Started watching "Kleo" on Netflix. Kind of silly but fun anyway. Any suggested reading on life in the former GDR during and after the collapse?
Started watching "Kleo" on Netflix. Kind of silly but fun anyway. Any suggested reading on life in the former GDR during and after the collapse?
Watched Kleo as well and had similar thoughts.
I was traveling in Eastern Europe pre-COVID… Some things change. Some things don’t.
No recommended reading, but today’s current events around Ukraine indicate that the 30 years of history are not as consequential as we think.
I lived in Germany in the Army from 88-91 and my wife is German and lived there from birth to 91 when we left. She is also a German history professor and she recommends Stasiland Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall as a readable and approachable book. Peoples State by Mary Fulbrook but that is scholarly more than casual. Berlin Wall by Taylor is also good.
Thanks y'all. I'll start with Stasiland Stories. One thing I think Kleo got right was the awkwardness between the East and West I imagine must have been present for years after the fall. The West German police weren't chomping at the bit to take over in the east, and the easterners just kept doing what they were doing, albeit the absence of omnipresent all-powerful state behind them.
@octagon, thanks for the recommendation of the Stasiland Stories, I am almost finished, a worthy read. My interest in this subject was rekindled after seeing the German TV series Deutschland 89 a few years back.
Circa 1982 one of my best friends was a brown bar in an armored cav unit right on the border and I got to visit him. It was my first exposure to the physical reality of the iron curtain. It made a huge impression, and I have been intrigued ever since about the wall, the whole border, and what was perhaps the world's worst police state, the GDR.
It is still stunning to me how it all ended suddenly.
Kind of related.
I was in West Germany in late 1989 for a REFORGER training op (November ish?). We were about 40 miles from Checkpoint Charlie when we started receiving intel reports that there were 10K plus troops massing on the border. You can understand how our chain of command was more than a bit concerned, as they thought their worst fears were coming to fruition. We did not have any ammo and it was clear that we were not prepared for this.
As it were the 10K troops, were actually 10K civilians. I still very clearly recall staying up for about 30 hours straight running my major around, doing whatever he needed in preparation for what we expected was going to be a very short fight on our parts.
I slept like a rock when that all settled down.
OT, kinda related. One of our Special Forces SMUs that almost no one knows about.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=special+f..._ts-doa-p_2_18
Way less than I payed for it, and it includes stories about getting smacked by 14Int in an exercise, and interesting info about Operation Eagle Claw and another eventual JSOC unit (ISA), and the need for those capabilities.
If I iam nterpreting open source info correctly, SGM Pat Mac was in that unit.
pat
Excellent book. Do read it, along with available works on the US, British, French, and Soviet Military Liaison Missions operating out of Berlin.Originally Posted by UNM1136
USMLM: https://www.amazon.com/Licensed-Spy-.../dp/1557502943
USMLM: https://www.amazon.com/Potsdam-Missi...dp/1434357430/
BRIXMIS: https://www.amazon.com/Brixmis-Untol.../dp/0006386733
BRIXMIS: https://www.amazon.com/Live-Let-Spy-...dp/B01LBOFSFU/
Decades of the USMLM unit histories were declassified and are available online in pdf. They contain additional information about some specific activities and include the declared unit roster, with some familiar names that are seen elsewhere/later. If you only read one, read the coverage of Nick Nicholson's murder in 1985.
There are also SMLM reports available online translated from russian and german sources.
Many webpages are personal pages in various states of maintenance published by unit associations, the vets themselves, or other historians.
If you really want to dive into these and dissect them, read all of the above in parallel. They were not all declassed at the same time, nor did the various governments declass the same information in a consistent way. Lots of gaps in one are filled by the other, and then the accompanying OSINT since.
Happy reading.
الدهون القاع الفتيات لك جعل العالم هزاز جولة الذهاب
I finished Stejskal's book a few months back and found it a worthy and interesting read.
Damn, I was there 3 days after that as a kid. My father was stationed at Templehoff. That was our 2nd time in Berlin.Kind of related.
I was in West Germany in late 1989 for a REFORGER training op (November ish?). We were about 40 miles from Checkpoint Charlie when we started receiving intel reports that there were 10K plus troops massing on the border. You can understand how our chain of command was more than a bit concerned, as they thought their worst fears were coming to fruition. We did not have any ammo and it was clear that we were not prepared for this.
As it were the 10K troops, were actually 10K civilians. I still very clearly recall staying up for about 30 hours straight running my major around, doing whatever he needed in preparation for what we expected was going to be a very short fight on our parts.
I slept like a rock when that all settled down.
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