BERLIN — Thomas Harding, a Briton in his late 40s, led the way into a decrepit single-story wooden structure on an overgrown lakeside plot on Berlin’s westernmost border in Gross Glienicke. “There used to be French doors there that opened onto the terrace,” he said of his Jewish great-grandparents’ weekend house. “And behind there,” he said pointing to the wall on the right, “There was Elsie and Bella’s bedroom, with a door into the living room.”

The house, which had been built by Mr. Harding’s German Jewish great-grandfather Alfred Alexander in 1927, is the subject of his book “The House by the Lake,” which traces German history through the five families that occupied the property. The book became a best seller in Britain when it came out last fall and was released last week in the United States.

What started as a family history quickly turned into a history of families — the five that shaped the plot and the house from the time of the kaiser to its desertion in 2003 in a reunited Germany. The labor of one writer fostered a team effort involving Harding family members in Britain and locals in Gross Glienicke. The Alexander House, as it is now called, is scheduled to open as a public memorial in 2017. A facility for interfaith and intercultural dialogue and reconciliation is planned for 2019.

For Mr. Harding, the history of the house by the lake is one of trauma and loss many times over — “same location, different people, different tragedies, different times,” he said.