The Man in the High Castle - Where New Berlin REALLY is

If you've seen the show and you Google it, you're going to see a map. The map is one of the biggest things about the show. However, don't believe everything you see.

With interest I read Val Nolan's blog post about it and there is a sentence that is incorrect. He says,"We see on a map that St. Louis is now New Berlin." Sadly, this appears to be a misconception by a lot of people, here's another example. The funny part is that a little knowledge about St. Louis, geography and reading maps will demonstrate how very incorrect that assumption is.

Let's take a look at both maps, one from today and the one from the show. Yes, they are marked all over, but so what? I'll explain in my little Geography class here. You can click on the images to enlarge them and I encourage you to do so, in order that you can see it clearly.

Courtesy Google, no copyright infringement intended.

Notice the yellow highlight above and below. That is the Ohio River. Now New Berlin is just west of the Ohio as you can see just below. Notice that St. Louis is further north on the Mississippi River. It's very clear and anyone who would take a moment to look at a map could figure this out. New Berlin is smack dab in the middle of Mark Twain National Forest, which is obviously a nod to that author.

Season 1, Episode 1 about 23 minutes in.
Courtesy Amazon, no copyright infringement intended.

I don't know where this map originates from. I've not yet read the book. It could be in the book, but either way, a mere guess (and really who knows what others are thinking) would be that Twain inspired someone in particular to read and so here is the nod.

Also it's clever. The Nazi's burn certain books. It makes sense that they would open up a forest that had only recently been created by a famed American author. The forest was established on 9/11 in 1939. To add to that, the old country's Berlin is also forested and surrounded by forests. It seems to be as good a location as any for such a city.

So! Be sure to show everyone this post and get its real location straight. New Berlin is a new city, in our beloved Twain park, which is now gone.

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You may also be interested in my other article, Thoughts on Season One of The Man in the High Castle (Season 1 Spoilers).