A useful, compact history of the German Democratic Republic in English. Hoyer, with the perspective of thirty years, tries to give us a balanced view, showing us how the closed borders and the suppression of individual liberty grew out of the impossible geopolitical situation the new country found itself in and the overriding goal of defending socialism, and how most people got on with their lives and thought the sacrifices the state was asking them to make worthwhile for most of the forty years the DDR existed. That doesn’t mean she tries to airbrush out the horrors and injustices committed against those who fell foul of the state apparatus in various ways, but she tries to get beyond the “Stasiland” caricature to look at what life was really like for DDR citizens.

Obviously, you can’t cover everything in a book this size: Hoyer concentrates on national and international politics and trade, and sets that off against a selection of individual experiences and some key topics in social history, such as education and childcare, the FDJ youth organisation, the military, the role of women, popular music, sport, travel and the supply of consumer goods. She doesn’t talk much about particular industries or agriculture, and there is almost nothing about literature and cinema or the other arts. I also felt that her “Epilogue” looking at the process of annexation by the Federal Republic after 1990 was a little thin — she comments on all the babies that got thrown out with the bathwater, and the persistent deprivation in the “new federal states”, but she doesn’t really attempt to look into how else it could have gone.

Obviously a very valuable book if you are new to the topic and only read in English, and having a compact overview helped me to join a few dots between other more specific things I’ve read, but I think it will probably leave most readers wanting more. ( )

A good in-depth look into this unique time in human history. ( )

Wonderful!
https://lizzysiddal2.wordpress.com/2023/05/17/beyond-the-wall-east-germany-1949-... ( )