Keeping Up With the Germans: A History of Anglo-German Encounters - Couverture souple

'Entertaining and occasionally startling.' --Independent

'Filled with very enjoyable things ... it should be read by anyone touched by its subject.' --Guardian

'In itself, this memoir would be enough exquisitely rendered comedy to keep me transfixed. ... It's so refreshing to hear a witty German poke fun at us, instead of an unfunny Brit doing the whole 'achtung!' bit. See also his analysis of the verb 'pull' in teenage jargon, bathroom carpets, and a lovely anecdote about his father ruining a new friendship with a schoolmate by an overzealous use of the word 'efficiency'. ... Oltermann vows to himself that he won't write about the war, because otherwise, he'd write about nothing but. He almost gets away with it (bar a wonderful moment when Unity Mitford dates Adolf Hitler - they flirtatiously squabble about soup). This clears so much space for this wonderful, surprising book that will have you rethinking British life even if you never, ever, get the Germans.' --Helen Rumbelow, The Times

'With my own head still full of interesting ideas from Philip Oltermann's new book - a paean to modern German reasonableness - I was foolish enough to see War Horse at the cinema. Here was a film which, despite twisting and turning to be even-handed, simply could not help itself and, like some faux-reformed alcoholic, gorged itself on an entire miniature liqueur selection of Anglo-German clichés. ... Oltermann's charming mix of memoir, analysis and random facts has to struggle to stay upright in the sort of storm generated by such an elemental piece of Anglo-Hollywood lore. But it is he who is on the side of right. Everything that makes modern Germany so appealing a sort of wryness mixed with tentative enthusiasm, a wish to be liked tempered by a genuine concern to engage with a terrible past are all in this book.
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As War Horse so carelessly and Keeping Up with the Germans more thoughtfully show, the two countries seem condemned, like two not very interesting immortals, to tumble, grappling with one another forever through infinite space.' --Simon Winder. The Guardian

'In the realm of national stereotypes - especially those minted in England - Germany still commands a special place. ... Philip Oltermann is the latest person to venture into this perilous, churned-up no-man's land. Keeping up with the Germans avoids anything too heavy-handed, and yet still manages to offer an intelligent, entertaining and, at times, surprising take on relations between the two nations. ... For those whose knowledge of German history is bookended by the Beer Hall putsch and the rubble of the Berlin bunker, there is much illuminating stuff. ... Oltermann (almost) didn't mention the war - and got away with it.' --Frederick Studemann, Financial Times

In 1996, in the middle of watching an ill-tempered football match between England and Germany, Philip Oltermann's parents tell him that they are going to leave their home city Hamburg behind and move to London. A number of worrying questions arise. How would English schoolboys take to a lanky 16-year-old German? How did they think and do things differently? What was the secret of the famed British humour? And were there values that English and German people shared?

In search of answers, Oltermann interweaves memoir and history, taking ten key Anglo-German encounters from the last 200 years as his starting point. These include: an encounter between Joe Strummer and the Baader Meinhof gang, Helmut Kohl trying to explain the virtues of German cuisine to a sceptical Margaret Thatcher and philosophers Theodor Adorno and A. J. Ayer clashing over jazz.

What emerges is nothing less than an alternative national story for the two countries: not one marked by military conflict and diplomatic hostility, but one shaped by dialogue, interaction and genuine fondness.