Download or read book A Death in East Berlin written by Richard Wake and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Peter Ritter is a detective on the East Berlin murder squad -- the youngest detective they have, really too young to have been hired but too well-connected to be fired. And in the weeks before the Berlin Wall is to be built, he is called out in the middle of the night to a macabre murder scene within the Soviet war memorial in Treptower Park. As his investigation continues, multiple layers of life in East Berlin are revealed: the crisis created by the steady stream of men and women fleeing the East through the city of Berlin; the infighting and the power-grabs among the leaders of the Communist government; the fear engendered by the secret police, known as the Stasi; and the daily hardships and dreams of East Berliners who live a mere subway ride away from the West. And through it all, Ritter simply seeks the truth -- about the murderer of his victim, and about his own feelings about his place in a Communist country in turmoil."--Amazon.com

Download or read book Death at the Berlin Wall written by Pertti Ahonen and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2010-12-23 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Death at the Berlin Wall tells the stories of twelve individuals who lost their lives at the Wall between 1961 and 1989, and relates these tragedies to the evolving Cold War tensions between West and East Germany.

Download or read book The Death Wall of East Berlin written by Rudolf Mueller and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-11-14 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FOREWARD This book contains the description of my life. It bears witness to important and influential events that have shaped the history of these times, which I, the author, have taken part in or been subject to. Many events over the past decades have directly or indirectly influenced the lives of my family as well as my own. That in itself is not enough reason to write a book - a book should also offer something to others. Above all, this work presents the characters of people I have met during my long life, but also, for those who are first getting to know me through this book, it gives an account of the circumstances that led me to experience this life as it is represented here. I am no historian, but I consider it to be historically necessary to clarify these circumstances and also to describe them, to prevent them from being forgotten in our society. The question asked of me: "Grandpa, are you a murderer?" finally gave me the incentive to take up the pen. Why did my granddaughter ask me that question? She read the Frankfurt General Newspaper. There was a report on my trial at the Federal Court. But even before that, it had been addressed by many people on several occasions. She was absolutely frightened, she said it is really terrible when people spread these kind of rumors about other people. But nevertheless, she still asked me: "Grandpa, are you a murderer?" What answer should I give her? What can I tell her? How can I tell her, that I am no murderer? Or am I? They did convict me, after all! Why do some insist I am a murderer? The people want it that way. The people? Those who speak in the name of the people's justice, or who have spoken, probably need a scapegoat. But all those who take the trouble to read this, my record, are also the people. If some of them set the book aside, then perhaps these people have the same doubts that I and many others have had.So, how do I answer her? Don't worry, it was a false sentence, that won't be enough. The young people of today ask questions, they are critical. That is why an easy answer won't be sufficient. Is it enough to tell her: I prevented a border guard from shooting and killing your father, who was 11 years old at the time, and your uncle, 5 years old, and your grandma and grandpa? From killing them, because the guards had their orders from the state - orders in the name of the people. Can the people of today imagine what was happening at the wall in those times?

Download or read book East Berlin Series written by Max Hertzberg and published by Wolf Press. This book was released on 2019-03-01 with total page 935 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if the Berlin Wall never fell ... The Box Set of the East Berlin Series, including: · Stealing The Future · Thoughts Are Free · Spectre At The Feast 'The brilliance of Stealing The Future lies in its honest portrayal of the struggle to keep alive the dream of freedom, justice and equality.’ New Internationalist ‘A compelling re-imagining of East Germany’s peaceful revolution in 1989—exploring what might have been. Fiona Rintoul, author of The Leipzig Affair 1993. After forty years of communist rule it's time for change: participatory democracy, citizen's movements and de-centralization are part of a new political landscape in East Berlin. But when a politician's crushed body is found a constitutional crisis erupts. Ex-dissident Martin Grobe turns detective and his investigations point towards the Stasi, the KGB and the West Germans—has he uncovered a putsch against the new GDR, or is it just a conspiracy to murder? All three books from the East Berlin Series in one handy bundle ----------------------------- Keywords: East Germany, DDR, GDR, East Berlin, Berlin Wall, Iron Curtain, Cold War, Stasi, MfS, secret police, Volkspolizei, Soviet, KGB, GRU, crime, spy, espionage, procedural, counter-factual, alternate history, speculative fiction, 1989, revolution, die Wende, Eastern Europe, Eastern Bloc, hope, alternative society, consensus decision making, democracy, direct democracy, punks, direct action, anarchy, communism, bundle, box set, collection, bundle.

Download or read book Death in Berlin written by M. M. Kaye and published by Minotaur Books. This book was released on 2015-12-01 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set against a background of war-scarred Berlin in the early 1950s, M. M. Kaye's Death in Berlin is a consummate mystery from one of the finest storytellers of our time. Miranda Brand is visiting Germany for what is supposed to be a month's vacation. But from the moment that Brigadier Brindley relates the story about a fortune in lost diamonds--a story in which Miranda herself figures in an unusual way--the vacation atmosphere becomes transformed into something more ominous. And when murder strikes on the night train to Berlin, Miranda finds herself unwillingly involved in a complex chain of events that will soon throw her own life into peril. "Leisurely, well-plotted, affable entertainment." - Kirkus Reviews

Download or read book The Tunnels written by Greg Mitchell and published by Crown. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thrilling Cold War narrative of superpower showdowns, media suppression, and two escape tunnels beneath the Berlin Wall. In the summer of 1962, the year after the rise of the Berlin Wall, a group of young West Germans risked prison, Stasi torture, and even death to liberate friends, lovers, and strangers in East Berlin by digging tunnels under the Wall. Then two U.S. television networks heard about the secret projects and raced to be first to document them from the inside. NBC and CBS funded two separate tunnels in return for the right to film the escapes, planning spectacular prime-time specials. President John F. Kennedy, however, was wary of anything that might spark a confrontation with the Soviets, having said, “A wall is better than a war,” and even confessing to Secretary of State Dean Rusk, “We don’t care about East Berlin.” JFK approved unprecedented maneuvers to quash both documentaries, testing the limits of a free press in an era of escalating nuclear tensions. As Greg Mitchell’s riveting narrative unfolds, we meet extraordinary characters: the legendary cyclist who became East Germany’s top target for arrest; the Stasi informer who betrays the “CBS tunnel”; the American student who aided the escapes; an engineer who would later help build the tunnel under the English channel; and the young East Berliner who fled with her baby, then married one of the tunnelers. The Tunnels captures the chilling reach of the Stasi secret police as U.S. networks prepared to “pay for play” but were willing to cave to official pressure, the White House was eager to suppress historic coverage, and ordinary people in dire circumstances became subversive. The Tunnels is breaking history, a propulsive read whose themes still reverberate.

Download or read book Death in East Germany 1945 1990 written by Felix Robin Schulz and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2013-09-01 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the first historical study of East Germany‘s sepulchral culture, this book explores the complex cultural responses to death since the Second World War. Topics include the interrelated areas of the organization and municipalization of the undertaking industry; the steps taken towards a socialist cemetery culture such as issues of design, spatial layout, and commemorative practices; the propagation of cremation as a means of disposal; the wide-spread introduction of anonymous communal areas for the internment of urns; and the emergence of socialist and secular funeral rituals. The author analyses the manifold changes to the system of the disposal of the dead in East Germany—a society that not only had to negotiate the upheaval of military defeat but also urbanization, secularization, a communist regime, and a planned economy. Stressing a comparative approach, the book reveals surprising similarities to the development of Western countries but also highlights the intricate local variations within the GDR and sheds more light on the East German state and its society.

Download or read book The Collapse written by Mary Sarotte and published by Basic Books (AZ). This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the night of November 9, 1989, massive crowds surged toward the Berlin Wall, drawn by an announcement that caught the world by surprise: East Germans could now move freely to the West. The Wall—infamous symbol of divided Cold War Europe—seemed to be falling. But the opening of the gates that night was not planned by the East German ruling regime—nor was it the result of a bargain between either Ronald Reagan or George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It was an accident. In The Collapse, prize-winning historian Mary Elise Sarotte reveals how a perfect storm of decisions made by daring underground revolutionaries, disgruntled Stasi officers, and dictatorial party bosses sparked an unexpected series of events culminating in the chaotic fall of the Wall. With a novelist’s eye for character and detail, she brings to vivid life a story that sweeps across Budapest, Prague, Dresden, and Leipzig and up to the armed checkpoints in Berlin. We meet the revolutionaries Roland Jahn, Aram Radomski, and Siggi Schefke, risking it all to smuggle the truth across the Iron Curtain; the hapless Politburo member Günter Schabowski, mistakenly suggesting that the Wall is open to a press conference full of foreign journalists, including NBC’s Tom Brokaw; and Stasi officer Harald Jäger, holding the fort at the crucial border crossing that night. Soon, Brokaw starts broadcasting live from Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, where the crowds are exulting in the euphoria of newfound freedom—and the dictators are plotting to restore control. Drawing on new archival sources and dozens of interviews, The Collapse offers the definitive account of the night that brought down the Berlin Wall.

Download or read book East Berlin Series written by Max Hertzberg and published by Wolf Press. This book was released on 2021-01-26 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Behind the Berlin Wall a dissident is on the trail of a killer The East Berlin Series Omnibus, including: Stealing The Future Thoughts Are Free Spectre At The Feast 'The brilliance of Stealing The Future lies in its honest portrayal of the struggle to keep alive the dream of freedom, justice and equality.' New Internationalist 'A compelling re-imagining of East Germany's peaceful revolution in 1989-exploring what might have been. Fiona Rintoul, author of The Leipzig Affair 1993. After forty years of communist rule it's time for change: participatory democracy, citizen's movements and de-centralization are part of a new political landscape in East Berlin. But when a politician's crushed body is found a constitutional crisis erupts. Ex-dissident Martin Grobe turns detective and his investigations point towards the Stasi, the KGB and the West Germans-has he uncovered a putsch against the new GDR, or is it just a conspiracy to murder?

Download or read book Vienna at Nightfall written by Richard Wake and published by . This book was released on 2018-12-04 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is the late 1930s in Europe and the darkness is gathering. The Nazis are marching, both inside Austria and outside. What can one man do to make a difference?Alex Kovacs can see what's coming - he can, all of his friends can, all of Vienna can. When an opportunity presents itself, a chance to thwart the Nazi invasion of Austria, he agrees to join an espionage network that will take advantage of his regular business trips to Germany to gather secret information. But a personal tragedy soon complicates Alex's mission and entangles him with a suspicious Gestapo captain in ways that he never anticipated.Vienna at Nightfall is the first book in the Alex Kovacs historical espionage thriller series. If you like to explore the world inhabited by Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther or the characters created by Alan Furst, a place and time where looming terror and moral ambiguity live side-by-side, then you'll love Richard Wake's new pre-World War II thriller.Pick up Vienna at Nightfall to discover this exciting new series today!

Download or read book Tunnel 29 written by Helena Merriman and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2021-08-24 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He escaped from one of the world’s most brutal regimes.Then, he decided to tunnel back in. In the summer of 1962, a young student named Joachim Rudolph dug a tunnel under the Berlin Wall. Waiting on the other side in East Berlin were dozens of men, women, and children—all willing to risk everything to escape. From the award-winning creator of the acclaimed BBC Radio 4 podcast, Tunnel 29 is the true story of this most remarkable Cold War rescue mission. Drawing on interviews with the survivors and Stasi files, Helena Merriman brilliantly reveals the stranger-than-fiction story of the ingenious group of student-diggers, the glamorous red-haired messenger, the Stasi spy who threatened the whole enterprise, and the love story that became its surprising epilogue. Tunnel 29 was also the first made-for-TV event of its kind; it was funded by NBC, who wanted to film an escape in real time. Their documentary—which was nearly blocked from airing by the Kennedy administration, which wanted to control the media during the Cold War—revolutionized TV journalism. Ultimately, Tunnel 29 is a success story about freedom: the valiant citizens risking everything to win it back, and the larger world rooting for them to triumph.

Download or read book In the Shadow of the Wall written by Richard Wake and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Why would one man risk everything to help a mere acquaintance escape from East Germany? Peter Ritter thought the Berlin Wall would stand for three months, tops. He thought the impracticalities of dividing such a big city would cause of to crumble of its own weight. If not that he thought the Americans would never tolerate such a division. But three months turned into six, and six months turned into ten, and the wall was only growing bigger and more fortified by the day. Ritter was a detective on the East Berlin murder squad. He had obtained advanced warning about the wall being built and could have escaped along with his best friend, but he chose not to leave for any number of reasons. Most days, he had no regrets. He received a promotion at work, and his career was moving along well. His love life was active if not particularly serious. His lifestyle was among the best in the country — and if he had to do the occasional off-the-books favor for a member of the Central Committee who happened to be his ex-father-in-law, it was worth the trade-off. So why risk it all to assist a man he knew only from questioning him in prison regarding an old case? The question will haunt Ritter as his good deed turns into a life-or-death situation, not only for the man he helps but for Ritter himself."--Amazon.

Download or read book Behind the Berlin Wall written by Patrick Major and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2010 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 13 August 1961 eighteen million East Germans awoke to find themselves walled in by an edifice which was to become synonymous with the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. Patrick Major explores how the border closure affected ordinary East Germans, from workers and farmers to teenagers and even party members, 'caught out' by Sunday the Thirteenth.

Download or read book Thoughts Are Free written by Max Hertzberg and published by Wolf Press. This book was released on 2016-10-03 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: East Germany, 1994: a country ravaged by politics and economic meltdown Fascist skinheads roam the streets of East Berlin, the country is divided by a referendum. In this sequel to Stealing The Future, ex-dissident Martin Grobe is preparing an ex-Stasi agent for an undercover mission against the far-right, while punk Karo tackles the problem in her own way: on the streets with the local Antifa. But when Martin's investigations make him a target, he joins forces with Karo—can they stem the tide of violence threatening to wash away the GDR? Book 2 of the East Berlin Series. "Through fine storytelling Hertzberg asks how we can meet the challenge of diversity without betraying the ideas of self-determination and freedom." Peace News

Download or read book Berlin 1961 written by Frederick Kempe and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-05-10 with total page 826 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In June 1961, Nikita Khrushchev called Berlin "the most dangerous place on earth." He knew what he was talking about. Much has been written about the Cuban Missile Crisis a year later, but the Berlin Crisis of 1961 was more decisive in shaping the Cold War-and more perilous. It was in that hot summer that the Berlin Wall was constructed, which would divide the world for another twenty-eight years. Then two months later, and for the first time in history, American and Soviet fighting men and tanks stood arrayed against each other, only yards apart. One mistake, one nervous soldier, one overzealous commander-and the tripwire would be sprung for a war that could go nuclear in a heartbeat. On one side was a young, untested U.S. president still reeling from the Bay of Pigs disaster and a humiliating summit meeting that left him grasping for ways to respond. It would add up to be one of the worst first-year foreign policy performances of any modern president. On the other side, a Soviet premier hemmed in by the Chinese, East Germans, and hardliners in his own government. With an all-important Party Congress approaching, he knew Berlin meant the difference not only for the Kremlin's hold on its empire-but for his own hold on the Kremlin. Neither man really understood the other, both tried cynically to manipulate events. And so, week by week, they crept closer to the brink. Based on a wealth of new documents and interviews, filled with fresh-sometimes startling-insights, written with immediacy and drama, Berlin 1961 is an extraordinary look at key events of the twentieth century, with powerful applications to these early years of the twenty-first. Includes photographs

Download or read book Forty Autumns written by Nina Willner and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this illuminating and deeply moving memoir, a former American military intelligence officer goes beyond traditional Cold War espionage tales to tell the true story of her family—of five women separated by the Iron Curtain for more than forty years, and their miraculous reunion after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Forty Autumns makes visceral the pain and longing of one family forced to live apart in a world divided by two. At twenty, Hanna escaped from East to West Germany. But the price of freedom—leaving behind her parents, eight siblings, and family home—was heartbreaking. Uprooted, Hanna eventually moved to America, where she settled down with her husband and had children of her own. Growing up near Washington, D.C., Hanna’s daughter, Nina Willner became the first female Army Intelligence Officer to lead sensitive intelligence operations in East Berlin at the height of the Cold War. Though only a few miles separated American Nina and her German relatives—grandmother Oma, Aunt Heidi, and cousin, Cordula, a member of the East German Olympic training team—a bitter political war kept them apart. In Forty Autumns, Nina recounts her family’s story—five ordinary lives buffeted by circumstances beyond their control. She takes us deep into the tumultuous and terrifying world of East Germany under Communist rule, revealing both the cruel reality her relatives endured and her own experiences as an intelligence officer, running secret operations behind the Berlin Wall that put her life at risk. A personal look at a tenuous era that divided a city and a nation, and continues to haunt us, Forty Autumns is an intimate and beautifully written story of courage, resilience, and love—of five women whose spirits could not be broken, and who fought to preserve what matters most: family. Forty Autumns is illustrated with dozens of black-and-white and color photographs.

Download or read book Uprising in East Germany 1953 written by Christian F. Ostermann and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2001-01-01 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A detailed introductory essay to provide the necessary historical and political context precedes each part. The individual documents are introduced by short headnotes summarizing the contents and orienting the reader. A chronology, glossary and bibliography offer further background information."--BOOK JACKET.