Series
Volume 26
Studies in German History
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End Game
The 1989 Revolution in East Germany
Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk
Translated from the German by Patricia C. Sutcliffe
532 pages, bibliog., index
ISBN 978-1-80073-621-4 $179.00/£132.00 / Hb / Published (December 2022)
eISBN 978-1-80073-622-1 eBook
Reviews
Praise for the German Edition:
“This story is so far little known and not a big topic of the German public. Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk closes our knowledge gaps in an impressive way” • Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Description
The fall of the Berlin Wall, and the chain of events leading up to it, arguably constitute one of the most thoroughly documented episodes in recent history. Nonetheless, most accounts have focused predominantly on high-level politics and diplomacy along with the most dramatic and photogenic public displays. End Game, a rich, sweeping account of the autumn of 1989 as it was experienced “on the ground” in the German Democratic Republic, powerfully depicting the desolation and dysfunction that shaped everyday life for so many East Germans in the face of economic disruption and political impotence. Citizens’ frustration mounted until it bubbled over in the form of massive demonstrations and other forms of protest. Following the story up to the first free elections in March 1990, the volume combines abundant detail with sharp analysis and helps us to see this familiar historical moment through new eyes.
Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk is a historian in the research department of the Stasi Records Authority, where he has been on leave since 2018. Currently, he is a researcher at the Hamburg Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Culture to write a biography on Walter Ulbricht. He is the author of many books, including Die Übernahme. Wie Ostdeutschland Teil der Bundesrepublik wurde (2019), "Fasse Dich kurz!” Der grenzüberschreitende Telefonverkehr der Opposition in den 1980er Jahren und das Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (2014), and 17. Juni 1953 (2013), Stasi konkret. Überwachung und Repression in der DDR (2013),
Subject: History: 20th Century to Present
Area: Germany
Contents
Download ToC (PDF)