Reading list | Berlin

Germany is well known today for its large population of Turkish citizens. But Berlin's connection to Turkey and the Ottoman Empire has a long heritage, notably with the building of the Baghdad railway intended to link Berlin with the then Ottoman city of Baghdad, via Istanbul. Berlin's Museuminsel (Museum Island) is a wonder. Destroyed, like much of the city, in the second world war, it fell to the Soviet sector and was gradually restored under the German Democratic Republic. The Soviets took some of the treasures as war reparations, including Heinrich Schiemann's Treasures of Priam that he supposedly found at Troy, and these are the subject of continuing dialogue between the German, Russian and Turkish authorities.