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      • Trusted Partner
        October 2023

        From India to Germany:What My Father's Journey Tells Usabout Migration and the Kindness ofStrangers

        by Sunita Sukhana

        — An extraordinary story of migration — Contemporary history of the 70s and backgrounds to India, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany He was the son of the Sikh priest, a successful 400-meter runner and, eventually, a migrant. In 1979, Bagicha Singh turned his back on his homeland and set off with a head full of dreams on the long, turbulent overland journey from India to Germany. It was the year the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and the Islamic Revolution raged in Iran. A year whose aftermath continues to shape the world to this day. More than 40 years later, his daughter tells the story of Bagicha's adventurous journey. The result is a touching document on origin, contemporary history, and the meaning of migration.

      • Trusted Partner
        October 2022

        My Father's Secret

        The BND, my family and I

        by Corinna von Bassewitz

        For a long time, Corinna von Bassewitz believed her father was a soldier, later on that he was a diplomat. Then, at the age of 16, she learnt something unbelievable: he had been a secret agent for the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND, Germany's Federal Intelligence Service). Once the secret had been at least partly uncovered, she became something of a spy herself and eventually found some confidential documents in her parents' attic. Later, she realised that her father had been living as a double agent for the FRG and the GDR. So what effect does it have on a girl if her father conceals his true identity and eventually disappears without trace? Along with her family history, the author provides multi-layered and exciting insights into the historical context of the Cold War. A very personal book, intriguingly told and emotionally touching.

      • Trusted Partner
        2019

        Harmed Not Cured

        Major medical and pharmaceutical scandals in Germany

        by Eckart Roloff and Karin Henke-Wendt

        Botched medications, malpractice, the transplant business: when doctors or pharmaceutical companies make mistakes or cross ethical boundaries, this often has serious consequences for patients. One example is thalidomide. Despite inadequate testing, the sleeping pill was marketed from 1957 to 1961, and caused a large number of pregnant women to give birth to children with severe deformities. Less well known, but no less scandalous, is the “Anti-D” affair in the former GDR, where, during 1978 and 1979, thousands of women and many children were infected with hepatitis C through contaminated immunoglobulins. This was not revealed until years later. This book presents 16 such cases – often the stuff of thrillers, but tragic at the same time. People who reach out for help, are instead deceived and harmed. All the more important are courageous and persistent patients and journalists, who have uncovered medical scandals, publicised them and taken the perpetrators to court. Without this, no-one would be learning from the mistakes.

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        November 2013

        Popular television in authoritarian Europe

        by Peter Goddard

        This lively and ground-breaking collection brings together work on forms of popular television within the authoritarian regimes of Europe after World War Two. Ten chapters based on new and original research examine approaches to programming and individual programmes in Spain, Greece, Czechoslovakia, Romania, the USSR and the GDR at a time when they were governed as dictatorships or one-party states. Drawing on surviving archives, scripts and production records, contemporary publications, YouTube clips and interviews with producers and performers, its chapters recover examples of television programming history unknown beyond national borders and often preserved largely in the memories of the audiences who lived with them. The introduction examines how television can be considered 'popular' in circumstances where audience appeal is often secondary to the need for state control. Published in English, Popular television in authoritarian Europe represents a significant intervention in transnational television studies, making these histories available to scholars for the first time, encouraging comparative enquiry and extending the reach - intellectually and geographically - of European television history. There is a foreword by John Corner and an informative timeline of events in the history of television in the countries covered. ;

      • Humanities & Social Sciences
        August 2019

        Finale.

        The Last Year of the GDR

        by Hannes Bahrmann / Christoph Links

        Year 41 of the GDR is the most exciting in GDR history. Between the 7th October 1989 and the 3rd October 1990 a rush of events is taking place: The people in the GDR overthrow the SED government and force it to open the border, a parallel government is formed and asserts democratic elections. Those are won by the conservative party alliance which pushes for a fast German unification which is realised within a few months with the support of the Allied Forces. The authors describe these events in a concise way while giving insights into the workings of the East-German State with documents, background material and reports from contemporary witnesses. This book is a compact description of the history of the GDR with a chronicle of events, portraits of important figures, reports of contemporary witnesses and background information as well as a lot of jokes from the GDR.

      • Humanities & Social Sciences

        1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall - Coincidence or Planning? /1989 Mauerfall Berlin - Zufall oder Planung?

        by Michael Wolski

        Classification in History   The fall of the Wall in 1989 is a historical example of the end of the relationship between hegemon and vassal. It shows how the hegemon silently disposed of his now unloved child. It is a story of the betrayal of the most loyal political friends and a common ideology.   East Germany was occupied by the Soviet Army on May 8, 1945 at the end of World War II in Europe and then, according to the decisions of the Allies, the Soviet-occupied zone in Germany was dominated by the Soviet Union. The German Democratic Republic (GDR) was founded in this zone in 1949, when the Soviet Union under Stalin was still convinced of the victory of communism in the world. At the same time, the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in the Western zones.   After only ten years it became clear that the socialist (Soviet) system in the GDR - a Western European, highly industrialized country - was not working. People left their country across the open sector border in Berlin.   For this reason, the East German Communists had to build the Berlin Wall in 1961 on the orders of the Soviet Union, hermetically sealing East Germany (and Eastern Europe) from the West. According to Allied regulations, Berlin was a jointly administered city, with one zone of each of the 4 Allies. Until 1990, West Berlin was therefore a territory of the Western Allies USA, United Kingdom and France. Westberlin  became a capitalist island in the GDR.   Ultimately, this isolation led to the decline of the entire Eastern Bloc. Only 25 years later, when Gorbachev came to power (1985), the Soviet Union decided in secret to separate from its Eastern European vassal states and introduce a market economy. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which was planned and carried out top secretly, was the opening of the clamp that had held the socialist countries together.   One year later (on October 3, 1990), German unity was achieved and again one year later - in late 1991 - the Soviet Union disintegrated into 15 states and with it the socialist camp in Europe. This disintegration was due to a boomerang of history - the German-Soviet treaties together with secret protocols of 1939, which unexpectedly unfolded their destructive potential in 1989.   Thus, 50 years after the Hitler-Stalin Pact and the German-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, both destroyed the Soviet Union as collateral damage of the opening of the Berlin Wall.   The Book   In this book, the course of events of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 is portrayed differently than in current contemporary historiography.   I claim on the basis of evidence and facts that the Soviet Union was responsible for the fall of the Wall. In a covert action, high-ranking East German KGB agents in the army, Stasi and mass-media took over command on the evening of November 9, 1989. At the same time, a meeting of the Central Committee of the SED was "randomly" extended by almost 3 hours, isolating over 250 high-ranking party and state officials from the outside world. Thus the state power was unable to act in the decisive hours of the fall of the Wall.   I describe the fall of the Wall as an East German contemporary witness, working from 1986-1990 in the liaison office of a Dow Jones listed US corporation in East Berlin (GDR).    While I had noticed events in East Berlin since 1986 that could indicate that unofficial KGB employees were being sought by Stasi in the International Trade Center (IHZ), this assumption became certain in 1994. The report on the evaluation of Stasi documents in the Bundestag confirmed my assumptions.   In June 2020 the last GDR Minister of the Interior of the first freely elected government (9 April 1990 – 2 October 1990) gave this number for the first time since 1990: In 1989/90 there were about 50,000 people in the GDR working for KGB (and GRU). Thus my view that the Soviet Union planned and realized the fall of the Wall was confirmed after more than 30 years.   The official German narrative (which is currently being retold worldwide) is based on the fall of the Wall by civil rights activists. They convinced the border officers to open the wall. However, no details are given about the process "behind the scenes". It must be remembered that as late as October 1989, the Politburo was still discussing the use of tanks against demonstrators in Leipzig (who demanded free passage out of the GDR). So why the change of mind within 4 weeks?   More information about my alternative view of the fall of the Wall can be found here (in German, English, Russian, Chinese): https://www.1989mauerfall.berlin/expose-leseprobe.html The book reads like a thriller.

      • August 2020

        My Errors, Confusions

        by Gisela Heller

        The journalist, writer and fontane expert Gisela Heller invites readers with her memories on a journey through her long and eventful life. The author describes her not always easy path from her escape from her Silesian homeland and her professional beginnings in the early GDR, through her journalistic work for radio and television, to her closer involvement with a famous colleague who was to become her main work content and pillar of her life, Theodor Fontane. No writer is as close to me as Theodor Fontane, confesses the author and discovers, the more and the more intensively she deals with him, many parallels in her two life arcs. I did not choose him; he has grown into me over time.The book also offers exciting insights from the world of media and culture in the GDR, from the time of the reunification and the post-reunification period to the present, and presents a series of portraits of politicians, journalists and artist colleagues. At the same time, the extensive text does not omit family joys and difficulties and shows how the author repeatedly succeeded and continues to succeed in overcoming sometimes serious illnesses, crises and conflicts and in regaining a positive attitude to life.The touching autobiography concludes with the words: "The time of great, unfulfillable wishes is over; only one remained: May a pensive smile transfigure the face of those who think of me Cest çaThe almost 700-page memoirs of journalist, writer and font expert Gisela Heller were published to mark the 91st birthday of the author

      • Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2020

        East Berlin

        Biography of a Capital City

        by Stefan Wolle

        The capital of the GDR exists only in memories but it is still present everywhere in today’s Berlin. At every corner, pictures and mysterious symbols hide, which show through every now and then like whitewashed graffiti on houses. Stefan Wolle, who had lived and worked most of his life in East Berlin, is strolling through time and space and is visiting central places: the Alexanderplatz, the street Unter den Linden, and the Brandenburg Gate, centres of political power as well as spots where subculture came to life.This biography of a city is told along historical events from the surrender of the Nazi-Germany in 1945 to the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. The author describes everyday life, buying groceries, weekend trips, and flat-hunting. He links quotations from official files, from literature, and from song lyrics to a many-voiced text.

      • Biography & True Stories
        February 2019

        A Global Citizen at Home in Saxony

        Mit Sebastian Christ

        by Hussein Jinah

        An East German, migrant view of Saxony before and after 1989. A committed life, led with unwavering humanity. And an autobiography of an activist life in times of xenophobia and racism. The fascinating story of Hussein Jinah from Gujarat / India who was born on a British steamer, grew up in Tanzania and South Africa and came to the GDR as a guest student in the 1980s to study. He tells how relationships between "foreigners" and native women were badly regarded. Why he changed from electrical engineering to social pedagogy after 1989 despite completing his doctorate. How he has since worked as a street worker with young people and also mediated between neo-Nazis and kebab shop owners. How he was beaten up by skins and became the first anti-Pegida demonstrator. How, in his opinion, prejudices against Muslims and in general against being different hardened after 9/11. Why he still stays in Dresden, lives and works and can still say calmly and convincingly: "I never give up."

      • Kurs NordWest

        Wie der Arzt Peter Döbler 45 km in die Freiheit schwamm

        by Rob Lampe

        Peter Döbler wuchs mit der Idee des Sozialismus und Kommunismus auf, fest eingebunden in das gesellschaftliche DDR-Gebilde, bis er erkennen musste, dass dort kein Platz für seine Vorstellung von Freiheit vorgesehen war. Er musste sich entscheiden und tat etwas, was noch nie ein Mensch vor ihm gemacht hatte. Ohne einen einzigen Schluck Wasser begab er sich im Sommer 1971 an den Kühlungsborner Strand, watete mit einem Neopren-Nassanzug in die Ostsee und schwamm 45 Kilometer, an Grenzposten, Patrouillenbooten und Schießbefehl vorbei, Richtung Fehmarn. Es ist die längste Strecke, die je ein Mensch, allein und ohne Hilfsmittel, über die Ostsee geschwommen ist und gehört zu den spektakulärsten DDR-Fluchten überhaupt. Dieser Roman erzählt die Geschichte eines Arztes, eines mutigen jungen Arztes, der Unvorstellbares geleistet hat, um endlich in der Freiheit seine Träume leben zu können. Doch was genau waren die Hintergründe? Wie sahen seine Vorbereitungen aus? Und wie reagierte die SED nach seiner Flucht? Ein eindrucksvolles Stück deutsch-deutscher Zeitgeschichte.

      • Humanities & Social Sciences
        October 2020

        State power at the end

        The military and intelligence service of the GDR during crisis and upheaval 1985 to 1990

        by Daniel Niemetz

        The East German military and security apparatus was one of the biggest in Europe, with almost half a million soldiers, police officers, intelligence officers and members of fighting brigades. However, they were not able to stop the downfall of the SED-Regime in autumn 1989. What were the reasons for that? What was the situation like for armed forces during the crisis and upheaval?Daniel Niemetz describes the events of the Peaceful Revolution and their consequences focusing his attention on the armed forces. He offers insights into the sentiment and opinions of those men and women who swore an oath to protect the state with their weapons and lives but then did not do so in 1989.

      • February 2020

        Angstfresser

        Novel

        by Grit Poppe

        Anxiety-eater, the (lat. Hirudo Timor), blood-like parasite, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine as a therapy against anxiety, panic and trauma. Initial side effects such as nightmares, hallucinations, re-experience of earlier emotional states are followed by rapid, continuous therapeutic success.Apparently.Kyra, an unstable young woman who is threatening to break apart at the ghosts of her past, sees therapy with the help of a Hirudo Timor as her last chance to free herself from her fears.But what is so terrible that any memory of her childhood seems to be erased from her mind?Little by little she can free herself from her post-traumatic stress disorder. But suddenly the memories come back and the past catches up with her again...Powerfully eloquent, but also sensitive, Grit Poppe pulls the readers into a whirlpool of fear, guilt and surreality.

      • Children's & YA
        March 2014

        Wall-Peckers

        by Reinhard Griebner (Author), Felix Karweick (Illustrator)

        1989 – The wall falls and the whole world is looking at Berlin where everything happens all at once. Among the chaos, student Willem Kaiser from Prenzlauer Berg gets to know Jasmin, Anton and Boris from West-Berlin. After being suspicious at first, they let Willem into their Wall-Power-Clique. Having a tremendous business idea, they decide to profit from the hopeful spirit of the times. All across Berlin, a race begins between the kids and a dubious businessman.

      • January 2016

        Pioneers of the 8th motor protection division of the NVA in the picture

        by Dietrich Biewald

        This collection of pictures from the service of the pioneers in the 8th Motorized Rifle Division with short explanatory texts consists almost exclusively of amateur photographs provided by a large number of former members of the 8th MSD. The almost 900 illustrations are an interesting supplement to the book Pioniere in der 8th Motorisierten Schützendivision der Nationalen Volksarmee der DDR.The origin of this book is owed to the members of the Schwerin Pioneer Comradeship and above all to the initiative of their chairman Jochen Schmidt. So it came about that many of them diligently rummaged through their old photo albums and collections, selected the pictures or made their albums completely available for scanning for this documentation. A fortunate circumstance is certainly also that the pioneers hardly had any technology that had to be kept particularly secret, so that prohibitions that were violated when taking pictures were not evaluated as strictly as elsewhere.However, former non-pioneers also contributed some of their old photographs. The main task of the pioneers was to make sure that the actions of the troops and units of the division were properly documented. Many of the photographs on hand therefore show the interaction of the pioneers with the other branches of arms, special forces and services. Therefore, this illustrated book can certainly arouse the interest of the alumni from all these areas. Diese Bildersammlung aus dem Dienst der Pioniere in der 8. Motorisierten Schützendivision mit kurzen erläuternden Texten besteht fast nur aus Amateuraufnahmen, die von einer Vielzahl ehemaliger Angehöriger der 8. MSD bereitgestellt wurden. Die fast 900 Abbildungen sind eine interessante Ergänzung zu dem Buch „Pioniere in der 8. Motorisierten Schützendivision der Nationalen Volksarmee der DDR“. Die Entstehung dieses Buches ist den Angehörigen der Pionierkameradschaft Schwerin und vor allem der Initiative ihre Vorsitzenden Jochen Schmidt zu verdanken. So kam es, dass viele fleißig in ihren alten Fotoalben und -sammlungen wühlten, die Bilder auswählten oder ihre Alben komplett zum Scannen für diese Dokumentation zur Verfügung stellten. Ein glücklicher Umstand ist sicherlich auch, dass die Pioniere kaum über besonders geheimzuhaltende Technik verfügten und so beim „Knipsen“ übertretene Verbote nicht so streng wie anderswo gewertet wurden. Jedoch auch ehemalige „Nichtpioniere“ steuerten einige ihrer alten Fotografien bei. Die Hauptaufgabe der Pioniere bestand nun einmal in der Pioniersicherstellung der Handlungen der Truppenteile und Einheiten der Division. Viele der vorliegenden Aufnahmen zeigen daher das Zusammenwirken der Pioniere mit den anderen Waffengattungen, Spezialtruppen und Diensten. Darum kann dieser Bildband sicherlich auch Interesse bei den „Ehemaligen“ aus all diesen Bereichen wecken.

      • Children's & YA
        July 2023

        A Necktie Full of Lies

        by Annette Herzog/Maja Bohn

        An authentic tale about a childhood in East Germany.   GDR, 1984. Once again, 12-year-old Sanne has to move with her unconventional mother and younger brother. Their newest destination: East Berlin, but since they don’t have a flat, Sanne’s mum just found them one to squat in. Not the best premise for fitting right in at school – and to make matters worse, her mum still won’t allow her to join the Pioneers and Sanne hates being the odd one out again. So in order to make her life a little easier, Sanne decides to lie. But how long can she keep this up without being found out? And can a proper friendship be built on a web of lies? Just when Sanne feels like she’s finally figured everything out, her mother thinks about moving again. Can Sanne prevent that from happening?

      • Fiction

        In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts / In Times of Fading Light

        by Eugen Ruge

        An adaptation of the famous novel for the theatre In 2011-2012, the family saga In Times of Fading Light written by German Book Prize winner Eugen Ruge was leading the bestsellers lists. Only a few know that the novel has its roots in a former theatre play. The German Theater Berlin recognized in Ruge’s narrative style how much the characters are molded by his monologues. Therefore, Eugen Ruge worked again on his family story to adapt the novel into a play for the big stage. The theatrical dramatization opens a new view on the story with higher focus on the conflicts inside the family. The family Umnitzer who was scattered to the four winds during the Second World War meet again at the beginning of the Fifties in the new-built German Democratic Republic. Four generations of the family members look for their own way through life in the GDR and after the fall of Communism.

      • Memoirs
        March 2018

        Owl place

        From the incredible life of Rudi Kleineich or search for happiness in a hard time

        by Harry Schmidt

        This excitingly written book takes place between winter 1945 and Christmas 1953 - with skilfully inserted flashbacks to the years 1919, 1923 and 1930. The owl village that gives the book its title is the Lindenhof estate workers' village in Vorpommern, a place without owls, without newspapers and without electricity. One of its inhabitants is the 25-year-old day laborer's son and "bee man" Rudi Kleineich, who is of military age, as it was then called, but suffers from the life-threatening hemophilia and yet has an unbridled will to live. This will is even increased when, in the turmoil of the time, he comes into possession of a voluminous encyclopedia from 1886. From it he learns that he does not necessarily have to die as early as his uncle, from whom he copied beekeeping. The actual action begins a few days before the Russian invasion, which is expected with great fear and uncertainty, and which is supposed to be just outside the village. When the Red Army actually arrives, many terrible things happen in Owl Village, too, with which the soldiers with the red star take revenge on their German enemies - especially on their wives, almost no matter how old or young they are. In this Vorpommerschen place, too, Harry Schmidt, in reference to the hard historical facts, lets a real rape frenzy of several days happen. Law and order seem to have capitulated to the violence of the war and even officers no longer know either decency or humanity. But then suddenly it is over. As if someone had flipped a switch in the occupying forces, the intoxication is ended, and where rape and murder could have been committed with impunity, the perpetrators from their own ranks are now threatened with drastic punishment - including summary executions. The new order is taking hold. But what will the future bring to the little people of Lindenhof? And does Rudi's tender love for Christel, the refugee girl, have a chance?

      • August 2021

        A Kind of Family

        Novel

        by Jo Lendle

        We don't choose the times we live in nor the times that shape us. Neither did Lud and Alma. Lud, who was born in 1899, and his brother Wilhelm revere Bach and Hölderlin, and share the same unattainable ideals. Wilhelm, who joins the Nazi party early on, measures others according to its standards; Lud measures himself by them, which torments him for the rest of his life. Alma lost her parents when she was a child, and her godfather Lud – who is only a few years older than her – and his housekeeper become a kind of new family for her. Lud is a pharmacology professor specialising in sleep and its induction, and while he spends his days at the university Alma is left home alone, unable to stop thinking about him. When he starts researching poison gas, he doesn't tell her about it. His struggle with his lofty ideals grows ever more desperate – for he can't get Gerhard, the man alongside whom he fought in the First World War, out of his head. Taking us on a journey from the days of the German empire to National Socialism, the early days of the GDR and post-war West Germany, Jo Lendle's scintillating novel is the story of a family falling apart, of guilt, of the meaning of science, and of the subtle difference between sleep, anaesthesia and death. It is the story of a German family – which just so happens to be his own.

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