WHO SITS ON THIS SIDE AND ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL

Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation with Katja Hoyer

WHO SITS ON THIS SIDE AND ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL

The historiography of the GDR is still the subject of heated debate. Or is again.

The historian Katja Hoyer, who grew up in East Germany and now works in London, has sparked controversy with „This side of the Wall, a new history of the GDR 1949-1990“: Her attempt to once again bring the „vanished country“ onto the stage has been met with enthusiasm, but also with opposition. Since the GDR was united with the FRG, history no longer belongs to the East Germans. Hoyer portrays German socialism from the perspective of those who experienced it themselves. She does not whitewash the dictatorship, but she describes everyday life and social achievements that some people like to remember.

Katja Hoyer, born in the GDR in 1985, now lives in London. She conducts research at King's College London and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. As a columnist for the Washington Post, she regularly writes about German and European society and politics, and comments on historical topics for the BBC and the Spectator. Her first book „Blood and Iron. The Rise and Fall of the German Empire 1871-1918“ was one of the best books of 2021 according to the Financial Times.

 Tessa Szyszkowitz, born in Stuttgart, has lived in London since 2010. The journalist and author was previously a correspondent in Moscow, Brussels and Jerusalem. She is a columnist for Weltpolitik in Falter, curator of the Philoxenia series at the Kreiskyforum and a Distinguished Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

Katja Hoyer: 
This side of the Wall. A new history of the GDR 1949-1990 
Hoffmann and Campe, 2023, ISBN: 978-3-455-01568-3, 28,- €