BARBARA BOSWELL remembers South African poet, storyteller, publisher, editor and activist Diana Ferrus (1953-2026)
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Neither socialist heaven nor Stasi hell
History may be often written by the victors but a warts-and-all account of the successes and failures of the German Democratic Republic redresses the balance, says JOHN FOSTER
HELEN VASSALLO recommends a gripping Argentinian crime story about gender violence and the weaponisation of religion
New releases from Steve Swallow, Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts, and Ady Johnson
When the ravages of Alzheimer’s leave an elderly woman marooned in painful memories of October 1950, her grandchild comes up with a creative strategy.
New releases from Simone White, Brass Funkeys, and Souad Massi
SUE TURNER is compelled by a history that shows how far a country can turn in on itself to collude with abuses of power
RON JACOBS is persuaded by the parallel drawn between Charles Manson and Donald Trump
Stasi State or Socialist Paradise: The German Democratic Republic
and What Became of it
by Bruni de la Motte
and John Green
(Artery Publications, £7.50)
THE German Democratic Republic vanished in 1990. All that remains today are memories. The conclusion of the earlier book on the GDR by Bruni de la Motte and John Green drew on these memories to allow a range of individuals — a car mechanic, an architect, a farm worker, a doctor — to talk about themselves.
The result defied cold-war stereotypes. The GDR was neither a hell nor a utopia. It nurtured hopes of a new, more human social order but also restricted those hopes.
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CJ ATKINS commemorates one of the most dramatic moments in working-class history
Hundreds in Berlin gathered on January 15 to honour the US-born socialist who made East Germany his home. Florentine Morales Sandoval reports
NICK MATTHEWS recalls how the ideals of socialism and the holding of goods in common have an older provenance than you might think