Learn German with the Augsburg Saga - B2.1 Interlinear German-English Reader
Golden Twenties at the Abyss
Learn German through a historically grounded story - with clear B2-level language and immediate English support when you need it.
Golden Twenties at the Abyss is the first book of the B2 level in the Augsburg Saga.
It is written in controlled, carefully graded B2 German and presented in an interlinear German-English format, sentence by sentence.
Each German sentence is followed directly by its English translation.
The English is not word-for-word and not literary prose. It stays close to the German in meaning and structure and serves purely as a reading aid, allowing you to continue reading without constant dictionary use.
🕰️ Between recovery and rupture: Augsburg 1928-1929
This story is set in Augsburg during the final years of the Weimar Republic's fragile recovery - a period later called the Golden Twenties.
After inflation and crisis, everyday life appears to stabilize. Workshops function again, shops are stocked, and new technologies enter homes: radios, electric appliances, cinemas.
The Hartwig family stands in the middle of this apparent normality.
A workshop and a pharmacy provide steady work. Children and adolescents grow up in a city that feels modern, organized, and cautiously hopeful. Conversations turn to training, jobs, and the future.
Yet beneath the surface, uncertainty remains.
Political tensions do not disappear.
Economic stability depends on foreign credit.
News from abroad begins to matter in quiet, indirect ways.
The story follows how abstract developments - stock markets, loans, political slogans - slowly enter daily life:
in cancelled orders,
in changing prices,
in conversations on the street,
and in the growing unease of the younger generation.
When the global crash of 1929 arrives, it does not appear as a single dramatic moment, but as a gradual shift.
Trust weakens. Plans become cautious. The sense of security begins to erode.
This is not a story of sudden collapse, but of transition - from confidence to doubt.
📖 What this B2.1 reader includes
• One complete B2.1 story (self-contained)
• Interlinear German-English format (sentence by sentence)
• English historical and cultural introduction (Weimar Republic, Golden Twenties, 1929 crash)
• Clear chapter structure
• Chapter summaries
• Questions and answers for comprehension
• Carefully controlled B2 vocabulary and syntax
👥 Who this book is for
• Learners moving from B1 into B2 German
• Readers interested in modern history through everyday experience
• Self-study learners ready for longer chapters and subtler language
• Teachers working with themes of instability, economy, and social change
• Readers who prefer realism and restraint over dramatic narration
📚 Part of a larger series
This book can be read independently.
It also begins the B2 level of the Augsburg Saga, a long historical reading series that follows the same family from A1 through C1, across many centuries.
For longer reading sessions and better value, Omnibus editions are available:
• German-English interlinear Omnibus
• German-only Omnibus
These combine all books of a level in one volume and are more affordable than purchasing the single books individually.
Continue with the Augsburg Saga - and experience how German becomes more precise as history grows more demanding.
