Amazing and often unknown encounters from history and the present can alter or even alter our outlooks and, at best, our communication behaviour.
People from diverse backgrounds, who have widely varying, and often conflicting, attitudes toward life, seek out conversations—usually to the amazement or horror of their own kind.These are encounters that all have one thing in common: the practice of communication as an important element of human coexistence – in clear contrast to the current ever-increasing tendencies to not talk to each other, but only about each other, to exclude other opinions, to belittle or even to destroy them (especially on social media channels).
These narrated encounters address existential, philosophical, cultural, or socio-political issues.It is a book full of surprises, and thanks to Hoffmann's wide scope, it also turns into an interesting journey through the history of Berlin. “Major historical events” only appear marginally, Hofmann asserts. Its focus is on the private sphere, which not only characterizes the individuals involved, but also sheds light on their era.
