The Ideal World of Dictatorship

A special edition of the standard work Die heile Welt der Diktatur is being published by the DDR Museum on the Day of German Unity. Since its first publication in 1998, the book by historian Dr. Stefan Wolle has been one of the most widely read works on the everyday history of the GDR. The new English-language special edition now also gives an international audience impressive access to the reality of life in the GDR. Dr. Wolle succeeds in addressing the apparent contradiction between everyday life in a seemingly caring society and the mechanisms of dictatorial rule. With wit, irony and narrative power, he describes how security and lack of freedom went hand in hand in the GDR. It is a balancing act between adaptation and control. For this new edition, the renowned historian Dr. Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk has been enlisted as the author of the epilogue. His perspective complements the work with a profound reflection on the significance of the dictatorship experience in international historical discourse. With this edition, the DDR Museum once again underlines its claim to convey history in a lively and understandable way. Now this is also possible across language barriers.