Beyond the Wall

Forget everything you thought you knew about life in the GDR. This terrifically colourful, surprising and enjoyable history of the socialist state is full of surprises – Dominic Sandbrook * The Sunday Times *What makes this meticulous book essential reading is not so much its sense of what East Germans lost, as 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 *Brilliant… Hoyer is a historian of immense ability… Exhaustively researched, cleverly constructed and beautifully written, this much needed history of the GDR should be required reading across her homeland. Five stars – Saul David * Daily Telegraph *A from-start-to-finish account of the East Germany where Hoyer was born, which means not just the Stasi but also day jobs, picnics and rock albums. The result is a complete reconstruction of a country that stopped existing 23 years ago’ * Prospect Magazine, Books of the Year 2023 *Absolutely fascinating – Andrew Marr * LBC *A rich, counterintuitive history of a country all too often dismissed as a freak or accident of the cold war * Observer *Myth-busting, artfully constructed history… Katja Hoyer displays a special understanding and wants to present a corrective to previous reductive assessments of the GDR that depict it as a field-grey Stasiland… Her command of detail, broad historical brush strokes and evident sympathy for her interview partners make for a fascinating read – Roger Boyes * The Times *Enthralling, fascinating and very readable. An extraordinary book. Five stars – Peter Hitchens * Mail on Sunday *A fast-paced, vivid and engaging book. Beyond the Wall does much to combat amnesia and Cold War prejudice, and to normalize the GDR and the people who lived there * TLS *Having begun her life behind the wall, Hoyer tells the story of the GDR with emotional intensity; but also with the detachment and balance of a professional historian who is determined to portray both the good and bad. And a very interesting stroy it is, too – Oliver Letwin * The Tablet *

Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian, journalist and the author of the international bestseller Beyond the Wall as well as Blood and Iron. A visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, she is a columnist for the Washington Post and hosts the podcast The New Germany together with Oliver Moody. She was born in East Germany and is now based in the UK.