The Forbidden East

Well, not really. The west was what was forbidden to the easterners. The East was forbidding.

“In 1979/80 my family took part in the biggest espionage scandal that the former country of East-Germany saw in its entire 50 years of existence”

- Thomas Wagner, “If It Had Not Been for 15 Minutes”

Mr. Wagner’s story is a tense and fascinating one, and paints an honest, well rounded, and compelling portrait of the DDR that’s rarely found in the English language. Having livbed there myself (as a lucky foreigner who could leave,) I can attest to that.