Fiction set in pre 1989 Berlin?

My child is studying it on the a level course next year so if have thought it was about somewhere. That’s odd.

I've got tickets to go and see the play

Yes the Lives of Others film is brilliant- I totally recommend it , it will give you a good feeling for that place and time.

Placemarking

Looking through the "What we're reading" threads for inspiration and noticed this one.
It reminded me of "Death in Berlin" by MM Kaye.
I'm very fond of a traditional murder mystery and this one does have a good plot, imo. However, the details of post-war Berlin are also interesting and, since the author spent time there as she was married to a soldier, presumably accurate.
It was written in 1955 and, as the warning goes, "has vocabulary and attitudes of its time". The trope that struck me most was that the Corporal and his wife (you'll spot them easily, they drop their Hs) aren't considered for the list of suspects for no real reason, iirc, other than class.
Bit of a change from "the butler did it", I suppose.

What a brilliant thread!

Thank you, OP, and I greatly envy your trip.

I enjoyed this one https://www.amazon.co.uk/Girl-Behind-Wall-internationally-bestselling/dp/0008364532 I knew several of the locations which made it seem so real.

There is also another book on the tip of my tongue, and no doubt I will probably sit bolt upright in bed at 3am and shout out the name, so annoying right now!

The Good German by Joseph Kanon is about Jewish people hiding out in wartime Berlin.

Hans Fallada - Alone in Berlin is set during World War II. Despite being written just after the War, it was translated into English fairly recently to some acclaim. (I’m reading the German version but haven’t got far enough with it to review it).

Zoo Station by Christiane F. The first book I read in German. It’s gritty, not a cheerful read.

Also second Deutschland 1983. Very evocative of the 80s and the Cold War. I was living in Warsaw then, and this took me right back.

I've also been searching for this for ages. Have the DVD but nothing to play it on, Was recommended for DS2's history school trip to Berlin in y10 (2024) but I've wanted to watch it almost since it first came out. Yes, have looked it up on Amazon Prime to check. So thank you.

I love JE. Kairos is very good.

Thanks, that is really interesting to know.

I loved this one - it's about the history of a house through 20th century change in Germany - I should have reviewed it but never got round to it.

I like the Bernie Gunther novels too, although they are set between the 1930s - the Nazi era, wartime and after, and Bernie gets involved in early Nazi hunting days. He's a cynical PI, and Philip Kerr obviously had a lot of fun pastiching Marlow. If you don't find Marlow pastiche funny it could be grating. There are 14 books in the series and if you use Kindle you can probably get bargains, more easily. Books 1-3 in the series are most easily available as a trilogy, in paperback or Kindle.

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Sadly Philip Kerr died in his early 60s a few years ago, but Jane Thynne obviously shared her husband's interest, and has written a number of books of her own, including 3 series of books

The first is the Clara Thynne books, featuring a young woman who is half German, half English, was brought up in England and has now come to Berlin.

The second features a woman in London being recruited as some kind of agent, and returning to places she knew before like Vienna and Paris.

Then there are two books set in alternate reality British Reich, written under another name - C J Carey I think - #1 is Widowland

And a recent standalone set in the 30s. She has also written a handful of other books before she joined Kerr in writing about this stuff. I wonder if they fought over reference books!

I was reading some book reviews, ran across this, and remembered seeing your post here.

See if this is up your alley.

BERLIN SHUFFLE
Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz

https://pushkinpress.com/book/berlin-shuffle/

And if you want non-fiction, try A Woman in Berlin, a startling post-WW2 memoir which was only published much after the fact.

Brigitte Reimann, Siblings is good but it's set in 1961. If you're looking for something closer to 1989, perhaps Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos

And 89!

The latest Mick Herron book is mostly set in 1994 Berlin. The Secret Hours I think. It is connected to the Slough House series but can be read as a standalone. Really gripping.

Edit sorry a bit later than you asked for but very atmospheric.

My husband is a Berlin wall obsessive and also recommends "They Divided the Sky" by Christa Wolf. Also got some good tips from here for presents!!

Good Bye Lenin! is streaming on Prime at the moment.

Also second the film The Lives of Others.

For books, there is Ian McEwan's The Innocent, which is set in 1950s postwar and early Cold War Berlin.

I second recommendations for films Lives of Others and Barbara.
There is another excellent one called The Legend of Rita which is about a revolutionary group like Baader Meinhof in Paris. A cop is killed and they are given sanctuary in East Germany.