Discover GEEO’s recommended books to read before you travel to Germany. Our book club is a way for travelers to learn through literature about the places they’ll be visiting.

These are some of our favorites about Germany, so if you’re heading there, take a look (the GEEO book club is not a required element of our programs, just a bit of added fun)! We hope you will enjoy the books we have selected and they will enhance your experience.

You should be able to find most of our selections through the links below and in your local library system as well. Do you have any feedback on our selections or suggestions for additions? Contact us and let us know!

Recommended books to read before traveling to Germany:

Fiction:

• The Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada (Bookshop.org | Amazon)

Nonfiction:

• Germany: A Nation in Its Time: Before, During, and After Nationalism, 1500-2000 by Helmut Walser Smith (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945 by Max Hastings (Bookshop.org | Amazon)

Christmas-themed books for our European Christmas Markets program:

• The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas: Roots and Rebirth of the Folkloric Devil by various authors (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• A Very German Christmas: The Greatest Austrian, Swiss and German Holiday Stories of All Time by Al Ridenour (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• Oranges for Christmas: A Berlin Wall Escape Novel by Margarita Morris (Bookshop.org | Amazon)

For those looking for more suggestions, here are some other books you may want to consider:

• In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• My Berlin Kitchen: A Love Story, with Recipes by Luisa Weiss (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• The Invention of Curried Sausage by Timm Uwe (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse by Hermann Hesse (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• Mephisto by Klaus Mann (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• The Reader by Bernhard Schlink (Bookshop.org | Amazon)

Recommended films and videos to watch before traveling to Germany:

GEEO travelers can register with SIMA Academy for free using a unique access code that we provide after our programs end. Feel free to contact us if you would like to receive the access code early. For this program, we recommend watching Girl Hearted. SIMA Academy utilizes the storytelling power of award-winning global short documentaries to nurture globally competent and socially active learners worldwide.

GEEO utilizes both Bookshop.org and Amazon Associates links for the above-suggested books. If you purchase a book through one of the links above, you’re supporting us as a nonprofit and helping more teachers travel through GEEO!