10 Essential Berlin Books

photo: Cee Cee

This year saw the release of a few really amazing Berlin-themed books and we thought it was about time we are compiling a list of the best of them. It’s a really diverse selection that includes Berlin guides, stories about the history of the city, photography and fashion. Some of the books were done by friends, fellow bloggers and colleagues and we are really proud of the work that they have done. Have a look after the jump for our 10 essential Berlin books that should be in all of your shelves!

Cee Cee Berlin No.2

This wonderful book is at the top of our list for a reason. It was done by our friends from Cee Cee, the best Berlin newsletter in town, and it is simply beautiful – already in its second edition. The design, the stories, the photographs. It’s probably the one book that paints the most flattering image of this city that you could imagine and if you have a look at it you will WANT to move to Berlin immediately if you don’t already live here.

The  book features a big map, photos, stories and reviews of the most amazing places in Berlin, it tells some stories from interesting people and also showcases some of the great products done here in this city. It’s like a compendium of awesomeness of Berlin.

Berlin Boheme by Oliver Rath

Oliver Rath is one of the young and crazy photographers of Berlin that has managed to make quite the name for himself over the last couple of years. His style if very funny, sexy and provocative and he never seizes to make us laugh. A few years ago he also opened his own gallery at Rosenthaler Straße and we were lucky to have his work in in both of our exhibitions GIF.ME.BERLIN in 2010 and WE ARE BERLIN earlier this year.

In his book you will find a wild compilation of his photos including a lot of crazy people from Berlin, famous or not famous, and very often quite sexy.

Louis Vuitton City Guide Berlin

If you think that the brand new Berlin edition of the popular City Guide series by Louis Vuitton would only feature 5 star hotels and the most expensive restaurants in town you would be completely wrong. Of course this is what you expect from a luxury fashion brand. But the guide books kind of stand on its own and actually capture all aspect of Berlin that are cool, regardless of they are super fancy or super underground. We found actually a lot of the places in this book that we also featured here on iHeartBerlin and we found the overall selection of places very representative of the Berlin that we love so much.

Mauerweg

Our fellow bloggers from Slow Travel Berlin have dedicated their second book to the Berlin Wall which makes a lot of sense considering it’s the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall this month. Their lovely little book features stories from people who lived on either side of the wall and what they experienced in the time before and after the separation. There are also a lot of photographs from the trail of the Berlin Wall. A must have for every history lover.

Berlin Wonderland

Apparently Berlin was pretty much a wonderland in the years after the fall of the wall with so many empty, abandoned places suddenly being free to explore and get crazy in. A lot of things developed in these times, much more than nowadays with every empty plot of land being filled up with hotels, luxury condos and office buildings. Collected from several photographers the curator Anke Fesel and Chris Keller choose over 200 photographs all around the first years of the 90s to fill this amazing photo book.

Berlin Fashion

Julia Stelzner is a fellow blogger and friend of ours who released her first book earlier this year dedicated to the fashion scene of the city. With her book she complied every notable designer of Berlin and introduces them with little portraits and photos of their collection. It turned out to be one of the most essential guides of Berlin Fashion of the past two decades.

Pieces of Berlin

Here we have another wonderful book of a fellow blogger. Florian Reischauer has created pretty much the counterpart to all the lifestyle and fashion blogs about the city with his blog Pieces of Berlin. He photographs real people in the streets, not just the young and sexy ones. He captures those corners and streets of Berlin that are normally not in any Berlin book that mostly feature the sights and famous landmarks. He shows the real face of Berlin beyond the make-up and glamour that this city sometimes gets painted over with. And on top the book has a beautiful design and production value.

Der Berliner Stil – Berlin Street Style

Der Berlin Stil and the translated english version Berlin Street Style by Angelika Taschen and Alexa von Heyden is a really lovely Berlin-centric fashion book that does not only feature the designers of Berlin, but also shops, the style of Berlin personalties and from people on the street. It’s been out for a while already but still deserves a spot on our list because it’s a great book capturing the style of Berlin in the best way.

25/7

The amazing photo book by Caroline Saage who was also part of our WE ARE BERLIN exhibition in September is absolutely mandatory for everyone who loved the Bar 25. She was one of the few people who was allowed to take photos there and her documentation of this very special place at the Spree brings up a lot of good memories.

Freunde von Freunden Berlin

Our fellow bloggers from Freunde von Freunden actually just released their second book already, the international version of their first book. But their book debut about Berlin is still a classic not to be missed if you are interested in the amazing people that make this city.

Diesen Artikel auf deutsch lesen.

<a href="https://www.iheartberlin.de/author/admin/" target="_self">Frank</a>

Frank

Author

Frank is the founder and editor-in-chief of iHeartBerlin. He takes photos, makes videos, and writes texts mostly about what's going on in Berlin. His vision and interests have shaped iHeartBerlin since its conception back in 2007 - and he hopes to continue bringing you the best of Berlin for many years to come.