Geistertanz in Berlin

Time and space recalibrated at the breaking point of history.

Translated by Werner Rauch.

With 172 colored illustrations.

"Geistertanz in Berlin" is an unlikely declaration of love for the city by an American-born son of German-speaking Jewish refugees. Temporarily set in a villa on Berlin's largest lake, Wortsman imagines the parallel haunting of two groups of ghosts: The group consisting of the exiled former owners of the estate, a Jewish banker and his family, and those who took over the estate - the Fuhrer's finance minister and his entourage, while on the opposite side of the lake, in another villa, another collection of ghosts is busy planning the Final Solution.

Where a wall once separated East and West, the city is still crisscrossed by invisible border lines, along which the author walks with an eye for revealing details and an ear for memorable conversations with street musicians, drinking companions, lawyers, bankers, politicians, a cab driver, a prostitute, and a celebrity chef, with guest appearances by Henry Kissinger and the shadow of Marlene Dietrich.

The English edition of Ghost Dance in Berlin won an Independent Publishers Book Award (IPPY) in 2014.

Voices on Peter Wortsman and Ghost Dance in Berlin

"A unique and most beautiful evocation of a tantalizing city."
– Jan Morris

"A fascinating portrait of one of the world's most complex and misunderstood cities. With the keen eye of an American-born son of Jewish refugees, Wortsman captures Berlin in snapshots that are illuminating, moving, and funny in a dark way."
– Tony Perrottet (author of The Sinner's Grand Tour)

"Wortsman tears down the walls between East and West Germany, between memoir and reportage, between reflection and investigation."

– Tom Miller (author of Trading with the Enemy)

Further Information

Author Peter Wortsman

Reading Sample