is enlivened by the author’s personal approach and style. This is the rare audiobook that I want to read at some point. I look forward to listening to (and eventually reading) the subsequent books by Winder in this series on Germany.

Informative and humorous

This is one of the best Audibles I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. Simon Winder is an amazing writer and coupled with J.C. Stewart’s narration, Germania is an amazing book, meant for intelligent people with a dry sense of humor.