Beyond the Wall

A History of East Germany

By: Katja Hoyer

Narrated by: Sam Peter Jackson

AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the ashes of the Second World War to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the definitive history of East Germany, "a fascinating, sparkling book, filled with insights" (Peter Frankopan)

In 1990, a country disappeared. When the Iron Curtain fell, East Germany ceased to be. For over forty years, from the ruin of the Second World War to the cusp of a new millennium, the German Democratic Republic presented a radically different Germany than what had come before and what exists today. Socialist solidarity, secret police, central planning, barbed wire: this was a Germany forged on the fault lines of ideology and geopolitics.

In Beyond the Wall, acclaimed historian Katja Hoyer sets aside the usual Cold War caricatures of the GDR to offer a kaleidoscopic new vision of this vanished country, revealing the rich political, social, and cultural landscape that existed amid oppression and hardship. Drawing on a vast array of never-before-seen interviews and documents, this is the definitive history of the other Germany, beyond the Wall.

©2023 Katja Hoyer (P)2023 Basic Books

Critic reviews

“Myth-busting, artfully constructed history. Hoyer displays a special understanding and wants to present a corrective to previous reductive assessments of the GDR that depict it as a field-gray Stasiland. Her command of detail, broad historical brush strokes, and evident sympathy for her interview partners make for a fascinating read.” —Roger Boyes, Times (London)

“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.” —Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times

"What makes this meticulous book essential reading is not so much its sense of what East Germans lost but of what we never had. A history of the GDR that adds stability, contentment, and women’s rights to the familiar picture of authoritarianism.” —Stuart Jeffries, Guardian

Opening Our Eyes to DDR

Wonderful. An open and deep discourse into the DDR, what it meant to live there, and the political and economic struggles. As someone who grew up in Western Europe of the 60s, 70s and 80s this book stands as a stark contrast to the simplified presentation our media provided us of real life behind the Wall. Thank you to Katja Hoyer for opening my eyes.

Outstanding

The narrative is very well told, and the history is fair-minded, well-researched, and clear-sighted. The author uses the experience of ordinary people as an entry point into the history of the GDR, which gives the history a real sense of time and place. The audiobook narrator does an excellent job as well.

Good summary of ordinary life in the DDR

The story does a good job of the founding of the DDR and the people behind it. Once the country is formed it then mostly shifts to talking about daily life in the country. It does go into a lot of detail about how people lived and how the majority of them were mostly happy, almost to a fault. It’s probably true that most people didn’t have any trouble with the Stasi, but outside of taking about the founding of the organization and occasionally mentioning it, you’d barely know what they did and the kind of brutal methods they used. They mention how the DDR had mass emigration problems but barely talk about why.

The fall of the DDR also barely gets any detail. According to the book everyone was happy (even though emigration was still a priority for many people) but just one day they decided to rise up against the state with barely any detail of why the people were so unhappy and starting to revolt. They don’t even talk about the fall of the Berlin Wall, just a few stories of people who walked across the border when it opened. No mention of Honecker being tried for his crimes afterwards and how he had to escape the country.

Some people might think that it has too much of a positive bias, but again, this book is about the people who lived there and what they experienced and for the most part they just lived their lives the best they could without getting involved in politics or caring about the rest of the world. So, for better or for worse, that’s what you’re getting. There are a couple stories of people who were harassed by the Stasi, but even those examples were people who got off light. Perhaps some stories of people who were targeted by the state and suffered under the regime would have given some different and welcome perspectives.

The book is fantastic with plenty of details of how people lived in the DDR and these are stories worth remembering. Just be aware that if you’re looking more for a macro view of the country’s history and fall, you may be disappointed.

Great work on an overlooked subject.

I found this book to be insightful and entertaining. A great history of the DDR.

Very well researched and written

It was very in-depth and tried to be balanced to represent different viewpoints. It was interesting and an easy listen

Well written and accurate

Shortly after the wall fell, we lived in Bayreuth, Germany for a year. That city is located less than 40 miles from the former border city of Hof. This book correctly reflected what we experienced during that time. We watched the euphoria of the first few months when former east Germans drove the 40 miles to Bayreuth to buy bananas and electronics with the “welcome money” they had received. Within 6 months though, that euphoria had faded and the complex problems of reuniting two countries back into one became obvious. Former east Germans were initially welcomed, but then resented by west Germans for things like expecting subsidized daycare for working mothers. I also remember many stories about west German businesses scooping up east German businesses for pennies. A few years after the reunification I asked a former west German how long it would take for the country to feel united again. He said decades. That has proved to be true.

Lived it from the FRG as an American Soldier

I was stationed in West Germany as an American Soldier from 1987-90. I was flying an OH58 helicopter on a training flight the night the wall opened up in Berlin. I was confused to say the least but over the next few months saw more and more curious East Germans in their Trabis. It was very historic but of course I didn’t understand the history until listening to this book. I saw the author on a podcast discussing current German politics when this book was mentioned in her introduction. Glad I saw that and it leading to this book which gave me a much greater understanding of not only the reunification of Germany but also the history of how the Eastern link to the USSR was a strained relationship at best.

One of my biggest regrets was never getting to East Berlin as an American Soldier. The plan was to go towards the end of my tour in order to purchase inexpensive home furnishings (crystal, plates, etc) like my predecessors. East Germany didn’t last long enough and I never experienced the drama of the train ride and walking through Checkpoint Charlie. Today’s tourist trap near the original checkpoint doesn’t do it justice.

Great history

I visited west germany as a college-and again as a post-graduate -student in the 1980s and was fascinated by the modern history of the two germanys. A brief foray into east berlin demonstrated many obvious if superficial differences.
This history of how the differences evolved, with an emphasis on the fact the east germans saw their own system as “normal”, is so valuable. The complicated politics of each system, and the story of how reunification gradually occurred — just fascinating

Accessibility

A very accessible, engaging, and thought-provoking history that mixes big picture political movements with daily life.

Fascinating, balanced history

Fascinating and unique overview of East German history, highlighting the dark as well as the creative aspects of its forty year growth.