About Us

Just over 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, in Death Valley, lies the Amargosa Mountain Range. An eroded landscape formed from the sediments of a long-dry lake. A particularly striking badland of mythical dimensions in the middle of the Amargosa Range, crisscrossed by deep gullies, is Zabriskie Point.

The French philosopher and psychologist Michel Foucault called his LSD trip in this place the greatest experience of his life. In the film of the same name, Michelangelo Antonioni makes the area - which gives the bookstore's name - a symbol of the soul of wild nature, which is threatened by the development plans of real estate dealers. Opposed to the unscrupulous realtors and construction companies in the film are two young people (she a flower child, he a rebellious loner) who, after fleeing the big city, unite with nature as an orgiastic ball in the dust of the desert floor at Zabriskie Point. In the final, redemptive key scene of the film, a luxury villa in the Death Valley desert explodes in many slow motion sequences. Objects that are symbols of consumer society and Western civilization shatter and shatter in a beautiful choreography of destruction: refrigerators, televisions, clothes racks, food packages, and last but not least, a huge pile of books.

Counterculture, nature & visions

Zabriskie is a specialized bookstore with a focus on sub/cultural and natural phenomena, with books and magazines in German and English, and a small section of records. The selection mirrors the personal interests, preferences and passions of the owners. Zabriskie is thus like a kind of personal library - as a bookshop. You can find publications from these fields and on these topics at Zabriskie: Ecology; Nature & Landscape Writing; Gardening & Self-Sufficiency; Underground Music, Sound & Listening; Books at the intersection of Art & Ecology, and Art & Activism; Post-Capitalist Sharing Economies & Commons; Intersectionality; Love & Care; Slowness & Idleness; Mind Expansion & Intoxication; Myths & Folklore; Magic & Occult; The History of Countercultures; Psychogeography & Walking; Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction & Magical Realism. And many titles from small publishers and self-published artists' books.

In addition to selling books and magazines, we regularly organize readings , book presentations and walks.

From November 2013 to March 2020, the bookstore was located at Manteuffelstrasse 73. Since April 2020 you can find us at Reichenberger Straße 150, about 50 m away from the old location, in brighter, larger and sunnier rooms!

We look forward to welcoming you to Zabriskie soon!