Karina Urbach

Dr Karina Urbach is an Anglo-German historian and novelist who lives in Cambridge. Her non-fiction includes Go-Betweens for Hitler (OUP), Queen Victoria (C.H. Beck) and Alice’s Book: How the Nazis stole my grandmother’s cookbook (MacLehose Press). It has been translated into seven languages and turned into an award-winning TV documentary. Oscar winner Stefan Ruzowitzky is currently adapting it for a feature film.

Karina’s fiction work is published by Penguin Random House, Germany. The first instalment Cambridge 5 Die Zeit der Verräter won the Crime Cologne Award. The sequel Das Haus am Gordon Place (Vienna ’48) won the German Crime Award. It is based on true events: The film The Third Man is considered to be ‘just’ a cinematic masterpiece. Karina’s research shows that it was much more: MI6 used it as cover to work in the Soviet zone of Vienna. The third espionage novel is due out in August 2027.

Karina’s qualifications include a PhD from Cambridge and a second German doctorate (Habilitation). She was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the IHR, University of London. A selection of publications has been digitised, see: https://albert.ias.edu/collections/95c3bb43-9423-4d78-867d-20180d1ef985