Tim Mohr (1969–2025)

I thought I knew the story of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, but this history of East German punk rock added a new dimension to my understanding of East German society in the 1980s. In some ways, the punks who emerged in East Germany were similar to those in the West - teenagers who felt as though they didn't fit into society, finding expression in a new form of music, and distinctive in their appearance. But, in East Germany being different wasn't tolerated and punks quickly became enemies of show more the state. This book is filled with fascinating details I hadn't encountered before - like that some people would show up to antigovernmental protests in hopes of being arrested and deported to the West - which merge with a story I know well. Overall, this is a book that changed how I view the fall of the Berlin Wall and the society which existed behind it for so many years - a society that at times felt eerily familiar. If you have an interest in Cold War history, this is definitely a good to pick up. show less

Resist much, obey little. The anti-authoritarian, DIY ethos of punk played a crucial role in bringing down the Communist system in East Germany, and Mohr tells the story well. Punks, environmentalists and Lutheran youth ministers found common cause and made up part of an Eastern European resistance network that followed its own logic. Not everyone was trying to leave. Thank goodness for drop-outs, freaks, and non-conformists of every flavor.

I liked this quite a lot. It hit a bunch of my sweet spots: history as viewed through a specific lens, particularly events that happened in my adult lifetime, and early punk rock. In this case, as the title would indicate, the book focuses on the fall of the Berlin wall and what part was played by the early punk movement in the DDR and eastern Europe, from 1981 through 1989. Mohr has good sources in addition to opened Stasi records, which he admits are pretty dry, and his narrative is very show more engaging—he's obviously making sure his voice matches up to the subject, without falling into total inarticulacy, so lots of short sharp sentences, sometimes repeated like song choruses, and plenty of profanity.

As someone who was involved in the downtown NYC punk scene starting in roughly 1981, I was fascinated by the contrast. Note that I ID what I was part of as a scene, rather than a movement—it may have stemmed from adolescent (and post-adolescent) rebellion and a dislike of conformity on my end, but it didn't carry the same kind of life-and-death charter—no one I knew was going to jail for their beliefs (other than for public intoxication, maybe), or having to dodge police to make the music they wanted to make or attend concerts or marches. So even though I know my history and have read a fair amount about the end of the DDR and the Communist regime at the time, this was an interesting filter to drive home the import of what a lot of young people were dealing with there and then.

It also sparked a wave of nostalgia, and I stayed up too late last night Googling photos of punks in the early 80s East Village and falling down a few where-are-they-now rabbit holes. show less

I didn't previously know anything at all about East German punk music, so this book was very educational! I liked the writing style a lot, and how it wove a whole bunch of different people and events into a coherent narrative over the course of most of the 1980s. And there are definitely details I want to go read more about, like the Hartroda commune established by disabled people. It was also good to see a nuanced picture of the politics around German reunification in 1990: many of the show more people and communities in this book hated the East German dictatorship, but had no great love for West German capitalism either. show less