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 Bloomberg and Berliner Zeitung and a commentator on German current affairs for many British newspapers. She was born in Germany and is now based in the UK.
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
*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
*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
*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
*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
*The Times*
Enthralling, fascinating and very readable. An extraordinary book.
Five stars
*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
*The Tablet*
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