Generation GDR E-BOOK

A gripping account of East Germany in the late '70s and early '80s, and of one man's fated struggle for freedom.

Friday, April 10th, 1981: 23-year-old Mathias Domaschk boards the fast train from Jena to Berlin, on his way to a birthday party. But he never arrives . . .

The packed train is held up en route, and Mathias and three of his friends are apprehended, suspected of being part of a cell intent on disrupting the socialist party congress. Two days later he is dead, following interrogation in the Stasi detention centre in Gera.

What happened over those two days?

Peter Wensierski's captivating book draws on multiple witness statements and extensive Stasi documentation to build a riveting and dramatic account of those three days, switching between Mathias's journey and the Stasi activities up to and through his arrest, but also placing this tragedy against a far broader political and social context to describe the lives of a whole generation of young East Germans who just wanted live freely, listen to good music and have access to literature, and the contempt that the GDR authorities had for their humanity.

Like pieces of a puzzle, flashbacks of Mathias's life create a picture of a young man in search of his own identity, and of an entire generation who refuse to conform in a dictatorship. Part reportage, part true crime, Wensierski's insight into the secret corridors of an authoritarian power reveals shocking truths and warning from history.

Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch