This book explores the reasons why the post-World War II Communist regime in East Germany outlasted both the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich.

Historical analysis of the German Democratic Republic has tended to adopt a top-down model of the transmission of authority. However, developments were more com

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was the beginning of one of the most interesting natural experiments in recent history. The East German transition from a Co

A clear, concise and thought-provoking introduction to the history of East Germany which engages critically with key debates and advances new interpretations of

For roughly the first decade after the demise of the GDR, professional and popular interpretations of East German history concentrated primarily on forms of pow