The battle for Berlin in 1945 was one of the most violent battles ever fought for a city. For Stalin, Hitler’s Berlin was the ultimate prize. More than 300,000 Soviet soldiers died in the attack. Read and Fisher set the scene during the 1936 Olympics where Berlin was the showcase for the 1,000 year Reich. Then sketching the history of this extraordinary city, they follow its transformation by the Prussians from a political and cultural backwater, into a formidable garrison town. Both seedy and glamorous when it fell under Nazi sway in 1933, Berlin, the city, became the vital hub of Hitler’s war machine as the war approached. After four years of relentless allied bombing, Berlin was faced with its ultimate test as a war fortress. The result? No building or street remained unscathed as the terrified remnants of Hitler’s armies attempted to hold back the "barbarians from the east."