The Latest Breaking News from Katja Hoyer

Weimar by Katja Hoyer review – the town that changed Germany

It was the birthplace of the liberal tradition, but also the incubator for Nazism – what can this historic city tell us about democracy?

The Guardian - UK · May 14

Germans pining for Gerhard Schröder forget his errors and ties to Putin. The SPD needs a fresh approach

The former chancellor was the chief architect of Germany’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels and cuts to defence spending. Both haunt the country today, says German-British historian Katja Hoyer

The Guardian - UK · Apr 8

The AfD is flirting with Nazi history – but moral outrage alone won’t stop the far right

Coincidence or not, the party has timed its congress for the centenary of an infamous Nazi rally. But condemnation didn’t stop Hitler, and it’s not enough now, says historian and journalist Katja Hoyer

The Guardian - UK · Feb 23

There’s only one way to keep Germany’s far-right AfD at bay. Address the concerns it exploits

There are good reasons to place a political firewall around the extremists. But mainstream parties must also address the electorate’s loss of trust, says German-British historian Katja Hoyer

The Guardian - UK · Sep 3, 2024

What’s ‘wrong’ with east Germany? Look to its long neglect by the wealthy west

The far-right AfD is leading the polls in former GDR regions – and longstanding bias in German media and politics is partly to blame, says German-British historian Katja Hoyer

The Guardian - UK · Mar 7, 2024

Slavery, revolution and war: Baillie Gifford prize longlist highlights history

Tania Branigan’s Red Memory and Jeremy Eichler’s Time’s Echo are among the titles in the running for the £50,000 award

The Guardian - UK · Sep 6, 2023

From rampaging teens to female assassins: why has East German culture become so cool?

Is Britain’s sudden appetite for the GDR an unhealthy obsession? Katja Hoyer, author of Beyond the Wall, examines the new wave of books and shows about life under the Stasi in the vanished state

The Guardian - UK · May 10, 2023

'Beyond the Wall': The GDR seen from an East German perspective

On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, symbolising the beginning of the end of the Cold War. Plenty of books, essays and documentaries have been devoted to the historic turning point, but hearing from East Germans about how they experienced the four decades of the German Democratic Republic (GDR)…

France 24 · Apr 5, 2023

Beyond the Wall by Katja Hoyer review – the human face of the socialist state

This revisionist history of East Germany paints a picture of a land that catered for its people’s needs – albeit while subjecting them to constant state surveillance

The Guardian - UK · Apr 2, 2023

Beyond the Wall by Katja Hoyer review – overturning cliches of East Germany

A revisionist history that adds stability, contentment and women’s rights to the familiar picture of authoritarianism

The Guardian - UK · Mar 29, 2023