The Real Story Of Communist East Germany | Katja Hoyer | Downstream

Comments · 1.2K

• BO

  @Boni-i1l · 2 years ago

  Dear Ms. Hoyer,<br><br>I grew up in East-Germany, had a very peaceful childhood, excellent free education with highschool diploma, skilled workers apprenticeship, served the army for 3 years and finally an again free four years-long university visit finalising it as an electric-electronic engineer with all the credentials.<br>Then the wall just came down. The next 30++ years I travelled all continents as an engineer installing and repairing machines. I spent often weeks and months on end in these countries setting up factories. So I&apos;ve seen various political systems and partially lived under them, although only as a guest at the time.<br><br>Your book is excellent, my childhood memories keep setting in somewhere in the middle of the book (1970 onward).<br><br>It is the best book ever describing our lives and the system we lived in. I keep buying and sending it to all my friends and family members all over the world and they are all excited. Because, quote: &quot;There is so much we did not know about it because our own propaganda and media&quot;. <br>Since you are not leaving the sad and harsh points out but still describe the enormous progress this little, peaceful, ambivalent and certainly imperfect country achieved there is finally a feel that someone is interested to tell the true story about it without all this endless, and so wrong mouth-foaming.<br><br>Thank you so much and I will keep buying and distributing your book. The next one goes into the USA by next week.<br><br>Cheers and Peace! from Dresden / Germany

  342

• FI

  @FirstBoyOnTheMoon1 · 2 years ago

  I lived in Berlin several years ago. The former East Germans that i befriended were some of the most open minded, friendly and intelligent people that I&apos;ve ever met.

  201

• SC

  @scogginsscoggins · 3 years ago

  Living here in Hanoi, Vietnam, many of my work colleagues studied in the former DDR and they all have positive comments on their experience. &nbsp;It seems that the East Germans were very friendly and well informed regarding Vietnamese history , and not once did they feel racism or exclusion. &nbsp;Haters of the DDR need to remember that many less developed countries benefitted from the generosity of the socialist block and the Vietnamese will never forget who are their true friends.

  331

• HA

  @hariowen3840 · 3 years ago

  Sigmund Jähn, East German cosmonaut who became the first German in space in 1978.

  70

• JU

  @juniatapark54 · 3 years ago

  I visited the GDR throughout the 1970&apos;s and 1980&apos;s and it was an interesting mix: nudist beaches, punk bands, gay bars, censorship, constant police presence.

  147

• TH

  @theaberg2567 · 1 year ago

  Wow, I can&apos;t believe I missed this a year ago, what a gem of an interview! I grew up in the GDR myself

  18

• JA

  @jameshazelwood9433 · 3 years ago

  Real shame there was not more discussion on the desater of the 90s and still really shows today for working classes in east Germany

  47

• MI

  @michaeldemarco1465 · 1 year ago

  Excellent, insightful interview. &nbsp;Despite my having already read Beyond the Wall and reviewed it for my blog, I still gained new insights from this interview. &nbsp;Both you and Dr. Hoyer treated this topic with the nuance that it deserves.

  16

• RI

  @RichardGraham-l6f · 2 years ago

  I travelled around East Germany in the summer of 1969. I must say that I found the East German people ,without exception, to be much friendlier and more polite and mannerly than the West Germans!

  108

• SH

  @sheryla54 · 3 years ago

  Great interview, so enlightening. ❤️ More of this sort of stuff please 🙏

  20

• RA

  @ratnadipdas8219 · 3 years ago

  This interview and the one with Lea Ypi make for a pair of fascinating conversations

  22

• KE

  @kenk4269 · 3 years ago

  Great conversation Aaron.

  16