East Germany

ESCAPE FROM PLAUEN tells the story of war’s depravation but also tells the story of faith and the will to triumph against all odds. “An artist as well as a writer, Renate Stoever has an artist's sensibility that lends beauty to her writing. As a result, the reader is not just an observer, but also a participant in her experience.This memoir of a remarkable life is a polished gem. It will keep you turning pages until the last word.” —Christine Royer, retired Vice-President of Public Affairs, Barnard College, N.Y. “I’ve been a professional editor for more than thirty years, ...

Das Haus in East Berlin is the true story of two German families - one Jewish, the other not - whose paths first crossed in Nazi Germany and 70 years later again in the United States in the quest to have a house, which was located in the former East Germany, returned to its rightful owner. You will find out how the two heirs, who started out as antagonists in the 10-year struggle over the ownership of the house, ended up co-authors of this audiobook.

Six family-friendly short stories connected by a common theme of Cold War spies and their families. Stories One Through Four take place in East and West Germany, Story Five (Unexpected Trouble) takes place in North America, and Story Six (Passing the Baton) goes back to Germany, but connects the stories together. The characters are all fictional, but the geography and the history are at least loosely based on what happened in real life. Please join me in a view of what things might have been like during the Cold War!

This important book traces the evolution of grassroots social movement in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) and reveals the democratically spirited, subversive forms of communication practiced behind the Wall before it fell in 1989. From the political jokes shared in private, to the informational events, underground publications, and weekly "peace prayers" that were sheltered by Evangelical-Lutheran churches, to the demonstrations of 1989, to the onslaught of exposé work after the Wall fell, East Germans resisted and rebelled in many humble but brilliant ways.

The European continent was devastated in the wake of World War II, and the conflict left the Soviet Union and the United States as uncontested superpowers. This ushered in over 45 years of the Cold War, and a political alignment of Western democracies against the Communist Soviet bloc that produced conflicts pitting allies on each sides fighting, even as the American and Soviet militaries never engaged each other.

Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Beate Haas, who defected from East Germany as a child, is notified that her parents’ abandoned mansion is available for her to reclaim. Newly divorced and eager to escape her bleak life in upstate New York, where she moved as an adult, she arrives with her two teenagers to discover a city that has become an unrecognizable ghost town.

At the start of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, the Soviets were so caught by surprise at the start of the attack that the Germans were able to push several hundred miles into Russia across a front that stretched dozens of miles long, reaching the major cities of Leningrad and Sevastopol in just three months. The first major Russian city in their path was Minsk, which fell in only six days. In order to make clear his determination to win at all costs, Stalin had the three men in charge of the troops defending Minsk executed for their failure to hold their position.

Was bedeutet es, eine Ost-Identität auferlegt zu bekommen? Eine Identität, die für die rasant wachsende gesellschaftliche Spaltung verantwortlich gemacht wird? Der Attribute wie Populismus, ein mangelndes Demokratieverständnis, Rassismus, Verschwörungsmythen und Armut zugeschrieben werden? Der Leipziger Germanist Dirk Oschmann zeigt in seinem augenöffnenden Text, dass der Westen sich über dreißig Jahre nach Mauerfall als Norm definiert und den Osten als Abweichung. Unsere Medien, Politik, Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft werden von westdeutschen Perspektiven dominiert.

“Happy, sad and all emotions!” Dull and predictable English retiree, Frank, gets more adventure than he bargained for when he sets off on a road trip across 1980s Europe hoping to shake up his mundane life. Be transported with him to Berlin as the Berlin Wall falls, to Nice in the South of France, and to Naples and Sicily. In East Germany, Frank finds getting in much easier than getting out. In France, Frank meets the exotic Delphine who persuades him to cast a lifetime of caution to the wind. He's having the time of his life on the Cote d'Azur until things get complicated and the two ...

In the wake of World War II, the European continent was devastated, and the conflict left the Soviet Union and the United States as uncontested superpowers. This ushered in over 45 years of the Cold War, and a political alignment of Western democracies against the Communist Soviet bloc that produced conflicts pitting allies on each sides fighting, even as the American and Soviet militaries never engaged each other. Though it never got “hot”, the Cold War was a tense era until the dissolution of the USSR, and nothing symbolized the split more than the Berlin Wall.

In 1945, Germany lay in ruins, morally and materially. The German people stood condemned by history, responsible for a horrifying genocide and a war of extermination. But by 2015 Germany looked to many to be the moral voice of Europe, welcoming almost one million refugees. At the same time, it pursued a controversially rigid fiscal discipline and made energy deals with a dictator. Many people have asked how Germany descended into the darkness of the Nazis, but this book asks another vital question: how, and how far, have the Germans since reinvented themselves?

Der Kampf um Freiheit in Ostdeutschland – Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuks kompromisslose Analyse. 1989/90 erlitt Ostdeutschland einen "Freiheitsschock", das ist die Grundthese dieses Hörbuches. Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk erzählt die Geschichte Ostdeutschlands seit 1990 als Kampf um die Freiheit – ein Kampf, dessen Ausgang richtungsweisend ist für die Zukunft ganz Deutschlands. Er will aufrütteln: zu mehr aktiver Eigenverantwortung, zu einer Abkehr von der eigenen Opferrolle und zu einem Blick auf die Geschichte, bei dem die DDR nicht immer schöner wird, je länger sie her ist.

"Wer in der Ost-West-Debatte mit Schuldbegriffen operiert, ist schon auf dem Holzweg." Die Diskussion über Ostdeutschland und das Verhältnis zwischen Ost und West flammt immer wieder auf. Sei es anlässlich runder Jubiläen, sei es nach Protesten. Und dennoch gibt es in dieser Debatte keine Verständnisfortschritte. Sie dreht sich im Kreis, auf Vorwürfe folgen Gegenvorwürfe: "Ihr seid diktatursozialisiert!" – "Ihr habt uns ökonomisch und symbolisch kleingemacht!" Im November jährt sich der Mauerfall zum 35. Mal. Bereits zuvor könnte die AfD aus drei Landtagswahlen als stärkste Partei hervorgehen.

Peter folded an easel in the corner to make a table. He brought cold cuts and bread and asked me what I thought of his paintings. Later I would learn that people here always ask you what you think of their paintings, and that it's wrong just to say you find them interesting, but perfectly alright to say you find them awful. . . . You come from a Jewish family, don't you?" asked Peter. "Yes," I said. "It doesn't matter," said the other painter. Doesn't matter? To whom? ~ Berlin—"East" and "West," day and of course night—through the 1980s before the Wall came down. In the eyes of a U.S. ...

It's summer 1962, and Joachim Rudolph, a student, is digging a tunnel under the Berlin Wall. Waiting on the other side in East Berlin - dozens of men, women and children, all willing to risk everything to escape. From the award-winning creator of the acclaimed BBC Radio 4 podcast, Tunnel 29 is the true story of the most remarkable escape tunnel dug under the Berlin Wall. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews with the survivors and thousands of pages of Stasi documents, Helena Merriman brilliantly reveals the stranger-than-fiction story.

On September 5, 1972, eight Palestinian terrorists belonging to the Black September faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) entered the Olympic Village in Munich, West Germany, and took 11 Israeli athletes and team members hostage. After a lengthy standoff and a bungled rescue operation, all 11 were killed. While today, Israel is one of the most divisive political subjects across the world, the Munich Massacre and the Israeli operations in response all came about entirely because of the emotional power inherent in the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Peter was born on the east side of Germany, the side that wasn't free. He watches news programs rather than cartoons, and wears scratchy uniforms instead of blue jeans. His family endures long lines and early curfews. But Peter knows it won't always be this way. Peter and his family have a secret. Late at night in their attic, they are piecing together a hot-air balloon—and a plan. Can Peter and his family fly their way to freedom?

World War I, also known in its time as the "Great War" or the "War to End all Wars," was an unprecedented holocaust in terms of its sheer scale. Fought by men who hailed from all corners of the globe, it saw millions of soldiers do battle in brutal assaults of attrition which dragged on for months, with little to no respite. Tens of millions of artillery shells and untold hundreds of millions of rifle and machine gun bullets were fired in a conflict that demonstrated man's capacity to kill each other on a heretofore unprecedented scale.

Nur gut 40 Jahre währte sie, die Geschichte der DDR, aber noch 20 Jahre nach ihrem Ende lässt sie die Menschen nicht los. Folgen Sie Christian von Ditfurth auf den Spuren des real existierenden Sozialismus.

Dr. Claude R. Foster, internationally acclaimed scholar of the German Reformation, a historian, a traveler, a poet. In Connections, he serves as a congenial tour guide through East Germany and other communist bloc countries during the height of the Cold War. Look through the eyes of an American history professor, travelling this region for over 50 years. Being fluent in the German language with extensive connections, he offers a level of insight rarely found by historians. His stories -- sometimes gripping, sometimes humorous and always memorable-- share his connections with German citizens...