Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990

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Rating this book was a bit of a headache, for reasons I will get into shortly. Ultimately, I decided on a 3/5 since any more would be tacit approval of the current state of historiographical discourse regarding East Germany. On October 7 1989, a four-year-old Hoyer and her father celebrated the GDR’s 40th anniversary with a trip to the viewing platform of Berlin’s Fernsehturm, the socialist-built TV tower. Below, police cars converged on Alexanderplatz in an attempt to quell the unstoppable protests that led to the collapse of the Berlin Wall a month later. Forget everything you thought you knew about life in the GDR. This terrifically colorful, surprising, and enjoyable history of the socialist state is full of surprises. Enormously refreshing.” The 1920s - Philosophy's Golden Age Wittgenstein changed his mind, Heidegger revolutionised philosophy (and the German language), and both the Frankfurt School and the Vienna Circle were in full swing. Matthew Sweet is joined by Wolfram Eilenberger, David Edmonds and Esther Leslie. Plus, a report on the plight of the Lukacs Archive in Budapest https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000q380

From rampaging teens to female assassins: why has East German

Katja Hoyer has done a magnificent job, providing a rounded insight into what life was like in the GDR. The more controlling aspects of the regime are not given much coverage which is fine by me, as I feel I have a solid grounding of the Stasi and their methods. A reader less aware of this aspect of the regime might conclude the GDR was a wonderful place for its citizens especially as great efforts were made to cater to the needs of the people who enjoyed the highest standard of living of any socialist state. David Gelber: Chancellors & Chancers - Austria Behind the Mask: Politics of a Nation since 1945 by Paul Lendvai You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. Simply log into Settings & Account and select "Cancel" on the right-hand side.

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Hoyer is becoming the authoritative voice in the English-speaking world for all things German. Thanks to her, German history has the prominence in the Anglosphere it certainly deserves.” Eileen M Hunt: Feminism vs Big Brother - Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life by Anna Funder; Julia by Sandra Newman Beyond the Wall also delves into the profound impact of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent reunification of Germany. Hoyer explores the mixed emotions experienced by East Germans during this period of profound change, including the loss of familiar structures and the challenges of transitioning to a market-based economy. She also reflects on the lasting legacy of the GDR and its impact on Germany's political and social landscape in the present day. I read from Hoyer's experience discussing the book in Germany that the German edition of Beyond the Wall stirred emotions in German readers, despite the fact that the 30-year gap between the German reunification and the present moment may provide relatively enough time to assess the process with more objectivity.

Beyond the Wall - Penguin Books UK

The GDR] was one of the strangest countries to have ever existed, a jewel box of contradictions...These contradictions are beautifully capturedin Beyond the Wall...Craftingan expansive and generoushistoryof East Germany, Hoyer brings long-standing academic scholarship to a broader audience, explaining how the GDR evolved over its 40-year existence, the triumphs and travails of everyday life under state socialism, and why so many East Germans continue to pine for the country they have lost." You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here.Hoyer records the reaction of one young East Berliner who walked over to the West on that remarkable night: 'It looks just like our Berlin, only the shop windows are more colorful. I will never forget their glaring neon lights.' Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil. In 1990, a country disappeared. When the iron curtain fell, East Germany simply ceased to be. For over forty years, from the ruin of the Second World War to the cusp of a new millennium, the GDR presented a radically different German identity to anything that had come before, and anything that exists today. Socialist solidarity, secret police, central planning, barbed wire: this was a Germany forged on the fault lines of ideology and geopolitics. Hoyer explains that after years of political upheaval, war, economic turmoil and rapid political change, most Germans were exhausted and sought stability, a settled home life, and a future without war and economic disaster. Thus an anti-fascist, socialist one-party state like the GDR appealed to many East Germans. It is here where one occasionally wishes that Hoyer broadened her vision from East Germany to the eastern bloc as a whole. A comparative viewpoint might have made clearer the peculiarity of East Germany’s achievement and its tragedy. Both were rooted in the same geographic fact. As part of a larger, pre-war Germany, East Germany was faced with the constant counter-example of the neighbouring Federal Republic. Its proximity just over the Wall encouraged its leadership to make their version of socialism as effective as humanly possible. It also pushed them to create one of the most extensive systems of control the world has ever seen.