The current covers of Hans Fallada’s successful novel in France and the UK.

First it was rediscovered abroad, now it is enjoying a German rennaissance: the sensational success of Hans Fallada’s novel “Every Man Dies Alone” – By Lutz Lichtenberger

There’s a book at number seven on the German bestseller list this spring that really shouldn’t be there at all because it was first published in 1947. It was late 1946 when German novelist Hans Fallada recorded the story of the Berlin working-class couple Elise and Otto Hampel. He wrote it in just four weeks, fueled by copious amounts of alcohol and morphine. When his son died serving Hitler’s Wehrmacht in France, Otto Hampel decided to resist the Nazis.

The National Museum in Beijing has been rebuilt by German architects Gerkan, Marg and Partners.

The National Museum of China in Beijing has reopened with “The Art of the Englightenment,“ the biggest ever exhibition of German art abroad – By Bernhard Schulz

The foyer of the almost completely rebuilt National Museum of China in Beijing is enormous: 260 meters long, 34 meters wide and 27 meters high, the dimensions of a gigantic cathedral. Because this is also a place for official events it is designed to hold up to 14,000 visitors.

There weren’t that many at the opening of the exhibiton “The Art of the Enlightenment” by German Foreign minister Guido Westerwelle in early April. The guests of honor had plenty of space to stroll around. But already the next day, the masses streamed into the museum and expectations are optimistic for the overall number of visitors during the year-long exhibition. Even more so in regard to the possible effect the theme of “Enlightenment” may have in China and in particular in the capital Beijing, which is also the center of intellectual thought in China.

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is still an eye-catcher on Kurfürstendamm, pictured here from a photo around 1950. A man puts up a sign in 1959 with the Berliners’ nickname for the street (above). The famous Café Kranzler has been overshadowed in recent years by modern high-rise architecture (top).

Berlin’s Ku’damm boulevard celebrates its 125th birthday with an open-air exhibition – By Klaus Grimberg

To mark its 750th anniversary in 1987, (West) Berlin unveiled plans to erect a series of sculptures along the Kurfürstendamm boulevard. The works envisaged for the project immediately unleashed a heated debate but the most spectacular was never realized: under the title “The Dumb Dumm Duell,” US artist Edward Kienholz had conceived a gigantic installation of two black, red and gold cranes, to which two large condoms would be attached. As a symbol of the absurd confrontation between the political systems, each crane driver would puncture the other’s condom.

“Two Dancers” (1919/11) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was presented along with other works of the artist group “Brücke” (Bridge) from the “New Secession.”

The exhibition “Liebermann’s Opponents” examines the dispute between Berlin artists before World War I – By Klaus Grimberg

Max Liebermann is said to have once remarked that people like Karl Schmitt-Rottluff should be officially beaten every morning. The somewhat unflattering appraisal leaves no doubt as to what Liebermann (1847-1935) thought of the Expressionist trends in painting that began to emerge in the decade before World War I. The former art rebel who had revolted against the rigid perceptions of the Berlin Academy of the Arts in Wilhelmine times had become a reactionary traditionalist defending his own privileges.

Hanseatic public pride: the Town Hall of Bremen with Roland in front (top) and a view of its arcades.

In spite of all of its cultural and historical gems, the best thing about Bremen is its atmosphere – By Paul Hockenos

For the port city of Hanseatic heritage in Germany’s northwestern corner, SV Werder Bremen is more than just a football team – it’s part of Bremen’s fabric in a way that normally only happens in small cities. On weekends that the perennial German premier league contender plays at home, the entire population of over half a million is abuzz from the moment the cafés and markets in the Old Town open their doors.

It’s not just die-hard football fans who generate the electricity but Bremeners at large, or at least all of those I’ve ever met. A good several hours before kick-off, fans begin to congregate along the northern bank of the slow meandering Weser river which empties into the North Sea 50 kilometers to the north at Bremerhaven, Bremen’s industrially hewn sister city.

For the game “Carcassonne,” strategic abilities are required.

German board games are sweeping the world, one dinner table at a time – By Titus Chalk

Packed inside a smart red box, illustrated with a wistful bucolic scene and emblazoned with gold lettering, is one of Germany’s most successful exports. The board game “Die Siedler von Catan” (The Settlers of Catan) has swept the globe since its publication in 1995 and sold over 15 million copies worldwide. Open the box and lavishly illustrated cards, tiles and rulebooks catch the eye, as do the kind of neatly machined components you would expect from a country famed for its manufacturing. There is even a pleasing odor to everything. No wonder then that Catan has helped establish the German board game as a byword for serious fun and enchanted players of all stripes.