Germany face to face. Germans, no matter how hard we know them

Our politicians admonish us: "Neither idealize nor demonize the Germans".

At the same time, they somehow slightly carelessly pass by a significant caveat: to adequately perceive the Germans, first thing we need to know them. Unfortunately, the Russian media today do not provide so many opportunities for learning this nation and its most prominent representatives. The readers of Russian newspapers and television viewers might get the impression that Germany is a country where only Angela Merkel lives. Her figure formed by our reporters, overshadowed all others.

Live professional interest attracted the attention of the author to outstanding personalities and interesting people of German land and forced to turn to them personally.

From the direct communication with them the author formed this documentary polyptych of human images. With the help of these images the author tries to re-open Germany for readers. For his entire positive attitude towards the country, however, he believes that the word "Germany" is not tuned in any sense of the word "harmony".

Readers will meet the "ideal president", as the Germans call it, Richard von Weizsäcker; the great master of motor design Ferdinand A. Porsche; Nobel laureate author Günter Grass; "the genius of espionage" Markus Wolf; the most famous woman in the world-filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl; fashion luminary Wolfgang Joop and many others. The author of the book is an international journalist who worked in many countries of the world as a special correspondent of the leading Soviet and Russian newspapers.