The Academy of Arts in Berlin will open its exhibition on the life and works of Walter Kempowski tonight. No other book in recent years has fascinated me as much as Kempowski’s Echolot. A collective diary, as Kempowski call his opus magnus in the subtitle, the book brings together thousands of autobiographical reports, letters, diaries, and newspaper articles from people all over Europe during the second world war, all arranged chronologically resulting in an impressive panoramic view of the war. Each days starts with a note from the Führerhauptquartier and ends with reports from the Nazi death camps. In between, Kempowski arranges texts that tell the story of war from various European perspectives. Kempowski, who has collected these materials during the last decades and has given his collection to the Academy of Arts a couple of years ago, will visit the Academy on June 10 to receive more unpublished diaries, films, and fotos. If you read German, ECHOLOT is a must, as is this exhibition.