Free Thinking

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Free Thinking: East Germany

East Germany

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, East Germany

Katja Hoyer on East Germany, behind the Berlin Wall and the Cold War caricature.

Anne McElvoy hears about a new history of East Germany and why we need to dismantle the old clichés about the DDR.

Katja Hoyer and Karen Leeder join Anne McElvoy to discuss new histories of East Germany, stories depicting life in the state which have recently been translated into English as well as a recently translated edition of Uwe Wittstock's February 1933.  Plus, Emily Oliver on the history of BBC German service and Elizabeth Ward is beginning a research project on the cinema of East Germany and its involvement in International Film Festivals.   

Katja Hoyer's book is called Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990
Professor Karen Leeder has been reading February 1933, a new translated work by one Germany’s leading contemporary writers, Uwe Wittstock 

Producer: Ruth Watts 

You can find other conversations about German culture and history available on BBC Sounds and as the Arts & Ideas podcast 
New angles on post-war Germany and Austria: Florian Huber, Sophie Hardach, Adam Scovell and Tom Smith   https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0006sjx 
Cuba, cold war and RAF Fylingdales: Ian McEwan's novel sets a relationship against the backdrop of the Cuban missile crisis and the fall of the wall in Berlin plus new research  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001c05p
The 1920s - Philosophy's Golden Age  Wittgenstein changed his mind, Heidegger revolutionised philosophy (and the German language), and both the Frankfurt School and the Vienna Circle were in full swing. Matthew Sweet is joined by Wolfram Eilenberger, David Edmonds and Esther Leslie. Plus, a report on the plight of the Lukacs Archive in Budapest https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000q380
Walls: Novelist John Lanchester, journalist Tim Marshall and historians David Frye and Kylie Murray   https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002150

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