[Berlin 01. Steinerne Stadt] [By: Lutes, Jason] [October, 2003]

Berlin #1

by Jason Lutes

It's difficult to think of a story with a greater sense of elegant, nuanced foreboding than Jason Lutes's Berlin, Book One: City of Stones. Set in the Weimar Republic-era of German history, Lutes's story takes an unimaginably large and historically important time and observes it through the small lives of a band of sympathetic protagonists. The author spends the most time with his main characters, Kurt Severing and Marthe Müller, but the quality of Berlin is such that the reader cares emphatically about the fate of the rest of the cast: the lovelorn dyke art student, the recently separated single mother, even fleeting characters like the street policeman or the overworked newspaper editor. Even so, the shadow of the coming war cautions us not to get too attached to these people. They are imperfect, bickering, and naïve in their ideologies--just like real people. Brutality will soon follow, and the vulnerability of each of the characters haunts the pages.

Using the graphic novel form to tackle an issue like the rise of Nazi Germany is fraught with traps, not least of which are comparisons to other works, such as Maus, as well as literary criticism for minimizing such an important topic. Lutes navigates these hazards well, creating sparse black-and-white sketches that often render a mood wordlessly. Whole pages go without text, and it serves the story well. As much can be told by showing a character in a window's evening reflection, eyes inked as darkened sockets, than through retelling details of (now) familiar historical events. The story itself has a rambling and philosophical feel, focused on details that become all the more poignant for their insignificance. One segment--where Lutes shows Marthe's walk onto a newly snow-covered street--tells us everything we need to know about this character, without much actual action occurring. Lutes doesn't use moments of transcendence to make a point or add sentimentality; instead, he firmly grounds us in this time and place.

Without knowing more about the next volumes, it's impossible to say whether Lutes will use this attachment against the readers later, knocking down his characters cheaply, allowing the shortcuts demanded by the burden of history. The last pages of this book--with a disappointingly predictable resolution--hinted in that direction, but the overall tone of the book indicates that something much richer and deeper will happen along with the inevitable loss. --Jennifer Buckendorff

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Germany, Graphic Novels Comics, Historical

Paperback

First published June 1, 2000

About the author

Jason Lutes was born in New Jersey in 1967 and grew up reading American superhero and western comics until a trip to France at age nine introduced him to the world of "bandes dessinées." In the late 1970s he discovered Heavy Metal magazine and the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, both of which proved major influences on his creative development.

Lutes graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Illustration in 1991. While at RISD, among the many new comics he encountered were Art Spiegelman's RAW magazine and Chester Brown's Yummy Fur, which together inspired him to start publishing minicomics under the imprint "Penny Dreadful."

Upon graduation in 1991, he moved to Seattle, where he spent several years working as a dishwasher and assistant art director at Fantagraphics Books. His "big break" came in 1993, when he began drawing a weekly comics page called "Jar of Fools" for The Stranger, Seattle's alternative paper. By 1995 he had become the paper's art director, but upon collecting and self-publishing Jar of Fools in 1996, he left The Stranger and made the leap to becoming a full-time cartoonist.

In the handful of productive years following that decision, Lutes began the comic book series Berlin, set in the twilight years of the Weimar Republic.

Lutes currently lives in Vermont with his partner and two children, where he teaches comics at the Center for Cartoon Studies.

He still tries to play Dungeons & Dragons once a week with friends.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was not looking forward to reading this book. The roots of fascism and Nazism in twentieth century Germany? I feel like I know something about this, and have read my share of Holocaust literature, but I just had read Lutes's first book, Jar of Fools, and this was said to be his masterpiece, this trilogy, and it kind of looks like it is! I liked his first book and most of what I have read from him, but this is a step up to greatness, and it is only the first of the trilogy! The idea of the novel, named as it is, is to ask certain questions: What would it have been like to be in Berlin, a city only culturally second to Paris, in the twenties? Amazing theater, art, and an explosion of writing. What would it have been like to have such a magical mecca turn so quickly to evil? To suddenly have a view of art dominate the scene that would denounce all other forms of art?! To have at one's fingertips literally thousands of new pages every day of books, criticism, theory, magazines, journals, and newspapers, but if Berlin might be seen as a flowing river, such words were like stones that sank to the bottom of that river, worthless, unheard (and increasingly censored, of course).

We see all this cultural moment through the lens of historical fiction, a graphic novel, and specifically, through the experiences of two people who meet on a train on their way in to Berlin: Kurt Severing, a (politically left) journalist, and Marthe Muller, an (apolitical) artist. In volume one, comprising the first 8 chapters/issues, published in 2000, we focus on 1928-29, and indeed, the whole 22 chapter issue series focuses on 1928-1933. We move from month to month, mapping the landscape, as we get a close up fictional look (and see, and hear, in ways history books cannot help us do) of what it might have been like for a range of humane people to be living during this time in this great city. That good things happen by good people in the midst of emerging fascism (and so so much worse, of course) also gets acknowledged here.

Berlin: City of Stones begins with Marthe Müller, an art student, arriving in Berlin. She meets and develops a relationship with journalist Kurt Severing. A second storyline describes a working-class family which breaks up due to differing political views, including the mother, Gudrun, who joins the communists with her daughters Elga and Silvia, while the father takes his son Heinz to the Nazis. The book ends at the massacre of 1 May 1929, the International Workers Day (known in German as Blutmai).

To my mind, this great novel can be put on the shelf proudly next to Maus and other great graphic novels, ones with historic scope and the intimacy of individual actors experiencing the shock and despair of their country turning to fascism, to Hitler. I reviewed the second volume as well, and like many people, I await the third volume. So far, as of today, July 20, 2017, the 20th issue has come out. A (maybe) eighteen year journey! But a life work, clearly, and worth the wait.

[Cristina Lazăr · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://carti.blog/2025/09/13/berlin-...

[Mariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Berlinerluft is the special air of Berlin, like a magic atmosphere. Or love or being drunk or high. Staying up all night and feeling like you didn't waste a moment and the day ahead of you isn't seen through raccoon eyes that want to scurry inside the nearest trash bin tingles up your spine. If Los Angeles smog turns people in Tom Hanks and they go diving into volcanoes what happens to Berliners? They walk into fog and come out in love? They make the best David Bowie albums and are as supremely awesome as Chris Corner is? I'll find out in November! In the meantime, I've smelled my Berlin: City of Stones and Berlin: City of Smoke for a taste of this magicness.

"One thing I love about this city is the way all of our different worlds rub shoulders every day."

Running your hands on the handrails and fence posts and walls as you go along city life. The way that one touches and doesn't think about touching because it is taken for granted. Catching a glimpse of someone in a bus window and thinking a bit longer about what that expression could have meant. (I think a lot about what kids think of me when stopped by a school bus in traffic. I remember wishing I was in those cars when I was the kid on the school bus. Does anyone wish they were me?) Berlin before the Nazis. Colors like red and divisions like a Risk board game. Is it so black and white? Who is on whose side? Shoulders won't touch that way again. The fences will be graffitied of terror and the handrails will be guardrails. What if the touching becomes a habit like a nervous tic? A comforting motion when you don't know what to do with your hands (it's the hardest to know what to do with one's hands). That's what Jason Lute's comics are. The faces I would reach out to touch in the crowd when I didn't know where else to put my hands and eyes (I have a similar problem with those). I found myself remembering a face in one of the panels. How one communist was poised to feel proud from his bootstraps up to say he was a red. Sylvia the daughter of the communist mother. She runs a lot. From herself, from those she is afraid of, runs to escape fate. The young Jewish boy David who shares my fascination with Houdini (I check my mail box every day for Lutes's Houdini in Handcuffs. I loved Berlin many times more when I spied the Houdini poster on David's wall). Part one came out in 2000 and part two came out in 2008. I do not know when the third and final volume will be released. It has to end a certain way, right? But where will it touch on those contained walls? Who will haunt me the most? The art student or the journalist or the visiting jazz band from America? (I kinda love a whole lot the homeless Jewish man, Paval.) Lutes is really good. The expressions in panels and the word bubbles are exactly what it feels like to stand alone in a crowd. (I love to stare at expressions and wait for some idea of what they might be feeling come over me.) I don't know what to do with my hands and eyes.

I don't know what it is that I smell. It's not death or inevitability. It's the kind of watching you don't live in but are helpless to stop. Did Berlinerluft ever save anyone? Maybe it's like waking up to smell something delicious. Pancakes don't always smell as good as they did that one morning years ago... Maybe you get up in the morning hoping to smell it again, like a drug addict chasing that first time high.

[Seth T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every now and again, a comic comes out that assures me that the medium can tell certain kinds of stories in a way that no other medium can touch. Every now and again, a comic comes out that despite its natural humility asserts itself as a model to which the medium should aspire. Every now and again, a comic comes out that just flat-out knocks me off my feet and makes me think that everything is going to be alright after all.

That comic this time round is Jason Lutes' Berlin: City of Stones.

It's not that Berlin presents such a rosie vista of the panoply of human history. It doesn't. It's not that Berlin offers a solution to the din of political strife that will always wrack the tired bones of human society. It doesn't. And it's not even that Berlin allows true love to conquer even the dankest moments of our human despair. It can't.

What Lutes' book does, however, is demonstrate that creative geniuses still stalk the earth. The great classical composers are dead and gone. The sculptors who decorated the world with marble and jade are survived only by their stones. The giants of the jazz era have passed into mere memory. Bach. Beethoven. Mozart. Michelangelo. Bernini. Rodin. Satch. Bird. Trane.

And Jason Lutes.

Among the geniuses of the comic form (Ware, Smith, Eisner, Hernandez, etc.), Lutes is in the top tier. His work is careful, planned, and makes use of so many narrative tricks that they cease to be tricks and exist merely as natural part of his extensive visual vocabulary. Recently having taught an introduction to comics creation, I had a hard time not using Lutes' work in every example I had prepared to illustrate technique. There is so much story built into every page that his works are the kinds that continue unfolding upon subsequent readings.

With the recent release of the second book of the trilogy, Berlin: City of Smoke , I thought it'd be best to reread City of Stones so I could jump right into its sequel. This was my third complete read of the book and fresh narrative details continued to make themselves known. With the story and plot developments more or less solid in mind, I was able to pay closer attention to some of the methodology behind Lutes' work here, taking special care to follow his panel transitions and the way he allows the story to flit from character to character. This is all the product of a special kind of genius.

For those unaware, Berlin follows numerous characters through the end of the Twenties and the start of the Thirties in Wiemar's Germany. The economy is a disaster. The government is breaking the terms of armistice. Political turmoil grips the city as communists and fascists fight to save their country from its fate. And of course, there are the Jews, living under the quiet threat of a future none could predict. Yet despite it all, Berlin is still trying to be a Great City. There is still wealth and privilege (even while the workers begin falling to poverty and starvation) and the veiled acceptance of the libertines. And the press is still free. Somewhat.

Berlin follows a Marxist journalist, a country-mouse art student, a nightclub singer, a family divided over politics, a Jewish tramp, the boy with whom he trades goods, a lesbian, a socialite, a policeman, and a handful of political radicals (both communist and fascist). Its weavings can chart a difficult path to traverse, but the work pays well and is worth every moment of inspection.

My only complaint is now that I have finished Volume II, I've got a good half-decade's wait to see Lutes' conclusion.

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a great read for me personally: I am already familiar with the history covered in the book, and was not particularly engaged by any of the characters/subplots.

But it was well done insofar as it went, and if you want an easy intro to the political issues and social milieu of Weimar-era Berlin, this would certainly be a painless way of learning.

[G · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lutes has vividly captured Weimar Republic Berlin in this ambitious historical graphic novel. It's impossible to read it and not have a heightened sense of the cultural, political, and economic forces clashing within the city. Some of the characters struggle to find enough to eat while some ponder how unimaginable it would be to work; some are gradually drawn into politics while others attempt to stay out of the fray. Lutes succeeds at creating this swirling, animated Berlin, where characters' lives constantly intersect.

Unfortunately, this sense of busy-ness is also the downfall of Berlin; there are simply too many characters here. Lutes doesn't draw them differently enough to make it clear who's who, exactly, and some of the narrative threads don't get fleshed out as much as they could. Characters appear without a firm explanation of who they are. Elaborate backstories are sometimes given, but they don't seem relevant to the story at hand. This could turn out to be a great trilogy, but everything is going to need to be wrapped up a little tighter if it is.

Strangely, one final complaint I had about the novel was that it just doesn't feel very German. The attitudes and turns of phrase are often not just American, they're the American slang of decades later. The clothing and the political milieu may be 1929, but the dialogue is more 1999.

[Elina Mäntylammi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Äärettömän ajankohtainen teos. Tuntuu kuin lukisi lähiennustetta maailman tilasta. Jason Lutesin kuvaus vuosien 1928-1929 Berliinistä tavoittaa yhteiskunnan jakautumisen ja vihamieliset tunnelmat. Välillä kuvauksessa palataan vuoteen 1918, jossa on jo kylvetty siemenet kehitykselle, jonka surkean lopun sitten tiedämmekin: II maailmansota.

Weimerin tasavalta näyttäytyy katkerruuden ja tappion hornankattilana. Kansalaisten olot kurjistuvat. Berliinissä kommunistit ja kansallissosialistit kokoavat rivejään. Kansallissosialistien mukaan paitsi työläiset myös juutalaiset ovat syypäitä kaikkeen kurjuuteen.

Tapahtumia seurataan pääasiassa journalisti Kurt Severigin ja taiteilija Marthe Mullerin silmin, mutta näkökulma vaihtuu myös työttämäksi jäävän perheenäidin ja nuoren sotilaan silmiin, välillä palataan I maailmansodan rintamalle. Näkökulman vaihtuminen ja tunnelmien vaihtuminen Berliinin levottomilta kaduilta yksityiseen lemmenpesään, taiteilijoiden ja journalistien kautta työläisten ja kansallissosialistien kokouksiin sekä lopulta puhkeavan kaaottiseen mielenosoitukseen tavoittaa jotain äärettömän surullista ihmisenä olemisesta.

Jään kysymään, mitä ihminen voi tehdä historian kulun kääntämiseksi. Väkivalta nousee vihasta, se on selvä. Miten vihaa voi vähentää? Miksi sitä lietsoo? Osattomuus, epäoikeudenmukaisuudet, köyhyys - miten niitä estetään?

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book starts the series Lutes has devoted years to creating, the story of Germany between the wars. The story follows the lives of several people, a journalist riling against the rise of fascism, a young art student conflicted with her feelings of love for other women, a married woman who is thrown out of her family by her husband for her leanings toward communism, as well as others. The story shows rallies for various political parties as well as peoples' feelings for Hindenburg and of course the first showings of the fledgling Nazi party.

The drawings are beautiful with Lutes adopting Herge's line and crafting detailed panoramic views of the city as well as amazing crowd scenes and convincing period detail. There isn't a plot to the book, just a meandering toward the inevitable start of WW2.

My only criticism is that it's boring. I'm sorry if that sounds like a shallow dismissal but there's no getting around the fact that nothing much happens in the book. Mostly all you see in this book are the poverty, the disabled soldiers begging on the streets, money slowly becoming worthless. I was hoping Lutes would do something different given the material, take a different angle perhaps, but he's just retold what happened. I've studied this period of history both at A-level and university level and I'm well aware of what went on. As a comic book series it's very dry and unfortunately Lutes cannot bring out the drama of the situation to make a gripping read. Mostly it's as dull as a history lesson populated with unconvincing characters. I wanted to like it but couldn't get into it. I struggled to get to the end and won't be looking at the next in the series. There are better comics out there.

[Laurent De Maertelaer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deze mooie reeks over een Duitse journalist en een jonge kunstenares tijdens de periode waarin de nazi's aan de macht kwamen, las ik ooit in 2001 toen het eerste deel net uit was. 17 jaar later is deel 3 uit: een goeie reden om het geheel te (her)lezen. Dit blijft een geweldig verhaal, gevat in een sobere, klare stijl.

[Javier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Estoy volviendo (o eso espero) de una crisis lectora, y el formato del cómic me está ayudando a retomar el hábito por algo a lo que últimamente le he perdido el gusto. Tenia muchas ganas de leer la trilogía de Lutes y ha durado poco en mis manos, lo que suele ser buena señal. Como son tres tomos me voy a centar en cada uno brevemente y si eso ya me extiendo un poco másen el último. Vamos allá.

Ciudad de piedras sirve para introducir a los personajes principales, el escenario y la manera de narrar la historia. Conocemos a Marthe Müller, que a pesar de su edad es el equivalente de veinteañera que aún no ha vivido y sale de su zona de confort para llegar a la gran ciudad y meterse de cabeza en su vorágine; y a Kurt Severing, el intelectual comprometido con la izquierda, periodista pegado a su máquina de escribir y a todo lo que tenga que ver con la política, y que empieza a sentir hastío y a cuestionarse la utilidad de lo que hace. Junto a ellos muchos otros, como Anna, estudiante de Bellas Artes que se siente hombre e intenta sobrevivir como tal en una metrópoli liberal en la que, aunque de manera clandestina, encuentra vías para ello; una familia de judíos polacos, una familia alemana fragmentada por la política, un policía veterano, un trapero que bien podría encarnar al judío errante, etc. Personas de toda condición que, como les misérables, dibujan una época —la República de Weimar— sobre un Berlín maravillosamente recreado de fondo.

[Murat Dural · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nasıl anlatsam nereden başlasam... Jason Lutes'in "Berlin: Taş Kent" çizgi romanı çok basit şekilde güzel, müthiş dramatik bir anlatıya sahip. Yoğun diyaloglar bir kitap okuduğunuz hissini kuvvetklendiriyor. 1900'ün başı ile 1925 civarı arasında Berlin'in hayatına bakıp Avrupa ve hatta Dünya tarihi hakkında bir sürü şey söyleyebilirsiniz. Yorucu ama her anından keyif aldığım bir okuma oldu. İkinci cildini okumak için sabırsızlanıyorum.

[somuchreading · Rating 4 out of 5]

το graphic novel ξεκινάει αργά και οι πρώτες του σελίδες δε με άφησαν ενθουσιασμένο, όμως όσο προχωρά τόσο πιο συναρπαστική και βαθιά γίνεται η ιστορία αυτών των λίγων μηνών στο Βερολίνο του μεσοπολέμου. νομίζω πως αν ενδιαφέρεται κάποιος για το τι έχει συμβεί σε αυτή την πόλη, τότε το έργο του Lutes δε θα τον αφήσει αδιάφορο

εννοείται πως θέλω να διαβάσω και το Vol.2 πρίν βγει το 3ο και τελευταίο κομμάτι της σειράς

[Santiago L. Moreno · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Novela gráfica" es un término que casi siempre parece impropio, pomposo; una impostura inventada por el márqueting. Pero hay ocasiones, las menos, en las que no puede estar mejor aplicado. Berlín, el cómic de Jason Lutes, es la mejor novela que he leído últimamente, un artefacto literario que utiliza dibujo y palabra para sumergirte en la atmósfera del Berlin prenazi, sus calles y sus habitantes.
Aunque la estructura y el espíritu coral de la narración me han traído a la memoria "La colmena", la miseria y el elemento humano se reparten aquí su importancia con el elemento político, mucho menos presente en la novela de Cela. Como en el preludio de toda catástrofe social (de nuestra Guerra Civil, de la Revolución Rusa), el maelstrom ideológico acabaría definiéndose en las calles, con muertes y enfrentamientos, y Lutes sabe plasmar espectacularmente ese silencio que precede a la tormenta por medio de unos personajes que asisten a los pasos progresivos e ineludibles hacia el desastre.
Magníficas viñetas, inteligentes diálogos y una gran sensibilidad para plasmar la condición humana y su indefensión ante la corriente imparable de la Historia. Pequeñas historias personales, trasladadas al papel con gusto y talento, como contrapunto al leviatán que se aproxima. Amistad, solidaridad, amor y la ciudad de Berlín como preludio de un caos que acabaría por sumir al mundo entero en el mayor desastre del siglo XX. Una maravilla literaria.

[Ilana (illi69) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always had an interest in Berlin during the Weimar Republic, maybe aided by the fact that so much has been written about it, and that Berlin then, much like Paris, was a city when everything was possible in the arts and culture and for people seeking alternative lifestyles. But it was also a place where disaster was brewing and when a person like me, who lost family members in the ensuing catastrophe, likes to imagine that perhaps things might have taken a different course.

In the first part of what is a trilogy of graphic novels, Jason Lutes presents Berlin through various ordinary people. In the very first frames, on a train inbound for the city, there is Marthe Müller, an artist who is just arriving from another town to make a new life for herself and to study art. She and journalist Kurt Severing make an acquaintance in the train car and establish a friendly rapport that will carry throughout this first part at least. There is a young Jewish newspaper seller bullied by anti Semitic youth and when at home, is expected to carry on the traditions of his ancestors. There is a mother of three who must leave her husband and small son behind—he espouses the National Socialist cause and expects his son to follow in his steps, while she is sympathetic to the Communist cause and their emphasis on helping workers like herself not only find employment, but also decent living conditions and food for her two young daughters...

Nicely drawn and with plenty of other characters who come and go so that it takes a while to grasp the narrative and not just see it as a series of vignettes. Ultimately though, as the title indicates, the city itself is the main protagonist of this series. The book is divided into eight sections. It was originally serialized in a comic book by the same name (Berlin). The third part of the trilogy was released very recently in the Fall of 2018 which allows me to complete the work within a reasonable amount of time, unlike most fans, who had to wait for nearly two decades between the first and last part of the trilogy! This volume ends on a rather sad and dramatic note, so it’s probably a good idea to have the second volume, Berlin; City of Smoke on standby. In any case I’m glad I made that provision and will hop right into the next episode right now! :-)

[Kamakana · Rating 5 out of 5]

.??? 200os: the weimar republic in the roaring 20s- first volume in the best graphic series i have read.

i have just reread this, rare to do so with graphics, but worth it. my knowledge of history of that time is primarily through narrative works like this, not studying, finding a sense of the times through historical fiction- movies, books, now graphics- that helps make something like sense of horror of the rise of hitler, the horror of antisemitism then, the horror of its use as a political force, in the insidious extremism of fascism, in the hope and naïveté of the common people...

i believe that the best artistic projects are those that find expression in exactly the right medium. i am told the true media comparison or understanding is not between written books versus graphic books, but between movies versus graphics, and that certainly seems to be the case here. lutes uses cinematic grammar, telling the story in images that allow close-ups and panoramas, silence and implied movement, follows visual edits years apart, uses multiple identifiable characters, swinging from global to personal in a few cuts. this is the best work in simple, correct, easily read images, only in total emotional effect/affect recalling german expressionist movies of this time...

this is only the first of three volumes. ends on a cliffhanger that i easily solve because i have book 2- but then i know he has not published 3 yet...

[Ferda Nihat Koksoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

1918/19 Alman İç Savaşı ilâ 1929 Nazilerin palazlanması arasındaki dönemi, iki döneme geçişler yaparak anlatıyor.
Bunu yaparken de insan ruhuna, düşüncelerine ve ilişkilerine zarifçe dokunarak ilerliyor.
Karakter isimlendirme ve olay geçişlerinde kısa bilgiler sunsa, çok az da olsa gereksiz yere ülkesi Amerika'nın konuşma tarzına kaçmasa mükemmel olurdu bana göre.
Yeni soluk, güzel bir çizgi-roman, beğendim; "Berlin Duman Şehir" bekliyor sırada.

***

"Savaş bilimi açık arayla çağımızın en büyük mucizesi, bize diğer bütün çağlardan daha fazla insanı sakatlama ve yok etme gücü verdi, ve geçen yüzyılda olsak cesede dönüşecek olanları, yaşayan ölülere çevirme imkânını..."

"Kaybın kendisinden daha zor olan, öncesinde gerçekleşen o anbean değişim, kişilerin gözle görülmez değişimi."

"Dışarıdaki ağaçlar sabah güneşinin parlak beyaz dünyasında kayan parıltılar gibi, titreyen ışıklar yol arkadaşlarımın (trendeki) sessizliğini tamamlıyor ve Almanlara has vasıfların en iyilerini görmeme izin veriyor: Disiplin, aydınlık, yoldaşlık; ve kendimde en kötüsünü: Duygusallık."

"Binlerce taş, yalnızca su sıçratmak için amaçsızca nehre atıldıklarında, nehir yatağından taşana dek suyun seviyesini yükseltebilir. Su taşar, nehrin gücü çok geçmeden azalır, bataklığa dönüşür.
Ama her taşın dikkatlice ve belli bir amaçla yerleştirilirmesiyle bir şey inşa edilebilir. Akıntıya set ��ekmek için değil, yönünü değiştirmek için.
Berlin bir bataklık üzerinde kuruldu. Umarım bir taş yığınından fazlasına sahiptir."

"Kendimi (Berlin'de) artık kaybolmuş değil, daha büyük bir şeyin parçasıymış gibi hissediyorum; hayatım sokakta karşılaştığım insanlarınkine dolanan veya çözülen bir iplik gibi. Ama bizi daha da büyük, tek yürek olmuş bir bütüne bağlayan, kentin daha büyük gücünü hissediyorum, bunu düşünmek beni mutlu ediyor."

[Dani Shuping · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first thing that I noticed about this novel was the artwork. I like the simple clean cut lines that give us such depth and emotion to the characters and the worlds around them. Jason captures the gritty city life well in decaying buildings, the rooftops where the art students hang out, and the traffic circles. The one thing that did trouble me was that some of the faces were...manish in appearance. I had to look at the clothing and the hair style to see if it was a male or female character (and sometime that wasn't successful.)

As for the story Jason tries to tell the reader what happened in the 1920's in Germany. He tells us this story by following two main characters a journalist, Kurt Severing, and a younger art student Marthe Muller. He weaves between the past, during World War I, and the present, 10 years later, to show us how life has changed and the difficulties that the people of Germany face. And he does an excellent job of showing this slice of life. But...the stories aren't captivating. And the moments highlighted, while interesting, don't make the history come alive. I also found the weaving between the past and present confusing as there were some places where it was difficult to tell where and when we were.

It's an interesting story, but it's not something that's a favorite for me.

[Mateen Mahboubi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Weimar Republic is one of the more fascinating periods of modern history to me. Only existing for what seems like a flash in the pan in the grand scheme of history (1918-1933), the impacts of this period can’t be underestimated. Like another favourite, Berlin Alexanderplatz, Lutes’ Berlin focuses on the lives of a variety of residents of the capital city with the backdrop of the surrounding political tension and upheaval. This volume definitely doesn’t shy away from the political with many of the characters being communist. Very interested to read the next two volumes as this one was fantastic. Never rushed, Lutes gives us a glimpse into the lives of these characters, never shying away from the intimate or mundane to make sure that we get the whole picture.

[Murat · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 kitaptan oluşan serinin birinci kitabı.

1920'ler Berlin'i.

Komünistler, sosyal demokratlar, sanat çevreleri, Yahudiler, nasyonal sosyalistlerin yükselişi öncesi atmosfer..

Farklı hayatlar, farklı beklentiler, iç içe geçmiş hayatlar, hikayeler..

Oldukça beğendim.

[Lahierbaroja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Si buscas una versión intimista y centrada en los personajes del período de entreguerras del siglo XX, Berlín es una opción perfecta. Porque más allá de las tácticas y las grandes batallas, son los ciudadanos los que sufren las contiendas bélicas, y aquí se refleja perfectamente.


https://lahierbaroja.wordpress.com/20...

[anotherbritinthewall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gut gemachte graphic novel mit geradezu cineastischer Erzählstruktur und im historischen Rahmen der späteren Weimarer Republik, was mir eigentlich immer taugt. Hätte etwas mir etwas mehr zu den beiden Protagonist*innen gewünscht (und vllt noch ein paar Cameos mehr, aber vielleicht wurde das auch für die nächsten Bände in der Hinterhand gehalten; anyway, habe mich insbesondere über Ossietzky und Weltbühne als honourable mentions gefreut)

[Arja-täti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarjakuviin tutustuminen jatkuu ja taas muistin, että voisin lukea aiheista, jotka kiinnostaa enemmänkin. Strippijutut alkoi kyllästyttää.

Ainoa miinus tässä kirjassa on toisen päähenkilön tekstien pieni ja haalea tyyli.

[Onur · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kuru bir anlatım ve sıkıcı bir kurgu, maalesef sevemedim.

[José Nebreda · Rating 3 out of 5]

La historia parece ir cogiendo fuerza poco a poco. Veremos hasta dónde llega en los próximos volúmenes.

[Diane · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a disappointment! I have read three other graphic novels and to my surprise liked them very much so I was looking forward to this one. It also deals with a period that I am interested in - Germany between 1918 and 1932. I found the characters hard to differentiate and hence the story faltered and did not make sense. It also seemed to treat this complex difficult time rather simplistically. I am glad this was not my first graphic novel or I would have just written off the whole genre.

[Joel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some beautiful art, particularly some lovely wordless spreads. But the dialogue isn't great, and the drawings of people are (a) not great, and (b) somewhat too interchangeable.

[Alex Tongue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Others have remarked upon how Lutes uses small, human stories to paint a picture of the final days of the Weimar Republic, and their thoughts on that matter are much more interesting than mine.

I found myself, on the other hand, fascinated by the way Lutes shows tragedy and melancholy via distance - distance across time, space, emotional availability, and even ideology. He thematically grounds this by having one of the central characters, Marthe, enroll in art school. Marthe explicitly learns about space and perspective, and her experience is punctuated by the perception of distance: her age gap (she's 29), her friend Anna's unrequited love towards her, and the otherness of the woman model who moonlights as a cabaret performer.

Ideological distance surfaces constantly like a slightly submerged rock formation pummeled by waves; the tension between the Nazis and the Communists drives the entire plot of the book. And the tension has real, human, bodied effects, tearing apart families, separating them at first by ideology, then by actual space.

The idea of the missed connection is closely tied to time. As a character in Wong Kar Wai's 2046 says, "Love is all a matter of timing. It's no good meeting the right person too soon or too late. If I'd lived in another time or place... my story might have had a very different ending." If Braun had met her comrade friend before getting married, perhaps...

Whenever one encounters a work that's set in the past and structured around an earth-shattering event, there's a certain sadness that permeates the work regardless of its actual tone. Lutes even shows this in reverse with the flashbacks to WWI and the days immediately after. Every few pages, Lutes makes the reader know what date it is, letting the days march by ever closer towards the end of the Weimar Republic and the beginning of the Third Reich. The melancholy lies in the realization that so many of these characters' lives will either be ruined or annihilated- and some of them will DO the destruction. Each page brings us closer to the end.

And the ending shows the tragedy of distance; separation is only sad because we long for re-connection, for reconciliation, for one last embrace by the estranged. Eventually, there comes a point of no return, and the distance remains permanent.

[Fe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent livre, mais l'édition de Delcourt est à éviter à tout prix. La traduction ne tient pas compte de la taille des phylactères, ce qui brise le rythme. La typo est parfois dure à lire, voire carrément illisible car trop petite ou trop comprimée. C'est plus dur d'embarquer dans l'histoire et d'accrocher au récit quand les dessins sont formidables mais que les textes sont fastidieux à lire.

Quant au scénario, ce tome est presque impressionniste (ironie!), nous montrant le quotidien de quelques bobos et prolétaires du Berlin dans une république de Weimar au bord de l'implosion. Le noir et blanc traduit bien l'absence totale d'émotions qui transpire du récit, alors que le trait est juste et photoréaliste.

Il est difficile de ne pas dresser de parallèle avec Babylon Berlin de Tom Tykwer, qui emprunte au même univers avec les mêmes codes, voire le même regard contemporain sur la route de Berlin et de l'Allemagne vers le fascisme. Difficile, aussi, de ne pas dresser justement un parallèle entre cette route et d'autres plus contemporaines.

[Willie Krischke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now this is a proper graphic novel.

I am deeply impressed with the way Lutes uses the form to convey a mood, a sense that exists around and between the characters and the details of their lives; very few novels (of any sort) manage to convey the mood of a particular time and place so effectively. I really felt the sense of Berlin torn between two beasts, Communism and Nazism, the seductive appeal of both, and people in the middle - intellectuals, artists, and veterans who know better - desperate to do something, but not able to find any good thing to do. It's far more common, and easier, I think, to tell stories about characters, problems, and things that they do; accomplishing what Lutes does here - delivering a work about the milieu of a particular time and place, more about atmosphere and emotion, is much more difficult, and it's amazing how powerfully he accomplishes it. This is a work of art.

[Radiantflux · Rating 3 out of 5]

14th book for 2017.

If I didn't live in Berlin and find the inter-war period in Berlin particularly interesting I would probably not have enjoyed this book as much as I did.

The drawings of the Berlin landscape were good, but the images of the characters were less so. Many felt cliched and too similarly drawn to be told apart. This was perhaps made worse by the German edition I read, where the images are printed too small, making it almost impossible to read some of the finer text boxes.

I don't think this book works well as a standalone piece, and so it's a particular shame that the third book in the trilogy seems to still be some way from completion. Hopefully, there will be some closure in the next few years.