It is no coincidence that the memory of crimes in which not external forces, but your own state is to blame, is called the 'difficult past'. Recognizing one's own responsibility without shifting it to external or internal enemies, time and circumstances is incredibly difficult psychologically, politically and legally. Only at first glance it seems that there are many examples of such...

Revolutions do not happen unexpectedly, empires do not perish for no reason. The main lesson that we can learn from the revolution of 1917 is the understanding of why the emperor and his entourage, in a situation that required cardinal internal reforms, not only did not decide on these reforms, but, on the contrary, tried with all their might to reverse the development of the country,...

Friday, April 10, 1981: In Jena, 23-year-old Matthias Domaschk boards the express train to Berlin. He wants to go to a birthday party. But he never arrives, because the fully occupied train is stopped in Jueterbog, and Matthias and three other people from Jena are arrested. He is dead two days later after an interrogation in the Stasi detention center in Gera. What happened then?

A provocative study of German peace of mind For the first time since the end of the exhibition 'War of Destruction. Crimes of the Wehrmacht 1941 to 1944' Hannes Heer spoke about the background to the campaign against the show, which he directed. She had questioned the legend of the clean Wehrmacht, and the shock was correspondingly great. The attempts to defame the exhibition were successful...

It has become acceptable again to make Hitler a scapegoat in order to clean up the German past. The Hitler and spear expert Joachim Fest, Bernd Eichinger's award-winning film 'Der Untergang' and the popular television series by Guido Knopp are the key witnesses for the current rollback in the historical perspective. Will Hitler become the leader of the Germans again?

Time novel and fate panorama. The 'Anschluss' of Austria by the Nazis in March 1938 and their invasion of Vienna was a traumatic turning point in European history. Manfred Fluegge tells vividly and in detail about the tragic mistake of Kurt Schuschnigg and the failure of the world public. In an alternation of historical representation and exemplary life stories of actors and victims, including...

A new masterpiece by the brilliant feuilletonist Jutta Voigt: clever and entertaining, she tells of the longing for a different life in the GDR. Artists, bohemians, those who failed in the face of real socialism - they all sought the right existence outside the control of the wrong system. At the center of Jutta Voigt's new book is a bohemian who pursued a fundamental interest: the other life....

Exile under palm trees. For centuries, the Cote d'Azur has been a magnet of longing for German writers and painters. Until 1933. After that, the coast with its poetic patina became the refuge of many German artists, and Sanary-sur-Mer became the spiritual center of emigration. Thomas Mann lived here, as did Lion Feuchtwanger, Ludwig Marcuse, Franz Werfel and Bruno Frank. Many artists who had...

August 1939. Shimmering heat in Central Europe. The grain is mowed. Holiday season. It might be carefree days, but there's something disturbing in the air. Some say a new war is imminent. The others swear the peace is safe. In this restless August, the world is watching the Obersalzberg. Adolf Hitler spends his summer here. From here he dares a risky game. Hauke Friederichs tells the story of...

Dietmar Schultke's meticulously researched depiction of the inner-German border and the Berlin Wall contains all relevant information about the bulwark between the two German states, which has been developed into a perfect barrier belt, and the GDR border regime, a time table and selected orders to the border troops of the GDR.

'As simple as burek' is a popular phrase used by many young people in Slovenia. In this book Jernej Mlekuz maintains that the truth is just the opposite. The burek is a pie made of pastry dough filled with various fillings that is well-known in the Balkans, and also in Turkey and the Near East by other names. Whether on the plate or as a cultural artifact, it is in fact, not that simple. After...

After the entry of the Red Army into Czechoslovak territory in 1945, Red Army authorities began to arrest and deport Czechoslovak citizens to labor camps in the Soviet Union. The regions most affected were Eastern and South Slovakia and Prague. The Czechoslovak authorities repeatedly requested a halt to the deportations and that the deported Czechoslovaks be returned immediately. It took a long...