What constitutes a family today and who is actually part of it?

Angela and Erich are the parents, Simon and Katrin the children. Together they make up a family. But just listing the members doesn't mean it is a proper family. Erich and Angela have ...

Luzie's father, Captain Tim Timm is unexpectedly hired by a shipping company that specialises in salvaging shipwrecks - and for Luzie that means summer holidays in the Caribbean! However it has to be said that life on board the Constantina is far from idyllic, as Elena Wagner, the company's ...

An extraordinary adventure and an unforgettable hero

Bartholomew is an orphan from Bombay, he's twelve years old and speaks almost as many languages. This is why, in the year 1854, he is hired as a translator by the brothers Schlagintweit from Germany, who, with the support of ...

A beer cellar, a luxury hotel and a grandmother who dies twice over…

Resplendent with glamour but overcast by many a shadow, the story of the Salz family centres on Leipzig's up-market Fürstenhof hotel. Salz Sr. buys it in 1914, but his actress daughter Lola refuses to ...

Many of our decisions have no major influence on our lives, while others are a matter of do or die. And some of them are so insane in retrospect that we can hardly believe we took them. A single good or bad decision can change the course of our lives forever. But what influences our decisions?

"In order to love India, I had to get to know Germany again."

Indians, Germans, and an author seeking to answer the question: What is home? Since his marriage to Indian native Saskya, Christopher Kloeble is a notarized "Person of Indian Heritage." In this insightful, ...

From ghetto to death camp - a memoir of privilege and luck

Anatol Chari was a member of the Jewish Special Police Force and his memoirs are one of the few publications to shed light on events from this particular perspective. Chari shares his reminiscences in depth in an ...

Our bodies' miraculous defense system: everything we need to know about our immune systems

Millions of microorganisms have colonized us: bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites. Most of them are harmless, but some of them are malignant pathogens. Without a functioning immune system, we ...

It all begins with a raffle. Little Zuppi wins the first prize - a piglet. Daddy makes a grim face, and the landlord, Mr Buselmeier, is even less pleased. "Out!", he screams, and throws out the entire family, including the pig. They move to a house next to a football field. Daddy becomes ...

Adventure on the high seas

Eight-year-old August is happily bobbing on an inflatable rubber crocodile in the middle of the sea. He wishes he had some ice cream, but instead he meets Juli, who is nonchalantly paddling around on her float. The float is her home, and it is well ...

Ten-year-old Henry has his heart set on a dog of his very own. But then one day at the beginning of the Easter holidays he stumbles across a mound of leaves in the forest - concealed underneath it is a primordial creature-a shaggy little beast from a time long gone; a frozen dwarf-mammoth! ...

A somewhat different ghost story

As Lenny arrives at the Castle Röckenpöppel Boarding School in the middle of the night, he can hardly believe his eyes. The students are in the process of gathering for a meal, of which there is nothing to be seen except empty plates and glasses.