The German Democratic Republic

About this book

This book is a succinct yet comprehensive history of East Germany, providing a differentiated picture of the communist state. It offers a sophisticated analysis of life under dictatorship, candidly confronting the abuses of the East German Communist Party (SED) and the Stasi state security service. Ned Richardson-Little delves into the central contradictions of the GDR as a state meant to overcome the horrors of the Third Reich and create a new utopia, while itself being a brutal dictatorship. He also convincingly argues that although the existence of the GDR was a product of the Cold War, it was also entangled in international politics well beyond the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. In this way, the book offers a history of the GDR from a global perspective, illustrating the worldviews of those who ruled it, those who rebelled against the strictures of state socialism, and those in between who sought a normal life under dictatorship.