Richard Walter

In this wonderful history of the DDR, Katja Hoyer describes life inside that small energy deprived orphan state. This nuanced account of both the corruptions and benevolences of the political establishment and lived experiences of its citizens, that we have been repeatedly encouraged to inter deep in the crypt of European 20th Century communist history, are here gently resurrected that we might understand better the DDR's quite miraculous but short life. The absentee matriarchal FDR together with the abusive patriarchal USSR, in turns, both bullied, neglected, cajoled and indulged their progeny as they played tug-of-love with her from day one. The truth is always more difficult than the propaganda.