The Zookeepers' War

An international bestseller, the unbelievable true story of the Cold War's strangest proxy war—fought between the zoos on either side of the Berlin Wall.In the second half of the twentieth century, while America and the Soviet Union battled for global supremacy, East and West Berlin waged their own Cold War in miniature. But theirs was an arms race measured not in nuclear warheads and missiles, but in zebras and hippos. West Berlin's zoo and East Berlin's animal park were more than just their countries' most popular destinations—they were symbols of their respective systems of government. Living in West Berlin often felt like living in a zoo: everyone packed together and hemmed in by the Berlin Wall, with the eyes of the world upon you. On the other side of the Iron Curtain, the East Berlin animal park was spacious and lush, every structure carefully planned and yet never fully completed: the socialist utopia as a work in progress. The zoo...