Rick Steves Home > 2008 Tours > Best of Germany, Austria & Switzerland in 16 Days

Best of Germany, Austria & Switzerland in 16 Days: Recommended Reading & Viewing

Germany , Austria, and Switzerland are rich in history, art and culture. Any preliminary reading, viewing or listening you do will help you get the most from your trip. For more information on any of these books, visit your favorite bookstore or check out amazon.com; for video information, go to imdb.com. Rick Steves guidebooks are available at our office in Edmonds and also on our website's Travel Store.

Recommended Reading

Non-Fiction

• The Story of the Trapp Family Singers — Maria von Trapp
• La Place de la Concorde Suisse — John McPhee
• Inside the Third Reich — Albert Speer
• Germany: A New History — H. Schulze
• A Time of Gifts — Patrick Leigh Fermor
• Culture Shock! Germany — Richard Lord
• Of German Ways — Lavern Rippley
• Marling Menu-Master for Germany

Fiction

• The Good German — Joseph Kanon
• Stones From the River; Floating in My Mother's Palm — Ursula Hegi
• The Reader — Bernard Schlink
• 1632 — Eric Flint
• Summer at Gaglow — Esther Freud
• Airs Above the Ground — Mary Stewart
• The Tin Drum — Gunter Grass
• All Quiet on the Western Front — Erich Maria Remarque
• Address Unknown — Kathrine Kressman Taylor
• Saints and Villains — Denise Giardina
• The Silent Angel — Heinrich Boll
• Buddenbrooks; The Magic Mountain — Thomas Mann
• Narcissus and Goldmund — Herman Hesse
• A Death in Vienna — Frank Tallis
• The Book Thief — Markus Zusak
• Marrying Mozart — Stephanie Cowell

General Europe

• Europe 101 — Rick Steves & Gene Openshaw. History and art overview for the traveler; humorous and easy to read.
• A Tramp Abroad — Mark Twain. Humorous account of Twain's 1878 "walking tour" through the Alps.
• Civilization — Kenneth Clark. BBC-TV series and book that teaches European art and civilization like nothing else.
• Connections — James Burke. Fascinating book and TV series that links historical events and scientific discoveries across the centuries.

Rick Steves' Travel DVDs

For a fun, informative preview of your next tour destination, watch a DVD from our "Rick Steves' Europe" TV series! Our online Travel Store has 70 shows available on 12 DVDs (a generous five to eight shows per disc).

Films With a German Accent

Triumph of the Will (1935) • The Third Man (1949) • The Sound of Music (1965) • Cabaret (1972) • The Tin Drum (1979) • Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) • Das Boot (1981) • Mephisto (1981) • The White Rose (1982) • Amadeus (1984) • Wings of Desire (1987) • Schindler's List (1993) • Faraway, So Close! (1993) • Immortal Beloved (1994) • Before Sunrise (1995) • Run, Lola, Run (1998) • Nowhere in Africa (2001) • Goodbye, Lenin (2003) • Downfall (2004) • Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005)

Mood Music

Wagner, Strauss, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart et al. will get you in an Alpine mood. For something rowdier, check out Vanguard's reissue of German University Songs, Vol. 1-5