Berlin Diary
Shirer's actual diary as CBS correspondent in Berlin, from the Anschluss to the fall of France — published while the war still hung in the balance.
The Verdict
History with no hindsight — the war beginning, watched from inside the Reich by a man who did not yet know how it ends. William Shirer kept this diary as a CBS correspondent in Berlin through the late 1930s and into the war, and its power is exactly its uncertainty: the Anschluss, Munich, the fall of France, all recorded in the moment, under censorship, with the outcome unknown. Two decades before The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich gave him the long view, this is the raw material — immediate, anxious, and unrepeatable.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- An eyewitness diary of the war's opening, written as it happened
- Readers who want immediacy over hindsight
- Inside the Reich, from a working journalist
- The raw source behind Rise and Fall
Look elsewhere if you want
- A retrospective, organised history (read Rise and Fall)
- Military operational detail
- The later years of the war
Why We Rated It 4.6
Historical Context
Shirer reported from Europe and Berlin for CBS through the late 1930s. The diary, published in 1941 while the war's outcome was still open, runs from the late-1930s crises through the fall of France. Shirer drew on the same vantage two decades later for his bestselling history The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1960).
Events Covered
Editions & Reading Notes
Read It Alongside
Collector's Corner
Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-0801870569
Read This Against
The same events seen from a different vantage point. The fullest understanding often lives in the space between accounts that don't agree.
Other Books About the Same Events
More by William Shirer
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Berlin Diary the same as The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich?
- No. Berlin Diary is Shirer's contemporaneous 1934-41 diary; Rise and Fall is his later, comprehensive history.
- Why does the diary feel so tense?
- Because Shirer wrote it without knowing the outcome, under German censorship, as events unfolded around him.