Radio GDR - East Germany Podcast

Radio GDR. Life in the former East Germany holds an ongoing fascination for a lot of people. Join us as we learn more about the former East Germany. Radio German Democratic Republic is a podcast designed to educate and inform on the life and times of East Germany. Radio GDR is hosted by Steven Minegar and John Paul Kleiner.

How the Grey Disappeared from Greyland - Part 1 of my conversation with Herta Peter 03/23/2024

How the Grey Disappeared from Greyland - Part 1 of my conversation with Herta Peter Hello Radio GDR listeners! I am so pleased to bring you the first episode of two with my new friend Herta Peter. My favorite thing about doing this podcast is hearing stories from those of you who lived in the GDR. Your stories are always extremely compelling, and we welcome them with open arms. History deserves to be preserved, and Radio GDR has been here to do it. Herta was born in Halle in 1981. While she was only 8 when the wall fell, her memories of her childhood in the GDR to two parents who lived during the country's entire existence are simply amazing. Having family in West Germany, Herta received care packages she had to keep a secret when at school. Upon reaching pension age, her grandmother was able to visit the west but could never shake the habit of whispering, a survival tactic learned in the repressive East where, like the Three Monkeys one saw no evil, heard no evil and said no evil. Just listen for her story of the Soviet tank driver who made a mess no one ever talked about. From her memories of what she says were the "various shades of grey" she saw in the GDR, she has written and is working to publish a children's book about her memories - How the Grey Disappeared from Greyland. It's a compelling short story about the arrival of a colorful package in the land of grey, a representation of the care packages she got from the West. In our first episode, we'll hear about Herta's life in the GDR, and in the second, we'll learn how it inspired her book and the lessons she believes life in the GDR can teach us today. Let's dive in with Herta Peter as she brings the first part of her story to life here on Radio GDR. Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history. If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at . For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook. Vielen dank for being a listener! /episode/index/show/radiogdr/id/30512748

Special Announcement - new website (radiogdrpodcast.com) and season 4 is coming! 10/14/2023

Attila The Stockbroker 07/17/2023

Attila The Stockbroker In this episode John Paul Kleiner () speaks with , an English poet, musician and songwriter with roots in the punk movement and socialist politics. During his forty year career as independent artist, Attila has produced numerous albums and books and performed more than 3,800 shows including many in the GDR and, after unification, eastern Germany. In this conversation, Attila vividly recalls his visits to the East, the people whom he met there and aspects of the Workers and Peasants State which were an inspiration and other which left him disgusted. Find Attila’s active Facebook page by . Learn more about his books and albums on There’s a great mini-doc of Attila done a few years back by filmmaker Farouq Suleiman that gives a great sense of his energy and art on YouTube . You can hear poem and song “This is Free Europe” inspired by Attila’s experiences at a 1992 gig in Hoyerswerda . Glossary of terms : a Slovenian based music group / avant-garde art project which incorporates totalitarian aesthetics into a variety of musical styles to unsettling effect. A-Levels: university qualifying exams for British secondary school students John Peel was a DJ for the BBC between 1967 and 2004 during which time he helped popularize a number of musical genres including psychedelic and progressive rock as well as punk. are an English melodic punk band formed in 1979 and whose work took a decidedly political turn with the advent of Thatcherism in the U.K. It was through his connections to this group that Attila first made his way to the GDR. In the 1980s, the multiethnic London neighbourhood of Brixton was best known as a site of great social unrest due to widespread poverty and strained relations between residents and police. In more recent years, the area has undergone considerable gentrification, but echoes of Buna and Leuna: in the GDR-era, these two large-scale chemical combines were essential economic drivers and creators of truly appalling environmental degradation. Read more on the impact these facilities had on the East German environment in this post from the . Bündnis 90 / Alternative Linke: Alliance ’90 and Alternative Left were left-oriented political movements which emerged from the foment of anti-SED protests in the mid- to late-1980s in the GDR. (The Sceptics) are a German punk band originally formed in East Berlin in 1986. While critical of the realities of ‘real-existing socialism’, the band were keen to carve out a place for themselves in the GDR music scene and used opportunities open to them within the system (incl. officially sanctioned live shows and appearances on GDR radio and new music compilation albums) to present their music to as wide an audience as possible. Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history. If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at . For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook. Vielen dank for being a listener! /episode/index/show/radiogdr/id/27487098

Taking Stock with Victor Grossman, Part II: Why The GDR Failed 04/08/2023

Berliners: Vesper Stamper's tale of twins divided by the Berlin Wall and thoughts on viewing the Cold War through historical fiction 03/05/2023

Why The GDR Fascinates Me: Kris Hinz's Reflections on his Father's Time in the GDR and the Country's Legacy Today 01/15/2023

Why The GDR Fascinates Me: Fred Esposito on His Love for Radio GDR and Why Preserving History is Important 12/08/2022

Why The GDR Fascinates Me: Neese Family Adventures in Radebeul, Leipzig and Dresden 11/23/2022

Ralph Hänel, Part III - Opening the Memory Box: Ralph's Corner GDR Museum 10/23/2022

Ralph Hänel, Part II - "Can I borrow your baby?", Stasi Handcuffs and the Book of Poison 09/29/2022

Ralph Hänel, Part I - My Father and the Stasi Lawyer 09/13/2022

Ralph Hänel, Part I - My Father and the Stasi Lawyer Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Radio GDR. This is your host Steve Minegar, and the next three episodes will truly be a humbling and eye opening experience for all of us. On the Cold War Conversations podcast, our good friend Ian Sanders interviewed Ralph Hänel, Kung Fu Master, actor and just plain wonderful guy, about the lengths he went to learn martial arts behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany. In an attempt to leave for the west, Ralph was arrested and spent several years in a Stasi prison in Cottbus known as the “red misery.” Ralph relays this incredible story over three episodes on Cold War Conversations, which I highly recommend you listen to before consuming this series of episodes - see the links below. Ralph is an amazing storyteller and approached me to relay even more of his tragic but triumphant tale. Inspired by objects he has collected that have reminded him of moments in his life, Ralph tells us in this first episode about his father’s possible involvement in the Stasi, the lawyer he may have arranged for his son to get out of prison, and the psychological torture the Stasi inflicted on him and his mother. Just wait until you hear about how Ralph got his Kung Fu certificate into East Germany, the messages he snuck into a hole in his tooth and his Stasi handcuffs (I won’t give too many spoilers away). Ralph, we appreciate these stories very much. You MUST listen to Ian Sanders' three part interview of Ralph before listening to these. They will absolutely set the context for these episodes, and are MUST LISTENS. Read Ralph's short stories Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history. If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at . For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our . Just search Radio GDR in Facebook. Vielen dank for being a listener! /episode/index/show/radiogdr/id/24356472

Artists Take on The State! Experimental Art in Late East Germany, with Sara Blaylock 08/22/2022

The Things They've Seen - Reflections on WWII and the Cold War by German Eyewitnesses, with Daniel Burghard 08/04/2022

Overlooked No More - Female Directors in East Germany's DEFA Films 07/13/2022

Overlooked No More - Female Directors in East Germany's DEFA Films There is no shortage of recent articles regarding the too long overlooked subject of female directors. While many of these articles are specific to the women directing films today (Patty Jenkins, Kelly Reichardt, Kathryn Bigelow, etc.), there are many more that claim to be comprehensive overviews of the contributions made by women to the art of cinema. These articles are careful to remember female directors from the distant past (Lotte Reiniger, Alice Guy-Blaché) and the ones who boldly made films in Hollywood when women weren’t even considered for jobs as directors (Dorothy Arzner, Ida Lupino, Barbara Loden). They are careful to include women of color (Gina Prince-Bythewood, Chloé Zhao), and they don’t forget the well-known foreign women directors (Lina Wertmüller, Agnès Varda, Chantal Akerman). But there’s one group of female directors who haven’t been given due credit for their work: The female directors of East Germany. You can go through as many articles on the topic of female directors as you’re willing to read, and you won’t find Iris Gusner, Evelyn Schmidt, or Hannelore Unterberg mentioned at all. Never mind that the films by these women are often better than any of the films made by some of the directors that did make those lists. Even the list of female directors Wikipedia includes no female East German directors. Join us today as we speak with Jim Morton, author of the , and Jeffrey Babcock, who curated a program on East German cinema for the Goethe Institute in Amsterdam, on the often overlooked topic of female directors in DEFA films. Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history. If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at . For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our . Just search Radio GDR in Facebook. Vielen dank for being a listener! /episode/index/show/radiogdr/id/23727857

Gay Spies and LGBT Activism in East Germany, with Samuel Clowes Huneke 06/28/2022

Gay Spies and LGBT Activism in East Germany, with Samuel Clowes Huneke Gay spies and espionage….absolutely one of the most incredible topics you can study about the GDR. On today's episode of Radio GDR, we are going to dive into the topic of LGBT espionage, life and struggle for equality behind the Iron Curtain. We have the honor to be joined by Dr. Samuel Huneke, assistant professor of history at George Mason University and author of the riveting book States of Liberation - Gay Men Between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany. In the book, Huneke traces the path of gay men in East and West Germany from the violent aftermath of the Second World War to the thundering nightclubs of present-day Berlin. Following a captivating cast of characters, from gay spies and Nazi scientists to queer politicians and secret police bureaucrats, States of Liberation tells the remarkable story of how the two German states persecuted gay men - and how those men slowly, over the course of decades, won new rights and created new opportunities for themselves in the heart of Cold War Europe. Relying on untapped archives in Germany and the United States as well as oral histories with witnesses and survivors, Huneke reveals that communist East Germany was in many ways far more progressive on queer issues than democratic West Germany. Dr. Huneke's book is fantastic and is available here - . Check out Dr. Huneke's bio . Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history. If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at . For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our . Just search Radio GDR in Facebook. Vielen dank for being a listener! /episode/index/show/radiogdr/id/23573204

¡Venceremos! Chilean Bands and Socialist Solidarity at East Germany's Festival of Political Songs, with Jesse Freedman 06/16/2022

¡Venceremos! Chilean Bands and Socialist Solidarity at East Germany's Festival of Political Songs, with Jesse Freedman Venceremos! We will overcome! This one word defined the socialist political movement of Salvador Allende's presidency in Chile and, after the military coup of 1973, rolled off the tongues of Chilean exiles and musical bands who found a new home in East Germany. As many of you know, I have long been interested in the GDR's international relations, particularly with Chile given that I studied abroad there in 2007. I was amazed to learn that Chilean refugees fled to the GDR after the 1973 military coup in Chile, that many Chilean bands appeared at political festivals in East Berlin and that Erich Honecker, the deposed general secretary of the SED, died in exile in Santiago, Chile in 1994. John Paul Kleiner introduced me to today's guest, Jesse Freedman, because of our shared interest in the connections between Chile and East Germany, specifically the Festival des Politischen Liedes, or Festival of Political Songs, a musical festival held for many decades during the GDR's existence that hosted bands from Chile and around the world in the name of socialist solidarity. Jesse is a doctoral candidate in ethnomusicology at the University of California, Riverside. His research focuses on the reception and role of Chilean nueva canción, a revolutionary musical movement in the 60s and 70s, and the experience of Chilean exiles in the former German Democratic Republic during the years of the Pinochet military dictatorship. Let's join Jesse as he tells us about the history of this festival, the role Chilean bands like Inti-Illimani, Quilapayun and Illapu played to popularize revolutionary music in East Germany and how the festival shaped the GDR's foreign policy all the way until its end. For more information on the Festival of Political Songs and Chilean bands in the GDR, check out Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history. If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at . For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our . Just search Radio GDR in Facebook. Vielen dank for being a listener! /episode/index/show/radiogdr/id/23444066

Ned Richardson-Little on The Human Rights Dictatorship - Socialism, Global Solidarity and Revolution in East Germany 06/02/2022

"A House Divided Cannot Stand" - Designing Chapman University's Berlin Wall Monument at Liberty Plaza with Richard Turner 05/18/2022

"A House Divided Cannot Stand" - Designing Chapman University's Berlin Wall Monument at Liberty Plaza with Richard Turner This episode seeks to answer a burning question - what does an artist do with a piece of the Berlin Wall? In our last episode, we interviewed Dr. Jim Doti, Professor and President Emeritus of Chapman University in Orange, California (), about how Chapman secured a piece of the Berlin Wall for the university's lovely campus. Today I am honored to be joined by Chapman's own Professor Emeritus Richard Turner, the artist who designed Liberty Plaza where Chapman's Berlin Wall is displayed. Liberty Plaza is breathtaking - set amongst crepe myrtle trees, the Berlin Wall sits in an oval reflecting pool ringed by Abraham Lincoln's quote "A House Divided Cannot Stand." A stone chair inspired by the Lincoln Memorial sits on a mound facing the wall encouraging students and visitors to consider the importance of freedom. Richard tells us how his time in Asia in the 1960s inspired his beautiful public art projects, which range from metro stations, public parks and water treatment facilities to a justice center, veterans’ memorial and a university chapel. His public work is guided by a desire to make pieces that are accessible but not obvious, pieces that reveal themselves over time to a diverse audience. Thank you, Professors Turner, Doti and Chapman University, for this amazing story. To learn more about Dr. Doti and Professor Turner's efforts to bring the Berlin Wall to Chapman University, visit and . Learn more about Richard Turner and his art by visiting Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history. If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at . For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our . Just search Radio GDR in Facebook. Vielen dank for being a listener! /episode/index/show/radiogdr/id/23159276

"Historical Memory" - How Dr. Jim Doti Brought the Berlin Wall to Chapman University 05/07/2022

"Historical Memory" - How Dr. Jim Doti Brought the Berlin Wall to Chapman University There are many pieces of the Berlin Wall on display all around the world. How did universities, museums and other places secure these sections of what was once the most intimidating symbol of the Iron Curtain? In this episode of Radio GDR, I have the privilege of being joined by Dr. Jim Doti, Professor and President Emeritus of Chapman University in Orange, California (chapman.edu), to tell us how he secured for Chapman what is today the second largest piece of the Berlin Wall owned by an American university. In 1997 after seeing the Berlin Wall at the Reagan Library, Dr. Doti was inspired to procure a piece of the wall for Chapman. Over many months he and his colleagues worked through the Mayor of Berlin's office to secure one of the last sections available. Known colloquially as "the Candy Bomber," Dr. Doti describes the painstaking process of securing the wall to shipping it to California to building their own Berlin Wall memorial known as Liberty Plaza. Upon receipt of the wall, art professor Richard Turner, who we interview in our next episode, designed Liberty Plaza to contrast totalitarianism and freedom - the Berlin Wall sits in an oval reflecting pool surrounded by cement engraved with Abraham Lincoln's quote "A House Divided Cannot Stand." A stone chair sits on a mound facing the wall encouraging students and visitors to consider the importance of freedom. Thank you, Dr. Doti and Chapman University, for this amazing story. For pictures and more information about Chapman's piece of the Berlin Wall, please visit Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history. If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at . For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook. Vielen dank for being a listener! /episode/index/show/radiogdr/id/23038037

Capitalism vs. Communism - Jeff Myers' "Crash Course" on Life in East Germany 04/29/2022

Taking Stock with Victor Grossman: The GDR's Achievements - Part I 04/12/2022

Taking Stock with Victor Grossman: The GDR's Achievements - Part I In 1952, a 24-year old American soldier defected to the Eastern Bloc in order to avoid a US Army disciplinary hearing and what he feared would be draconian punishment for his involvement in socialist and communist politics in the United States. This decision put his life on an entirely new trajectory, one that left him with a new name, Victor Grossman, and left him in the then young German Democratic Republic, a country that became his home for the remaining 37+ years of his existence. A committed socialist, Grossman identified closely with the aims of the East German state, but always maintained a critical perspectives on his new home. Over two discussions with Radio GDR host John Paul Kleiner, Grossman takes stock of “the workers and peasants state.” In the first of these, Grossman focuses on the achievements of what the GDR labeled “real-existing socialism,” laying out the ways in which East Germany broke with German history and contrasting it with the Federal Republic to the west. He discusses how the country’s priorities were reflected in the everyday lives of its citizens and openly addresses some of the contradictions which were evident in GDR society and economy as its leaders sought to consolidate a socialist state on German soil. John Paul would like to give special thanks to his friend Marcus Funck in Berlin for assistance with this interview. Without this help, it wouldn’t have happened, so thank you, Marcus! For more resources on Victor Grossman, including information on his book, please visit https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/s3e3 Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most important pieces of Cold War history. If you feel more comfortable leaving us a review to help us get more listeners, we appreciate it very much and encourage you to do so wherever you get your podcasts or at . For discussions about podcast episodes and GDR history, please do join our Facebook discussion group. Just search Radio GDR in Facebook. Vielen dank for being a listener! /episode/index/show/radiogdr/id/22775423

No Man's Land: Michael Califra's Crossings in Divided Berlin 03/29/2022

Season 3 - The Gang is Back Together Again! 03/17/2022

Season 3 Special Announcement (45) 02/16/2022

A Strange Exchange: Brown University Students on the Loose in East Germany 01/06/2022

The Grey Men: Pursuing the Stasi into the Present with Ralph Hope 07/29/2021

Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall - with Tim Mohr 06/27/2021

Borderland Museum Eichsfeld - Touring the Inner German Border with Patrick Hoffmann 06/11/2021

Lives of East Germans - The "Authentic Spirit" of Adelheid Wedel (40) 05/31/2021

More Ghosts of East Berlin - Celeste Barber's Fulbright Adventure in the GDR (39) 05/20/2021

Radio GDR - East Germany Podcast

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