Publications

The authors of the companion volume, like the exhibition visitors, pass through German history from 1989 to 1848 – backwards, as it were. In the individual chapters the essays provide detailed examinations of the political entanglements, personal connections, and unexpected occurrences during, for example, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Cold War, the assumption of power by the National Socialists, the revolution and the democratisation of Germany. In the book it was possible to devote more room than in the exhibition to the question of the alternative outcomes that were available at these turning points in history. These possibilities are discussed with the aid of historical documents and additional research, thus opening the way to a new assessment of what actually happened.

The publication is available in English and German.