It’s always a strange feeling when something just disappears.

And today, Germany is celebrating Reunification Day – marking the date when Germany was no longer split into East and West. Or you could say: The day when the short-lived country the GDR just… disappeared.

Except: Of course it didn’t *physically* disappear. After all, nation states are merely abstract concepts. And the citizens and towns of GDR were in fact assimilated into pretty much the same Federal Republic that used to be just West Germany. In other words, millions of citizens suddenly found themselves living in different country.

There is a often-ridiculed sentiment in Germany called “Ostalgie” – nostalgia for the East. But whether or not you sympathized with the GDR regime, I find it easy to understand the confusion of its former citizens. And did the new Germany really make sure they threw nothing (like solidarity and a sense of community) out with the bathwater when they spread the gospel of capitalism throughout the new Germany?

Ostalgie as a concept may be misguided – but Katya Hoyer’s book “Beyond the Wall” really helped me acquire a more nuanced view of this unique slice of history. Barely anything is simply black or white – and beyond the Wall the citizens of the GDR were just ordinary people trying their best to live their lives.

I suggest this book as enlightening reading for October 3rd.

(The text on the photo above is written on a building in the former East Berlin and translates to: “This house used to stand in a different country”)