Book description
On 7 May 1945, Grand Admiral Donitz, named in Hitler's will as head
of state, authorised the unconditional surrender of all German forces
to the Allies on the following day. World War II in Europe was at an
end. But many of the German people would continue to endure hardships,
as both the country and the capital were to be divided between France,
the UK and the USA in the west and the USSR in the east. East and West
Germany, and East and West Berlin, would remain divided until 1989. By
October 1990, however, the two countries were reunited, and the Berlin
Reichstag was once again the seat of government. Here, politicians
would put East and West back together again, marrying a totalitarian,
atheist, communist system with a democratic, Christian, capitalist
one. How did this marriage affect the everyday life of ordinary
Germans? How did combining two telephone systems, two postal services,
hospitals, farm land, property, industry, railways and roads work? How
were women's rights, welfare, pensions, trades unions, arts, rents,
and housing affected? There had been no warning of this marriage and
no preparation for it - and no country had ever tried putting two
completely opposite systems together before. This is the story of what
happened, in the words of the people it happened to - the people's
story of an incredible unification.
Christopher Hilton was an author and former journalist (for the
Daily Express, Sunday Express and Daily Mirror). He was the author of
more than sixty books, including Hitler's Olympics, The Wall and After
the Berlin Wall.
