The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic 1945-1990

The last book I presented to you in our blog was a novel, a fictive story about some people in Berlin and around the killing strip. Today my book presentation is about real history, about facts and figures, about true events and the people who are involved in it.

The historian Mike Dennis, professor of Modern History, wrote a book about the GDR. He follows up with the origins of the communism and the state construction after World War II. At the beginning he also mentions topics like the “trauma of rape” or the denazification.  The society and economy are also subjects besides the different political phases in the GDR. The book deals with Walter Ulbricht and the phase of stabilization. The political era of Honecker is as well subject as the eve of the revolution and the actual revolution in autumn 1989, which was partially really unexpected.

Very interesting are the chapters about the origins of the GDR, the handling of the Soviets with the Nazis in their sector and at the end of the book the question, where are the differences and similarities between the GDR and the Third Reich. These chapters go beyond the pure GDR history and give an insight in the circumstances before and after the building of the second German state.

Besides a list of abbreviations at the beginning of the book there is at the end a huge bibliography. Furthermore there are after every chapter the concerned references which are important for the single chapters. So the reader has immediately an overview of the used literature.

The book is recommendable for all readers who are interested in the history of the GDR, the background of the state foundation and the path the GDR followed till its end.

The book was published in 2000 by Pearson Education Limited and the ISBN is 0-582-24562-1.