Time of the wolves. Germany and the Germans 1945-1955

Germany 1945: a country in ruins. Cities have become rubble and more than half the population are living in places where they do not belong or do not wish to be. How can a functioning society be rebuilt from such chaos? In bombed-out Berlin, journalist and resistance member Ruth Andreas-Friedrich warms herself by a makeshift heater and records in her diary how the city has been seized by a madness of anticipation and industriousness. The United States sends Hans Habe, a Jewish journalist and soldier in the US Army, to the front line of the psychological war; his task is to establish a newspaper empire and try to change the German mindset. The philosopher Hannah Arendt returns to the country she fled, and is surprised to find that while its inhabitants are obsessed with the desire for a new beginning, they fall silent at the mention of the Holocaust.

A fascinating story of the transformation of post-war Germany, which had to rediscover itself amidst the ruins of a shattered country with the legacy of Nazi horrors behind it.

The book is a wonderful mosaic of stories, experiences and memories that conjure up powerful images before our eyes, brilliantly capturing the atmosphere of the time. Jähner's skilful narrative style brings to life an environment of uprooting and destruction from which, in the turmoil of those wild years, an unbridled desire for life and new hope springs forth.

Translated by Nina Fojtů.