Best non-fiction books: The WELT best list for September 2023

2023-08-30 16:13:33

This is where the monthly recommendation list with the widest distribution in German-speaking countries appears. Media partners are “Die Literarische Welt”, RBB Kultur, “NZZ” and Radio Österreich 1. Experts from an independent jury select ten non-fiction books of the month from the humanities, natural sciences, social sciences and economics. Worthwhile in September:

1. Helmut Boettiger:

Chernivtsi. City of turning points. Berenberg, 88 S., 22 Euro

Buy “Czernowitz” online now

The literary critic Böttiger autobiographically describes three journeys to this metropolis of Habsburg-German literature. He was first lured to Chernivtsi in 1993 by his admiration for Paul Celan. A stay in Bukovina in 2005 was followed by a performance at the Poetry Festival 2022 during wartime. Using the example of a city that has shaped German culture, Böttiger succeeds in making clear the precarious situation of the Ukraine on the edge of Central Europe.

2. Emmanuel Carrere:

V 13. The terrorist attacks in Paris. court reportage. Translated by Claudia Hamm. Matthes & Seitz, 279 pages, 25 euros

Buy “V 13” online now

The abbreviation V 13 stands for Friday 13, Friday, November 13, 2015, when the Islamist attacks were carried out in Paris and Saint-Denis and a new era began in France. The writer Emmanuel Carrère attended the trial of the assassins and his notes are now available in German. Read an interview with the author here.

3. Ewald Frie / Mischa Meier:

Think of crises differently. How people have dealt with threats and what we can learn from them. Propylaea, 549 p., 32 euros

Buy “Thinking Crises Differently” online now

Like Mischa Meier, Ewald Frie is a historian at the University of Tübingen. Her book brings together essays by various contributors on the question of how existential crises were mastered in earlier centuries. The series of case studies ranges from the Justinian plague to religious wars in the Middle Ages to the terrorist situation after September 11th. The conclusion of the volume: There have always been hate preachers and fearmongers.

4. Raul Hilberg:

The annihilation of the European Jews. New edition with a foreword by René Schlott. Translated by Harry Maor, Walle Bengs, Wilfried Szepan and Thomas Bertram. S. Fischer, 1472 p., 98 euros

Buy The Destruction of the European Jews

This international standard work on Holocaust research has a special history because the German translation only appeared in 1990, decades later. Hilberg himself continued to add to the book until his death in 2007. The new edition that has now been published has been expanded to include such updated chapters. A must-buy for all contemporary historians.

5. Susan Neiman:

Left is not woke. Translated by Christina Goldman. Hanser Berlin, 176 pages, 22 euros

Buy “Left is not woke” online now

The philosopher Susan Neiman writes in her book that Woke’s identity politics is not left-wing, but is supported by reactionary theories. Read an interview with the author here.

6. Julian Nida-Rümelin:

“Cancel Culture”. End of Enlightenment? A plea for independent thinking. Piper, 186 pages, 24 euros

Buy “Cancel Culture” online now

The exclusion of unpopular opinions has been known since ancient times. The philosopher Julian Nida-Rümelin deals with excesses of the group-fixated, anti-universalist “Cancel Culture” and discusses historical ideas that could help against the current zeitgeist of bondage. Read an excerpt from the book here.

7. Johannes Kleinbeck:

story of tenderness. The invention of consensual sex and its ambiguous legacy in Rousseau, Kant, Hegel and Freud. Matthes & Seitz, 335 pages, 28 euros

Buy “Story of Tenderness” online now

The 18th century put an end to the marital obligation to have sex. What thinkers have put in place of the obligatory idea since the Enlightenment still concerns us today. The Viennese Germanist Johannes Kleinbeck shows how in his book. Read review notes here.

8th Peace Report 2023.

Published by the Bonn International Center for Conflict Studies, Leibniz Institute Hessian Foundation for Peace and Conflict Research et al.: Peace Report 2023. Still no peace. Transcript, 150 pages, 15 euros

This Appraise has been published annually by four German peace research institutes since 1988. With a view to a wide variety of conflicts worldwide, the analyzes contained in the report should be understood as recommendations for action for the federal government. How realistically applicable such peace prospects are is of course another matter.

9. Ilko-Sascha Kawalczuk:

Walter Ulbricht. The German communist. C. H. Beck, 1006 S., 58 Euro

Buy “Walter Ulbricht” online now

The historian Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk is writing a two-volume, monumental biography of the German arch-communist and later East German head of state. The first volume covers the years 1893-1945. The treatise is worth reading as a history of left-wing dreams, errors and crimes. Read a detailed review here.

10. Harald Welzer:

end of time Politics without a vision. society at risk. S. Fischer, 302 p., 24 euros

Buy “End of Time” online now

The pugnacious publicist Welzer describes his new commentary on the present as a book that diagnoses the times. On the basis of all sorts of topics such as frustration with democracy, the Ukraine war and the climate crisis, Welzer explains that current politics has still not recognized the causes of the “polycrisis”. He believes that the media industry is also partially affected by blindness to social reality, which is a continuation of his previous media-critical book.

The extra recommendation

In addition to the ten tips from the jury, there is a recommendation from a guest every month. This time by Ursula Munch (Director of the Tutzing Academy for Political Education). She recommends:

Julia Ebner: Mass radicalization. How the middle extremists fall victim. Suhrkamp, 361 pages, 20 euros

“There is no lack of publications that lament the brutalization of public debate. The analysis of how extremists manage to reach the so-called middle of society and thus the actually “bourgeois” camp is neglected. Ebner uses examples to show how those who persistently deny the pandemic or climate change and reject the foundations of liberal democracy bring their extremist and counterfactual ideas to the people.

To this end, the journalist wormed her way into the relevant networks online and held talks with activists of all stripes. The result is a well-founded collection of material that not only sheds light on the actions of opponents of our open society, but also the causes of the vulnerability of free democracy in the age of digital networking.” (Ursula Münch)

The jury for non-fiction books of the month:

Tobias Becker, “Spiegel”; Natascha Freundel, RBB Culture; Eike Gebhardt, Berlin; Knud von Harbou, publicist, Feldafing; Prof. Jochen Hörisch, University of Mannheim; Günter Kaindlstorfer, Vienna; Otto Kallscheuer, Sassari (Italy); Petra Kammann, “Feuilleton Frankfurt”; Jörg-Dieter Kogel, Bremen; Wilhelm Krull, The New Institute, Hamburg; Marianna Lieder, freelance critic, Berlin; Lukas Meyer-Blankenburg, SWR 2 Knowledge; Prof. Herfried Münkler, Humboldt University; Gerlinde Pölsler, “Moth”; Marc Reichwein, WORLD; Thomas Ribi, “NZZ”; Prof. Sandra Richter, German Literature Archive Marbach; Wolfgang Ritschl, ORF; Florian Rötzer, “Krass & Concrete”; Norbert Seitz, Berlin; Anne-Catherine Simon, “Die Presse”, Vienna; Prof. Philipp Theisohn, University of Zurich; Andreas Wang, Berlin; Harro Zimmermann, Bremen; Stefan Zweifel, Switzerland.

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