On Monday 18 November, a few students and I were warmly welcomed by Radley College History Society.
We attended a talk by Katja Hoyer. Katja is a research fellow at Kings College and, the author of Beyond the Wall and Blood and Iron, on late 19th and early 20th century Prussia.
In her talk, she challenged the simplistic descriptions in exam textbooks, encouraging the audience to reconsider what it meant to live on the East of the Berlin Wall. She highlighted that East Germany was not purely an area of ideological oppression but also a place where people built meaningful lives and found ways to live and thrive within the barriers of the socialist system.
Katja explained the criticisms, that her book focuses on the less important things, such as everyday life and cultural activities in East Germany rather than just emphasising political repression or the role of the Stasi. She argued that understanding the full version of life in East Germany is crucial to painting an accurate picture of history. Katja explained that her aim was not to excuse the injustices and trauma of the system but to highlight the humanity and resilience of ordinary people, whose stories deserve to be told in their full complexity.
I found the talk very insightful, and it changed my view on the history of life in East Germany and will change my future perspectives on other historical events. I will still appreciate the horror of the situations but also understand the reality of the everyday life of the citizens. Life goes on despite the difficulties that individuals face.
