Few can match the award-winning "ZEIT" author Christoph Dieckmann in the art of literary reportage. He takes the reader on a vibrant journey through Germany, from East to West. From Zittau to Helgoland, from Wittenberg to Bayreuth, Dieckmann narrates the present with its historical context. Whether he recalls Marion Gräfin Dönhoff and Klaus Renft, encounters Inge Viett and Jan Philipp Reemtsma, or meets John Fogerty and Uwe Tellkamp, he heeds Christa Wolf's childhood admonition: "The past is not dead; it is not even past." This book is a document of German unity, far removed from all anniversary prose and slogans.