Radio GDR - East Germany Podcast

Hello everyone! Season 4 is coming! We also have a new domain this season - radiogdrpodcast.com. Please do visit us soon to tell us your GDR story! I'll be updating show notes across old episodes so you can the same great content at our new website.

Season 4 is coming! Look forward to announcing more details soon.

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at https://www.radiogdrpodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.radiogdrpodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

In this episode John Paul Kleiner (GDR Objectified blog) speaks with Attila the Stockbroker, an English poet, musician and songwriter with roots in the punk movement and socialist politics. During his forty year career as independent artist, Attila has produced numerous albums and books and performed more than 3,800 shows including many in the GDR and, after unification, eastern Germany.

In this conversation, Attila vividly recalls his visits to the East, the people whom he met there and aspects of the Workers and Peasants State which were an inspiration and other which left him disgusted.

Find Attila’s active Facebook page by clicking here.

Learn more about his books and albums on Bandcamp

There’s a great mini-doc of Attila done a few years back by filmmaker Farouq Suleiman that gives a great sense of his energy and art on YouTube here.

You can hear poem and song “This is Free Europe” inspired by Attila’s experiences at a 1992 gig in Hoyerswerda here.

Glossary of terms Laibach: a Slovenian based music group / avant-garde art project which incorporates totalitarian aesthetics into a variety of musical styles to unsettling effect.

A-Levels: university qualifying exams for British secondary school students

John Peel was a DJ for the BBC between 1967 and 2004 during which time he helped popularize a number of musical genres including psychedelic and progressive rock as well as punk.

New Town Neurotics are an English melodic punk band formed in 1979 and whose work took a decidedly political turn with the advent of Thatcherism in the U.K. It was through his connections to this group that Attila first made his way to the GDR.

In the 1980s, the multiethnic London neighbourhood of Brixton was best known as a site of great social unrest due to widespread poverty and strained relations between residents and police. In more recent years, the area has undergone considerable gentrification, but echoes of

Buna and Leuna: in the GDR-era, these two large-scale chemical combines were essential economic drivers and creators of truly appalling environmental degradation. Read more on the impact these facilities had on the East German environment in this post from the GDR Objectified blog.

Bündnis 90 / Alternative Linke: Alliance ’90 and Alternative Left were left-oriented political movements which emerged from the foment of anti-SED protests in the mid- to late-1980s in the GDR.

Die Skeptiker (The Sceptics) are a German punk band originally formed in East Berlin in 1986. While critical of the realities of ‘real-existing socialism’, the band were keen to carve out a place for themselves in the GDR music scene and used opportunities open to them within the system (incl. officially sanctioned live shows and appearances on GDR radio and new music compilation albums) to present their music to as wide an audience as possible.

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

In 1952, a 24-year old American soldier defected to the Eastern Bloc in order to avoid a US Army disciplinary hearing and what he feared would be draconian punishment for his involvement in socialist and communist politics in the United States. This decision put his life on an entirely new trajectory, one that left him with a new name, Victor Grossman, and left him in the then young German Democratic Republic, a country that became his home for the remaining 37+ years of his existence. A committed socialist, Grossman identified closely with the aims of the East German state, but always maintained a critical perspectives on his new home.

Over two discussions with Radio GDR host John Paul Kleiner, Grossman takes stock of “the workers and peasants state,” talking about its successes and why it failed.

John Paul would like to give special thanks to his friend Marcus Funck in Berlin for assistance with this interview. Without this help, it wouldn’t have happened, so thank you, Marcus!

For more resources on Victor Grossman, including information on his book, please visit https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/s3e20

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

I am truly honored to be joined today by author and illustrator Vesper Stamper who in 2022 published Berliners, a historical fiction about two twin brothers, Rudi and Peter, who end up divided by their views of the GDR and then, quite literally, by the Berlin Wall. This is a must read, guys. Listen as we talk to Vesper about how the theme of "history rhymes" inspired this book, how the characters reckon with Judaism, race and their Nazi pasts and how each twin develops opposing views of the GDR that have lasting consequences. Keep your eye out for the Stasi in this one too, guys, and look out for Vesper's beautiful illustrations which make you pause to meditatively reflect on the story. The book is Berliners by Vesper Stamper, and also check out her other novels What the Night Sings and a Cloud of Outrageous Blue. You will not be disappointed when you pick these up.

For more about Vesper and Berliners, check out these links

www.vesperillustration.com

Berliners

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at  https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

Hello everyone, and welcome to yet another incredible episode of Radio GDR. We are on episode 3 of 3 of our listener interviews to round out season 3. I hope you have enjoyed hearing about fellow listeners' interest in the GDR as much as I have. In our final listener interview, I have the honor of speaking to Kris Hinz of Australia, who was adopted from Sri Lanka to a German dad who visited the GDR often to see family. Kris' memories of his father's trips and how they influenced his father's perceptions of the GDR color his own opinions of what the country's legacy is today. Here how Kris reflects on his father's experiences, his view of Ostalgie and how he weighs both the positive and negative aspects of the GDR. We appreciate you being a loyal listener, Kris, and are grateful for your interview as well. Thank you!

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at  https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

We are interviewing some of our most special listeners this season in gratitude for your amazing contributions to make season 3 of this podcast so special. We are especially grateful to the listeners who financially contributed to this season via our Patreon. One of our contributors, Fred Esposito, has gone above and beyond this season as our lone Interflug member at $35 a month. Thank you so much for your generosity, Fred, as you really made the behind the scenes work for the podcast that much easier. For Fred's kindness, we sat down and talked about what fascinates him about the GDR. Fred and I share the same love for Frederick Kempe's book Berlin 1961. Like me, Fred believes we should do everything in our power to preserve history, which explains his generosity, and through Radio GDR, Fred has gained much knowledge as well as some new friends. Please enjoy my conversation with Fred, who was fundamental to making this podcast happen this year.

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at  https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

I have said this often, but I am so grateful to you all for your continued loyalty to the podcast this season. Most of you all don't know this, but I got this amazing gig when Shane Whaley interviewed me as a listener of the show back in 2020. I love the concept of interviewing our listeners so much that, to color the back half of season 3, I have interviewed 3 of you, the listeners, on why more than 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall the GDR still fascinates you.

Many of you have personal connections to the GDR, some of which have been formed in this modern era. My new friend Mark Neese's son studied German and is dating the daughter of a family who once lived in the GDR. Mark is a loyal listener who is excited to share his story about his 2021 and 2022 trips to Radebeul, Dresden and Leipzig where he fell in love with GDR architecture, especially the residence hall in which his son lives as a student at the University of Leipzig. Listen as Mark describes his interest in GDR music and the GDR books he recommends to fellow listeners. Thank you so much for your time, Mark!

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at  https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

Hello, everyone, and welcome to our third installment of our interview with Ralph Hanel, Kung Fu Master, former Stasi prisoner and amazing storyteller. I am so glad you have enjoyed the first two installments, and Ralph and I sat down for a third interview to talk about the objects he has collected in recent years that remind him of his survival story. Today, Ralph tells us about his Stasi handcuffs, his GDR kung fu certificate, how special PanAm is in his life and about other objects that we really started called his "Corner GDR Museum." This was a really special experience for me, and Ralph has started posting pictures of these objects in the Facebook group. You will really enjoy this episode.

Ralph, we're so grateful to you for telling your stories.

You MUST listen to Ian Sanders' three part interview of Ralph before listening to these. They will absolutely set the context for these episodes, and are MUST LISTENS. 

Episode 1 - Ralph – DJing and Kung Fu in East Germany

Episode 2 - Ralph – Arrested and interrogated by the Stasi

Episode 3 - Ralph – A prisoner in an East German jail

Read Ralph's short stories using this link

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at  https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

Welcome to another incredible episode of Radio GDR. Judging by your extremely positive reaction, you thoroughly enjoyed part 1 of our three part interview with Ralph Hanel, Kung Fu Master, former stasi prisoner and an incredible survivor. Now it's time for part 2 - listen how Ralph confronts his past when he discovers how his ex-girlfriend oddly "borrowed" a baby in his name after they broke up, what stasi handcuffs did to his wrists when he was in prison, and how he became an actor and even played a role as an East German general. We even hear about the book of poison - you'll have to listen to the episode to find out about that interesting nugget. Ralph's story of survival inspires me, and I hope it does the same with you.

You MUST listen to Ian Sanders' three part interview of Ralph before listening to these. They will absolutely set the context for these episodes, and are MUST LISTENS. 

Episode 1 - Ralph – DJing and Kung Fu in East Germany

Episode 2 - Ralph – Arrested and interrogated by the Stasi

Episode 3 - Ralph – A prisoner in an East German jail

Read Ralph's short stories using this link

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at  https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Radio GDR. This is your host Steve Minegar, and the next three episodes will truly be a humbling and eye opening experience for all of us. On the Cold War Conversations podcast, our good friend Ian Sanders interviewed Ralph Hänel, Kung Fu Master, actor and just plain wonderful guy, about the lengths he went to learn martial arts behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany. In an attempt to leave for the west, Ralph was arrested and spent several years in a Stasi prison in Cottbus known as the “red misery.” Ralph relays this incredible story over three episodes on Cold War Conversations, which I highly recommend you listen to before consuming this series of episodes - see the links below. Ralph is an amazing storyteller and approached me to relay even more of his tragic but triumphant tale. Inspired by objects he has collected that have reminded him of moments in his life, Ralph tells us in this first episode about his father’s possible involvement in the Stasi, the lawyer he may have arranged for his son to get out of prison, and the psychological torture the Stasi inflicted on him and his mother. Just wait until you hear about how Ralph got his Kung Fu certificate into East Germany, the messages he snuck into a hole in his tooth and his Stasi handcuffs (I won’t give too many spoilers away). Ralph, we appreciate these stories very much.

You MUST listen to Ian Sanders' three part interview of Ralph before listening to these. They will absolutely set the context for these episodes, and are MUST LISTENS. 

Episode 1 - Ralph – DJing and Kung Fu in East Germany

Episode 2 - Ralph – Arrested and interrogated by the Stasi

Episode 3 - Ralph – A prisoner in an East German jail

Read Ralph's short stories using this link

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at  https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

Did you know East German artists used their Stasi files as artwork after the fall of the Berlin wall? Ever heard of the Erfurt Women's Artists Group who stormed the Stasi Headquarters in their city? These were jaw-dropping facts I learned when I read Parallel Public - Experimential Art in Late East Germany by our guest today, Dr. Sara Blaylock, Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Sara's book is a masterpiece and reveals that experimential artists in the final years of the GDR did not practice their art in the shadows, on the margins, hiding away from the Stasi's prying eyes. Instead, these artists used media like photography, film, and performances to cultivate a critical influence over the very bureaucracies meant to keep them in line, undermining state authority through forthright rather than covert projects. Some East German artists made their country's experimental art scene a form of counter public life, creating an alternative to the crumbling collective underpinnings of the state. Let's hear from Sara about the incredible insights she gained through the interviews and work she conducted to put this amazing book together.

Be sure to purchase Sara's book using this link!

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at  https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

I often speak about what a privilege it is to preserve the stories of the past, many of which are disappearing quickly, through this podcast. You our contributors and listeners are truly helping us to advance that mission. In today's episode of Radio GDR, I'm honored to be joined by teacher and author Daniel Burghard all the way from Berlin who with his book The Things They've Seen - Reflections on WWII and the Cold War by German Eyewitnesses fulfills our common mission as he captures the stories of people who experienced the great political whiplash of living through the tail end of WWII and Nazi Germany and the Communist regime of the GDR. The interviews he conducted are moving - his subjects tell stories of how they ran from Allied bombs, spent time in a Stasi prison, worked to fulfill dreams of living in the GDR even in the midst its great brain drain and dealt with the effects of the Berlin Wall's construction on their family. How these people confront the scars of their past moved Daniel, and I could feel his sense of empathy as he described what he learned from them. We have the privilege of having three interviews in one today - let's hear from Daniel about three of the people with whom he spoke and what he learned about how they survived one of the most tumultuous times in modern history.

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at  https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at  https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

There is no shortage of recent articles regarding the too long overlooked subject of female directors. While many of these articles are specific to the women directing films today (Patty Jenkins, Kelly Reichardt, Kathryn Bigelow, etc.), there are many more that claim to be comprehensive overviews of the contributions made by women to the art of cinema. These articles are careful to remember female directors from the distant past (Lotte Reiniger, Alice Guy-Blaché) and the ones who boldly made films in Hollywood when women weren’t even considered for jobs as directors (Dorothy Arzner, Ida Lupino, Barbara Loden). They are careful to include women of color (Gina Prince-Bythewood, Chloé Zhao), and they don’t forget the well-known foreign women directors (Lina Wertmüller, Agnès Varda, Chantal Akerman). But there’s one group of female directors who haven’t been given due credit for their work: The female directors of East Germany.

You can go through as many articles on the topic of female directors as you’re willing to read, and you won’t find Iris Gusner, Evelyn Schmidt, or Hannelore Unterberg mentioned at all. Never mind that the films by these women are often better than any of the films made by some of the directors that did make those lists. Even the list of female directors Wikipedia includes no female East German directors.

Join us today as we speak with Jim Morton, author of the East German Cinema Blog, and Jeffrey Babcock, who curated a program on East German cinema for the Goethe Institute in Amsterdam, on the often overlooked topic of female directors in DEFA films. 

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at  https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at  https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

Gay spies and espionage….absolutely one of the most incredible topics you can study about the GDR. On today's episode of Radio GDR, we are going to dive into the topic of LGBT espionage, life and struggle for equality behind the Iron Curtain. We have the honor to be joined by Dr. Samuel Huneke, assistant professor of history at George Mason University and author of the riveting book States of Liberation - Gay Men Between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany. In the book, Huneke traces the path of gay men in East and West Germany from the violent aftermath of the Second World War to the thundering nightclubs of present-day Berlin. Following a captivating cast of characters, from gay spies and Nazi scientists to queer politicians and secret police bureaucrats, States of Liberation tells the remarkable story of how the two German states persecuted gay men - and how those men slowly, over the course of decades, won new rights and created new opportunities for themselves in the heart of Cold War Europe. Relying on untapped archives in Germany and the United States as well as oral histories with witnesses and survivors, Huneke reveals that communist East Germany was in many ways far more progressive on queer issues than democratic West Germany.

Dr. Huneke's book is fantastic and is available here - States of Liberation. Check out Dr. Huneke's bio here.

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at  https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at  https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

Venceremos! We will overcome! This one word defined the socialist political movement of Salvador Allende's presidency in Chile and, after the military coup of 1973, rolled off the tongues of Chilean exiles and musical bands who found a new home in East Germany. As many of you know, I have long been interested in the GDR's international relations, particularly with Chile given that I studied abroad there in 2007. I was amazed to learn that Chilean refugees fled to the GDR after the 1973 military coup in Chile, that many Chilean bands appeared at political festivals in East Berlin and that Erich Honecker, the deposed general secretary of the SED, died in exile in Santiago, Chile in 1994. John Paul Kleiner introduced me to today's guest, Jesse Freedman, because of our shared interest in the connections between Chile and East Germany, specifically the Festival des Politischen Liedes, or Festival of Political Songs, a musical festival held for many decades during the GDR's existence that hosted bands from Chile and around the world in the name of socialist solidarity. Jesse is a doctoral candidate in ethnomusicology at the University of California, Riverside. His research focuses on the reception and role of Chilean nueva canción, a revolutionary musical movement in the 60s and 70s, and the experience of Chilean exiles in the former German Democratic Republic during the years of the Pinochet military dictatorship. Let's join Jesse as he tells us about the history of this festival, the role Chilean bands like Inti-Illimani, Quilapayun and Illapu played to popularize revolutionary music in East Germany and how the festival shaped the GDR's foreign policy all the way until its end.

For more information on the Festival of Political Songs and Chilean bands in the GDR, check out https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/s3e8

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

From an outside perspective, it would seem that human rights would be an idea that the East German regime would have had great difficulty reconciling itself with. However, in this episode of the pod, Dr. Ned Richardson-Little, author of The Human Rights Dictatorship: Socialism, Global Solidarity, and Revolution in East Germany, explains how the ruling SED Party fostered the development of a concept of human rights which was compatible with the socialist regime’s domestic and international aims and rejected a liberal individualist understandings of such rights.

Dr. Richardson-Little joins host John Paul Kleiner (GDR Objectified blog) to discuss how human rights evolved within SED from a subject the Party was uncomfortable with to one which, for an extended period of time, played a key role in helping secure support for the socialist project in the GDR. He also unpacks how human rights were understood within the population and the role human rights discourses played in bringing down ‘real existing socialism’ in 1989.

Dr. Ned Richardson-Little is a Freigeist Fellow at Universität Erfurt, Germany, where he leads a project on international crime and globalization. Some of you may have encountered him on Twitter @HistoryNed handle or his blog “Superfluous Answers to Necessary Questions”.

More information on subjects raised in this episode:

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

This episode seeks to answer a burning question - what does an artist do with a piece of the Berlin Wall? In our last episode, we interviewed Dr. Jim Doti, Professor and President Emeritus of Chapman University in Orange, California (chapman.edu), about how Chapman secured a piece of the Berlin Wall for the university's lovely campus. Today I am honored to be joined by Chapman's own Professor Emeritus Richard Turner, the artist who designed Liberty Plaza where Chapman's Berlin Wall is displayed. Liberty Plaza is breathtaking - set amongst crepe myrtle trees, the Berlin Wall sits in an oval reflecting pool ringed by Abraham Lincoln's quote "A House Divided Cannot Stand." A stone chair inspired by the Lincoln Memorial sits on a mound facing the wall encouraging students and visitors to consider the importance of freedom. Richard tells us how his time in Asia in the 1960s inspired his beautiful public art projects, which range from metro stations, public parks and water treatment facilities to a justice center, veterans’ memorial and a university chapel. His public work is guided by a desire to make pieces that are accessible but not obvious, pieces that reveal themselves over time to a diverse audience. Thank you, Professors Turner, Doti and Chapman University, for this amazing story.

To learn more about Dr. Doti and Professor Turner's efforts to bring the Berlin Wall to Chapman University, visit https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/s3e5 and https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/s3e6. Learn more about Richard Turner and his art by visiting http://www.turnerprojects.com/about

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

There are many pieces of the Berlin Wall on display all around the world. How did universities, museums and other places secure these sections of what was once the most intimidating symbol of the Iron Curtain? In this episode of Radio GDR, I have the privilege of being joined by Dr. Jim Doti, Professor and President Emeritus of Chapman University in Orange, California (chapman.edu), to tell us how he secured for Chapman what is today the second largest piece of the Berlin Wall owned by an American university. In 1997 after seeing the Berlin Wall at the Reagan Library, Dr. Doti was inspired to procure a piece of the wall for Chapman. Over many months he and his colleagues worked through the Mayor of Berlin's office to secure one of the last sections available. Known colloquially as "the Candy Bomber," Dr. Doti describes the painstaking process of securing the wall to shipping it to California to building their own Berlin Wall memorial known as Liberty Plaza. Upon receipt of the wall, art professor Richard Turner, who we interview in our next episode, designed Liberty Plaza to contrast totalitarianism and freedom - the Berlin Wall sits in an oval reflecting pool surrounded by cement engraved with Abraham Lincoln's quote "A House Divided Cannot Stand." A stone chair sits on a mound facing the wall encouraging students and visitors to consider the importance of freedom. Thank you, Dr. Doti and Chapman University, for this amazing story.

For pictures and more information about Chapman's piece of the Berlin Wall, please visit https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/s3e5

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

We Radio GDR hosts all agree on this simple truth - our favorite interviews are of you the listeners and members of the Facebook group. Jeff Myers joined the group in January of 2022 and has proceeded to post some of the most captivating photos of his trip to the GDR in 1987. From pictures of old East Berlin to Trabants to an eerie "teaching assistant" Stasi officer observing a class, Jeff's pictures tell a story of a trip he's never forgotten. Today an Associate professor at Wake Tech Community College and host of the Let's Talk Wake Tech Travel podcast, Jeff went to the GDR in 1987 as a study abroad participant at Salzburg College where he took a class on capitalism vs. communism. The trip to the GDR inspired his love of travel, and he's been to 54 countries including Cuba, Myanmar, China, Vietnam, and even North Korea in 2007. He has taken 23 trips with his students and teaches at his former study abroad college, Salzburg College, every summer. Join us as Jeff tells us about his trip behind the Berlin Wall.

For Jeff's photos, please visit us at www.eastgermanypodcast.com/s3e4

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

In 1952, a 24-year old American soldier defected to the Eastern Bloc in order to avoid a US Army disciplinary hearing and what he feared would be draconian punishment for his involvement in socialist and communist politics in the United States. This decision put his life on an entirely new trajectory, one that left him with a new name, Victor Grossman, and left him in the then young German Democratic Republic, a country that became his home for the remaining 37+ years of his existence. A committed socialist, Grossman identified closely with the aims of the East German state, but always maintained a critical perspectives on his new home.

Over two discussions with Radio GDR host John Paul Kleiner, Grossman takes stock of “the workers and peasants state.” In the first of these, Grossman focuses on the achievements of what the GDR labeled “real-existing socialism,” laying out the ways in which East Germany broke with German history and contrasting it with the Federal Republic to the west. He discusses how the country’s priorities were reflected in the everyday lives of its citizens and openly addresses some of the contradictions which were evident in GDR society and economy as its leaders sought to consolidate a socialist state on German soil.

John Paul would like to give special thanks to his friend Marcus Funck in Berlin for assistance with this interview. Without this help, it wouldn’t have happened, so thank you, Marcus!

For more resources on Victor Grossman, including information on his book, please visit https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/s3e3

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

In our first interview of season 3, we speak with Michael Califra, author of "No Man's Land," one of our favorite works of fiction about life in divided Berlin. Michael lived and worked in Germany, mostly in Berlin, from 1986 to 1998 where he crossed between East and West many times. When he first considered writing about Berlin, it was still divided. The challenge then was to render in fiction a situation more absurdly fictional than any he could imagine. When the Wall fell and Germany and Berlin were reunified, it soon became clear that the city he knew would be quickly erased, just as the Berlin of the Kaiser had been overtaken by Weimar Berlin, which had then been wiped away by Hitler's capital, which was then replaced by Cold War cities of East and West Berlin. Wanting to document the place he knew would soon dissolve into history was the motivation behind writing his novel. Join us as Michael relates his crossings between East and West, his impressions of what life was like in the GDR and his memories the night the Berlin Wall fell.

For Michael's photos and a link to purchase Michael's book, please visit

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

Welcome to Radio GDR Season 3! Join Steve Minegar, Shane Whaley, Anke Holst and John Paul Kleiner as we talk about what we’ve been up to, what we’re learning and what we look forward to sharing in this season.

Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history.

If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/reviews/new/.

For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook.

Vielen dank for being a listener!

Radio GDR co-hosts, Steve and Shane share news of the upcoming Season 3 and how you can help us!

In this episode of Radio GDR our host John Paul Kleiner (gdrobjectified.wordpress.com) interviews Debby Pattiz about the unusual semester she spent in the GDR back in 1988 as a Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island, USA) student at Wilhelm-Pieck Universität in Rostock.

What do you do with a hundred thousand idle spies? By 1990 the Berlin Wall had fallen and the East German state security service folded. For forty years, they had amassed more than a billion pages in manila files detailing the lives of their citizens. Almost a hundred thousand Stasi employees, many of them experienced officers with access to highly personal information, found themselves unemployed overnight. This is the story of what they did next. Former FBI agent Ralph Hope uses present-day sources and access to Stasi records to track and expose ex-officers working everywhere from the Russian energy sector to the police and even the government department tasked with prosecuting Stasi crimes. He examines why the key players have never been called to account and, in doing so, asks if we have really learned from the past at all. He highlights a man who continued to fight the Stasi for thirty years after the Wall fell, and reveals a truth that many today don’t want spoken. The Grey Men comes as an urgent warning from the past at a time when governments the world over are building an unprecedented network of surveillance over their citizens. Ultimately, this is a book about the present.

Thanks to Tim Mohr for taking time to speak with John Paul Kleiner (GDR Objectified blog) and Prof. Ed Larkey (University of Maryland - Baltimore County) about his book Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution and the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Tim's book is well worth a read and you don't have to be into punk music to enjoy it. Thats a wrap for season 2! Hopefully we will be back with season 3 after a few months break. Thanks for your support and in the meantime do not hesitate to get your East Germany fix by visiting our busy facebook group - www.radiogdr.com/facebook

In this episode of Radio GDR - the East Germany podcast, we are joined by Patrick Hoffmann, assistant director, pedagogue and historian at Borderland Museum Eichsfeld, one of the more than 20 museums along the former Inner German Border Founded in 1995, the museum sits at the border crossing point Duderstadt-Worbis, which is about 190 kilometers west of Leipzig on the border of Thuringia and Lower Saxony. The museum is comprised of the original buildings of the former border crossing point, which include the original rooms, such as the passport checking rooms and the detention cell, as well the Borderland Trail, a circular hiking path with originally preserved border fortifications. The exhibitions are along the former death strip, today’s “Green Belt,” and deal with different aspects of the German division, focusing on the GDR border regime and the everyday life of East and West Germans living in the border area, as well as the Peaceful Revolution and the border opening (“Fall of the wall”) in 1989. While visiting the museum in person is most definitely recommended, check out the museum's impressive virtual reality tour.

From being raised by a World War 2 veteran who spent time in a Soviet prison camp to having of view of the Berlin Wall from her apartment to meeting westerners like Celeste and her family who she finally visited in California after the wall fell, Adelheid has quite a story to tell!

This episode of Radio GDR, the East Germany podcast, lives up to Paul Harvey's famous expression, "and now you know the rest of the story." In episode 24, Shane Whaley interviewed Eric Friedman who, as a 10-year old boy in 1988, accompanied his mother Celeste Barber, a teacher in the English Department at Santa Barbara City College in California, and stepfather Frank McConnell on a Fulbright grant-sponsored tour as an English teacher at Humboldt University in East Berlin. Eric and Celeste co-authored the book Ghosts of East Berlin, a must-read personal account of their time behind the Berlin Wall. In this episode, you'll learn how Celeste and her family ended up in East Berlin, how she met her dear friend Adelheid, who lived with a view of the wall from her apartment, and how the family coped with living in what Celeste calls "No Mans Land." While she experienced challenges and even some scary moments with the Stasi, the GDR's secret police, Celeste nonetheless had some very human moments via her friend Adelheid, Frank's students and even a Russian woman on the street car. Not everything behind the Berlin Wall was as gray as expected.

A conversation with author Michael Wagg.  In The Turning Season, he goes in search of hidden histories and footballing ghosts from before the fall of the Berlin Wall. He revisits the 14 clubs that made up the 1989 DDR-Oberliga, East Germany's top flight. From Aue in the Erzgebirge mountains to Rostock on the Baltic Sea, this quirky account of his whistle-stop tour is for fans who know that football clubs are the beating hearts of the places they play for. There are portraits of the lower levels as well as the big league, stories of then and now that celebrate the characters he met pitch-side. There's Mr. Schmidt, who's found a magical fix for the scoreboard at Stahl Brandenburg; Karl Drössler, who captained Lokomotive Leipzig against Eusébio's Benfica; and the heroes of Magdeburg's European triumph, last seen dancing in white bathrobes, now pulling in to a dusty car park by the River Elbe. The Turning Season turns its gaze on East German football's magnificent peculiarity, with 14 enchanting stories from a lost league in a country that disappeared.

John Paul Kleiner chats with the author of Bowling for Communism: Urban Ingenuity at the End of East Germany. Andrew Demshuk.

Bowling for Communism illuminates how civic life functioned in Leipzig, East Germany's second-largest city, on the eve of the 1989 revolution by exploring acts of "urban ingenuity" amid catastrophic urban decay. Andrew Demshuk profiles the creative activism of local communist officials who, with the help of scores of volunteers, constructed a palatial bowling alley without Berlin's knowledge or approval. In a city mired in disrepair, civic pride overcame resentment against a regime loathed for corruption, Stasi spies, and the Berlin Wall.

Reconstructing such episodes through interviews and obscure archival materials, Demshuk shows how the public sphere functioned in Leipzig before the fall of communism. Hardly detached or inept, local officials worked around centralized failings to build a more humane city. And hardly disengaged, residents turned to black-market construction to patch up their surroundings.

Because such "urban ingenuity" was premised on weakness in the centralized regime, the dystopian cityscape evolved from being merely a quotidian grievance to the backdrop for revolution. If, by their actions, officials were demonstrating that the regime was irrelevant, and if, in their own experiences, locals only attained basic repairs outside official channels, why should anyone have mourned the system when it was overthrown?

John Paul Kleiner and Dr Ed Larkey return to Radio GDR/The East Germany Podcast for part 3 in our series on East German Pop Music. In 1971, East German leader Ulbricht is out  and is replaced by Erich Honecker Our experts discuss how music listening in East Germany evolved and changed in the 1970s including The Red Woodstock Festival of Political Song. Ed Larkey attended the festival and shares his observations with us.  Includes clips of some of the music tracks mentioned. Check show notes for the full Spotify playlist.

In this episode of Radio GDR East Germany podcast, Steve Minegar speaks with Dr. Claudia Sandberg. a film scholar and filmmaker at the University of Melbourne in Australia and a colleague of Katrin Bahr. Born in the GDR and raised watching DEFA films, Claudia’s research focuses on migration and mobility in European and Latin American film, Cold War memory and archives. Part of her interest concerns Chile and Chileans in East German feature films and documentaries during the 1970s and 1980s. Among other works, she made the documentary Hidden Films: A Journey between Exile and Memory (Vimeo password included with the hyperlink) in 2016 together with Argentine filmmaker Alejandro Areal Vélez. This project was co-funded by the Berlin-based DEFA foundation.

On today's episode of the East Germany Podcast, GDR Objectified's John Paul Kleiner and Shane Whaley chat with the Herr Helge Heidemayer, director of the Hohenschönhausen Memorial in Berlin. You will learn: 1) About Hohenschönhausen a) What was Hohenschönhausen? b) Who was incarcerated there? c) What was the prison’s place in the GDR justice system? And Much More!

In this episode, our hosts return to look at the broad theme of pop and politics in East Germany. 'So we're looking at ways that East German authorities, the party, the free German youth organization struggled or worked to frame youth culture in a way that was appealing to East German, young people, but also delivered the desired ideological content.

John Paul's thesis at the outset here would be that in the 1950s and early 60's the East German authorities, the SED's goal was to create or to have a youth culture that was socialist in form and in content.

Today we chat with the author of Interflug - East Germany's airline, Sebastian Schmitz. This is the first book published in English about Interflug. Don't worry though, you do not need to be an aviation nerd to enjoy this one! 

In this episode, we ask Sebastian your questions as we learn more about Interflug, her history, her planes, her employees and her passengers on the East Germany Podcast. And Much More

Communist East Germany's Interflug was an airline like no other. Their route map was flown by exotic Soviet-built airliners and shaped by political alliances, with trips into war zones in some of the most obscure corners of the planet, all under the constant surveillance of an ever-present police state.

On this episode of Radio GDR the East Germany Podcast, Steve Minegar explores the lives of East Germans who, in the name of international solidarity and cooperation with fellow socialist countries, worked on behalf of the GDR in Mozambique in the 1980's. He has the distinct pleasure of being joined by Dr. Katrin Bahr, Visiting Assistant Professor of German at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. Born in East Berlin, Katrin and her family spent time in Beira, Mozambique in the early 1980s where her father was assigned to a railroad company. Over the last few years she has curated photo-exhibitions in the USA, Mozambique, and Germany about everyday life experiences of East Germans in Mozambique. Katrin is the co-founder of the Third Generation Ost network in the United States, which aims to open up new perspectives and approaches on research topics focused on the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Her personal life story and the missing narratives of East Germans in the discourse around the history of the GDR motivated her to pursue a PhD in German Studies at University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research topics cover post-colonial Mozambique, East German material, and visual culture, and East German memory studies.

I have always wondered what small-town life was like outside of Berlin in the GDR. In this episode of Radio GDR, Bill Blosen and I sit down to talk about his experiences traveling to Görlitz, a small medieval town on the East German-Polish border. Photos at www.radiogdr.com/30 He went there to visit family as a young man in the 1980s before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Bill and I both work in technology and recently got to talking about our respective language skills. When Bill said he spoke German, I mentioned my recent travels to Germany and interest in the GDR and was pleasantly surprised to discover his personal journey behind the Iron Curtain. He tells us about his grandparents' concern over approaching Soviet soldiers during World War II, their experience with shared housing after the founding of the GDR, his travels through checkpoints at the Inner German border and on the cobblestone Reichsautobahn to Görlitz and the lessons those trips taught him about gratefulness and freedom. From East German speed radars to tips on getting blue jeans past pesky border guards, Bill's story will fascinate you.

East Germany Podcast Host Shane Whaley's Amazon Explore review of The infamous Berlin Wall: stories of the Death Strip and a divided city tour. Shane works in the tours and activity industry hosting a podcast for tour operators called Tourpreneur. He is currently reviewing Amazon Explore which is Amazon's foray into virtual Livestream experiences around the world and he brings you this report of the Berlin Wall Amazon Explore tour.

In this episode, you will hear how Peter Keup's life was made a misery following his family's application for an exit visa. Peter discusses how his life was never to be the same again. How he was treated as a pariah by the East German state, which led to him trying to escape the GDR, getting captured, and spending time in an East German cell. He was later bought out by West Germany and following the fall of the Wall, he was to learn via his family's Stasi files that he was spied on by his brother for the Stasi.  Peter now works in the former Stasi prison where he was incarcerated.

In this episode of the East Germany Podcast - Radio GDR we go on a journey of Rock and Pop Music of East Germany. Our good friend John-Paul Kleiner (GDR Objectified) is in the East Germany podcast host chair for this one. He is joined by Dr Edward Larkey, an expert on GDR music and author of Rotes Rockradio.

John Paul turns his hand to DJ'ing as he plays some hand-picked tracks from the GDR. He has kindly put together a Spotify playlist of GDR Music to accompany this episode about the music of East Germany.

There are plenty of themes in this episode about Rock and Pop Music in East Germany, here are just a handful that John Paul and Dr Larkey discuss:

This episode is dedicated to our friend Neil Tooley who sadly passed away last week.   In this episode of we explore the world of East German movies and DEFA, the studio that produced them. I know nothing about East German-made movies so in this episode we are joined by two East German Cinema buffs to find out more.

I was delighted when Jeffrey Babcock reached out to me, pointing out that we had not covered an important element of life in East Germany - East German movies! We are not referring to movies about the GDR such as Goodbye Lenin and The Lives of Others, but movies that were made in the GDR.

Jeffrey who curates East German movie screenings at the Goethe Institute in Amsterdam teams up with Jim Morton the man behind the East German Cinema Blog.

So come on a journey with us on the East Germany Podcast as Jeffrey and Jim guide us through the world of East German Cinema. They share some of their favourite East German movies that they feel are a good place for those of us who are new to East German films to start.

What East German films should you watch? Check out Jim Morton's recommendations here

In this episode of the East Germany Podcast we ask Christine the podcaster behind the East German Fashion History Podcast , why she is fascinated with East Germany and East German Fashion.

In 1988, a reluctant 10 year old American boy, Eric Friedman moved to East Berlin. His father Frank was granted a Fulbright grant to lecture at Humboldt University. Eric shares his experiences living in East Germany in his memoir The Ghosts of East Berlin, he shares some of those memories with us here on the East Germany Podcast Radio GDR

In this episode of the East Germany Podcast, Shane Whaley is joined by Anthony Russell. Anthony shares with us what fascinates him about East Germany. Anthony was so fascinated by the GDR that he chose to live for a year in Rostock as part of his Germany degree. He also discusses his favorite books written about the GDR as well as TV shows and movies concerning East Germany.

In this episode of the East Germany Podcast, Shane Whaley is joined by Cold War Conversations Podcast Co-Host James Chilcott. James shares with us what fascinates him about East Germany. James tells us how he visited the Fulda Gap as a schoolboy and was photographed by East German Border Guards. He also discusses his favorite books written about the GDR as well as TV shows and movies concerning East Germany.

In this episode of the Radio GDR Podcast, host Shane Whaley kicks off season 2 of the East Germany podcast chatting with listener Steve Minegar about the relationship between East Germany and Chile. Part of the Why We Are Fascinated by East Germany series.

Radio GDR Co-host Shane explains why there have been no episodes of late and why you should not unsubscribe because more episodes are coming your way in the near future.

In this episode of the Radio GDR Podcast, Jordan Heyburn talks about his passion for collecting East German stamps. He also shares tips on how you can get started with your very own DDR Stamp collection. This is the first in our DDR Collectors Series. Do you collect something GDR related? Let us know, we would love to chat with you on the Radio GDR podcast.

Interview with the author of: Behind the Iron Curtain: A Teacher’s Guide to East Germany. Jeffrey discusses teaching Cold War activities through an East German perspective. Topics in this book include the beginnings of East Germany, the creation of the Stasi, the Berlin Wall, youth and education, a planned economy, life and society of East Germans, and the events that led to the fall of communism. The heart of this book includes eighteen lessons associated with life behind the Iron Curtain.

On today's podcast, I bring you a conversation with Julian Herbig, who is the PR and Communications Manager at Timeride.de Julian tells us more about the experience itself as well as the story behind the Checkpoint Charlie Virtual Reality Tour and the VR experience of East Berlin. Now we can immerse ourselves in Cold War West and East Berlin.

A Fly On the Wall Report from the Radio GDR Berlin Meetup. Listen in as we chat with listeners of the Radio GDR podcast in Berlin for our Radio GDR Meetup. They share with us why they are interested in East Germany and what they learned at the Berlin MeetUp.

On this episode of Radio GDR, the podcast about East Germany, we talk to Steve Winkler about his life supporting the team they love to hate - Dynamo Berlin.

On Episode 15 of the Radio GDR Podcast, former Radio Berlin International employee Steve Winkler talks to us about life growing up with parents who worked for the GDR Diplomatic Service. It later transpired that Steve's Dad worked for Markus Wolf's HVA, the Stasi's Foreign Intelligence Service. East Germany's HVA is regarded by some as the most effective foreign intelligence service during the Cold War.

On Episode 14 of the Radio GDR Podcast, the world's only English language podcast about East Germany, host Shane Whaley gives you the low down on a new Berlin attraction TimeRide Berlin that allows you to travel into East Germany via Checkpoint Charlie. I kid you not, the TimeRide Berlin, a new virtual reality experience in Berlin made me feel like I was a time traveler. Full disclosure, this was my first VR tour experience but it blew my mind. So much so, that I decided to record a short field report on my experience crossing into the GDR via Checkpoint Charlie virtually. I was actually quite emotional towards the end of my virtual journey via TimeRide into the GDR. I have studied the GDR for most of my life, whether that be through my love of GDR stamps, reading books or watching footage of the DDR on YouTube. I never set foot in East Germany, I never crossed through Checkpoint Charlie into the GDR because I was 14 when the Berlin wall fell. I was too young. The TimeRide made me feel as if I was a time traveler, TimeRide delivered on their promise to immerse me in the divided city of Berlin. So much so that I kept reaching for my iPhone to snap photos before realizing I was not actually there. I highly recommend this VR experience and hope to bring you an interview with the folks behind it. For Radio GDR listeners, the TimeRide experience is a must-do when you are visiting der Hauptstadt next.

On Episode 13 of the Radio GDR Podcast, the world's only English language podcast about East Germany, host Shane Whaley interviews Steve Winkler who worked at East Germany's Radio Berlin International as a Line Producer/Studio Manager.

On Episode 12 of the Radio GDR Podcast, GDR Objectified's John Paul Kleiner interviews Professor Luise von Flutow who translated the East German novel 'They Divided The Sky' by Christa Wolf into English.

After six years of work, we interview the producers behind Open Memory Box which encompasses 415 hours of home movies that 150 families made in East Germany between 1947 and 1990, the collection covers everything from birthday parties to burial, from May Day demonstrations to attempts to flee the country.

Radio GDR host Shane Whaley shares 38 Things I learned about East Germany from reading Burning Down The Haus by Tim Mohr. I thoroughly Burning Down The Haus and you do not have to be a fan of punk rock to enjoy it. The book reveals the sub culture (and bravery!) of the East German punk scene. By reading Tim Mohr's book we learn a lot about life in East Germany.

On this episode of the Radio GDR East Germany podcast, Host Shane Whaley brings you a conversation with Dr. Hester Vaizey, the author of the book Born in the GDR - Living in the Shadow of the Wall.

On this episode of the Radio GDR podcast, hosts  Shane Whaley and  GDR Objectified's John Paul Kleiner talk East German football with author Alan McDougall. There are not many English language books chronicling football in East Germany so we were delighted to chat with Alan. He is the author of  The People's Game: Football State and Society in East Germany and he joins Radio GDR for a wide-ranging chat about all things East German football. His book was voted the Guardians Best Book for Sports in 2016.

On this episode of the Radio GDR East Germany podcast host Shane Whaley talks with GDR Objectified's John Paul Kleiner about a bizarre football game that took place at FC Stahl Brandenburg in '92 and how it highlights that not all was rosy in the newly united Germany.

Shane tells us how he discovered a crazy Stahl Brandenburg football clip on youtube which he shared on his Facebook page.  (Only 5 Stahl Brandenburg players remained on the field!)

Shane got chatting with John Paul who explained that this game reveals a lot about the attitude of many East Germans many of whom were disillusioned with re-unification.  Many East German clubs felt that there was a bias against them from the former West Germany and the Bundesliga authorities.  John Paul explains how football in East Germany was organized following German reunification.

John Paul also answers a question from Radio GDR listener Klaus Magnus who asked what happened to the more famous East Germany football clubs after '89.

John Paul also shares his itinerary with us for his trip to Germany where he will visit some DDR sites in Berlin, Frankfurt an der Oder and Guben. Check out our Radio GDR Facebook group as he has promised to share a few snaps with us. Also on this episode, John Paul shares with us the German word for 'mullet'.

On this episode of the Radio GDR East Germany podcast Shane records his thoughts following a guided tour of the Hohenschonhausen Stasi Prison in East Berlin and questions whether he wants to continue with the podcast based on what he has seen and heard.

DDR Museum Director Gordon Von Godin joins  Shane Whaley on the Radio GDR Podcast. They talk about the mission of the GDR Museum, as well as the importance of remembering the history of East Germany and Gordon's upbringing in the former East Germany. And much More!

Radio GDR, the podcast all about East Germany caught up with the man behind the epic GDR Objectified - probably one of the best websites about East Germany in english on the net today. On this episode of the GDR podcast John Paul Kleiner shares with us why he is still fascinated with East Germany/German Democratic Republic after all these years.

On this episode of Radio GDR, we talk to Joes Segal Chief Curator of the Wende Museum in LA. He shares more with us about the mission of the cold war art museum as well as how they pick which of their 100,000 items to display and much more!

These are some of the topics we cover:

And Much Much More!

On this episode of the Radio GDR podcast, Ellin Hare talks to us about her documentary about everyday life in East Germany titled 'From Us to Me.'  They become the only British film crew to make a documentary inside the German Democratic Republic. In November 1989, a year after the film’s release, the fall of the Wall signals the end of the GDR. 25 years later the British come back…..

Life in the former East Germany holds an ongoing fascination for a lot of people. Join us as we learn more about the former East Germany. 

Radio German Democratic Republic is a blog and podcast designed to educate and inform on the life and times of East Germany. Radio GDR is hosted by Anke Holst who grew up in the GDR and Shane Whaley, a Brit, who has had a lifelong fascination with East Germany. This episode serves as primer for future episodes of Radio GDR. Anke and Shane talk about what they hope the podcast will achieve and what they want to learn more about.