Lesen bildet*
*In German, we say "lesen bildet", which means "reading educates" in English. Not only does reading help you learn about the world, it also improves your writing skills (and your foreign language ability, if you read in another language). And: It is a perfect way to relax your mind and improve your ability to concentrate in a world that is more and more dominated by digital distraction.
Here, I will share my all-time favorites, as well as current reading suggetions. If you have any feedback on the list, or would like to share your own suggestions with me, please contact me.
All-time fiction favorites
If you want to know how it was to live in the Berlin of the Third Reich, and how dangerous it was for ordinary people to take a stand against Hitler's regime, Fallada's long-unappreciated novel is unrivaled.
All-time non-fiction favorites
Former marketing professor Hermann Simon is the German management thinker. Next to pricing, the hidden champions (unknown world market leaders who are the backbone of many economies) are his legacy.
Project "26 books in '23":
Current reading tips
On Instagram you are often confronted with life coaches that tell you how to make money quickly, with sales, trading or (worst of all) crypto. The German saterist and podcast host Sebastian Hotz (aka El Hotzo) makes fun of this fakeness. An very funny and sometimes very sad read. (So far only available in German)
The diaries from the years 1998/99 of German actor legend Manfred Krug ("Auf Achse", "Tatort", "Sesamstraße") are a great portrait of the late 1990s. Helmut Kohl is voted out of office, Steffi Graf ends her career, and a former KGB agent called Wladimir Putin takes over in Russia. Great for everybody born in 1985 or earlier (So far only available in German)