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A Socialist Defector: From Harvard to Karl-Marx-Allee
The circumstances that impelled Victor Grossman, a U.S. Army draftee stationed in Europe, to flee a military prison sentence were the icy pressures of the McCarthy Era. Grossman - a.k.a. Steve Wechsler, a committed leftist since his years at Harvard and, briefly, as a factory worker - left his barracks in Bavaria one August day in 1952, and, in a panic, swam across the Danube River from the Austrian U.S. Zone to the Soviet Zone. Fate - i.e., the Soviets - landed him in East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic. There he remained, observer and participant, husband and father, as he watched the rise and successes, the travails, and the eventual demise of the GDR socialist experiment. A Socialist Defector is the story, told in rare, personal detail, of an activist and writer who grew up in the U.S. free-market economy; spent thirty-eight years in the GDR's nationally owned, centrally administered economy; and continues to survive, given whatever the market can bear in today's united Germany.
Having been a freelance journalist and traveling lecturer - and the only person in the world to hold diplomas from both Harvard and the Karl Marx University - Grossman is able to offer insightful, often ironic, reflections and reminiscences, comparing the good and bad sides of life in all three of the societies he has known. His account focuses especially on the socialism he saw and lived - the GDR's goals and achievements, its repressive measures and stupidities - which, he argues, offers lessons now in our search for solutions to the grave problems facing our world. This is a fascinating and unique historical narrative; political analysis told with jokes, personal anecdotes, and without bombast.
Having been a freelance journalist and traveling lecturer - and the only person in the world to hold diplomas from both Harvard and the Karl Marx University - Grossman is able to offer insightful, often ironic, reflections and reminiscences, comparing the good and bad sides of life in all three of the societies he has known. His account focuses especially on the socialism he saw and lived - the GDR's goals and achievements, its repressive measures and stupidities - which, he argues, offers lessons now in our search for solutions to the grave problems facing our world. This is a fascinating and unique historical narrative; political analysis told with jokes, personal anecdotes, and without bombast.
336 pages, Paperback
Published March 1, 2019
18 people are currently reading
369 people want to read
About the author
Victor Grossman
7 books16 followersVictor Grossman (1928-2025) was an American publicist and author who defected to the Soviet Union in 1952. He studied journalism in East Germany and remained there working as a journalist and writer.
Born Stephen Wechsler in New York City, he reluctantly changed his name to Victor Grossman after defection to East Germany in order to shield his family members in the United States. As a youth, his family often summered in Free Acres, New Jersey, a community using economic philosopher Henry George's concept of single taxation. While studying at Harvard University as a member of the class of 1949, Grossman joined the Communist Party USA, whose platform claimed unequivocal opposition to racism, exploitation, and most importantly — Nazi Germany. After receiving his degree in economics, he worked in a factory. However, in 1950, Grossman was drafted into the United States Army and stationed in Germany.
In 1952, while serving in Austria, Grossman swam across the Danube into the Soviet-occupied zone of Austria, and became one of a handful of soldiers from the NATO nations who defected to the Eastern Bloc. Grossman later stated he defected because he feared prosecution by U.S. authorities for not declaring his membership in left-wing political organizations prior to his entering the army.
Following assessment by Soviet authorities, Grossman was sent to East Germany, where he continued his studies in journalism at Karl Marx University.
While in East Germany, Grossman was a good friend of his fellow US exile, the singer and actor Dean Reed. He earned his living as a journalist and as a translator.
In 1954, Grossman was recruited as an informant by the East German Ministry of State Security (MfS, or "Stasi"), codename TAUCHER ("Diver").
In 1994, the U.S. Army dropped charges of desertion against him. He reclaimed his U.S. passport and traveled to America several times, including a book tour to promote his memoir Crossing the River: A Memoir of the American Left, the Cold War, and Life in East Germany, published in 2003. Grossman was a frequent contributor to the Marxist magazine Monthly Review.
Born Stephen Wechsler in New York City, he reluctantly changed his name to Victor Grossman after defection to East Germany in order to shield his family members in the United States. As a youth, his family often summered in Free Acres, New Jersey, a community using economic philosopher Henry George's concept of single taxation. While studying at Harvard University as a member of the class of 1949, Grossman joined the Communist Party USA, whose platform claimed unequivocal opposition to racism, exploitation, and most importantly — Nazi Germany. After receiving his degree in economics, he worked in a factory. However, in 1950, Grossman was drafted into the United States Army and stationed in Germany.
In 1952, while serving in Austria, Grossman swam across the Danube into the Soviet-occupied zone of Austria, and became one of a handful of soldiers from the NATO nations who defected to the Eastern Bloc. Grossman later stated he defected because he feared prosecution by U.S. authorities for not declaring his membership in left-wing political organizations prior to his entering the army.
Following assessment by Soviet authorities, Grossman was sent to East Germany, where he continued his studies in journalism at Karl Marx University.
While in East Germany, Grossman was a good friend of his fellow US exile, the singer and actor Dean Reed. He earned his living as a journalist and as a translator.
In 1954, Grossman was recruited as an informant by the East German Ministry of State Security (MfS, or "Stasi"), codename TAUCHER ("Diver").
In 1994, the U.S. Army dropped charges of desertion against him. He reclaimed his U.S. passport and traveled to America several times, including a book tour to promote his memoir Crossing the River: A Memoir of the American Left, the Cold War, and Life in East Germany, published in 2003. Grossman was a frequent contributor to the Marxist magazine Monthly Review.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 22, 2025
POV: Your commie Grandpa tells you about the good ol' days while you are listening to his old vinyl records and having a nice mug of tea.
This is a very touching work because it reminds me of the often meandering, funny, insightful or sometimes outright bizarre stories my grandpa would tell me about his crazy life.
Similarly, Grossman reminisces about many things regarding to his experiences about the days of wild transformation in the GDR, ranging from the hard days of the immediate end of World War Two, to the heady years of reform under Khrushchev, the retrenchment of conservative thinking in the GDR, the collapse and his return to the US after nearly forty years abroad. It reminds me a lot about how my own grandpa, when he was still alive, and myself thought about the nature of change. As a young person I still often feel that big changes often rattle my entire world, and Grossman similarly recounts these things about his younger self and how he, literally, found himself is a completely different society from the US and how he had to accustom himself to this form of life that had only really written in the pages of books.
The memoir takes on an air objectivity, not like that of the political theorist who makes statements about things they've only read about, but as someone whose life was one of many shapes by the experiences of life in an ostensibly socialist society that makes it very refreshing and gives Grossman's account a unique kind of purchase, at least to me on a personal level. He takes stock of all the bad things, the good things and the downright weird things that everyday people like us would have felt or seen that, again, just hits different for me because it's laced with not only the typical historical context and facts (which appear from time to time to situate the otherwise jumpy narration) with mundane life experiences that give his account a unique vibrancy, I can almost see the twinkle in Grossman's eye as I read the page.
As with all personal accounts, this is probably flawed and shouldn't be taken as the last word on the GDR experience, but it was never meant to be. the author repeatedly states that was never the intent. Grossman's last sections comparing the current situation with stuff in his day make this clear, many of the problems remain similar, but the strategy will have to change. And I think this is where the true beauty of this work lies, Grossman, like any good grandpa, is fully aware of change and contingency and it's effect on our designs, but he says his piece, shares the insights of a long storied life and shares the hope that each small contribution we make throughout our lives will leave the world a better place for those that will come after us. One day we may live to be Commie Grandpas in turn, and one day will also share our own life lessons to the younger generations to, hopefully, inculcate those values of friendship, selflessness and kindness into them.
Rest in Power, Victor Grossman.
This is a very touching work because it reminds me of the often meandering, funny, insightful or sometimes outright bizarre stories my grandpa would tell me about his crazy life.
Similarly, Grossman reminisces about many things regarding to his experiences about the days of wild transformation in the GDR, ranging from the hard days of the immediate end of World War Two, to the heady years of reform under Khrushchev, the retrenchment of conservative thinking in the GDR, the collapse and his return to the US after nearly forty years abroad. It reminds me a lot about how my own grandpa, when he was still alive, and myself thought about the nature of change. As a young person I still often feel that big changes often rattle my entire world, and Grossman similarly recounts these things about his younger self and how he, literally, found himself is a completely different society from the US and how he had to accustom himself to this form of life that had only really written in the pages of books.
The memoir takes on an air objectivity, not like that of the political theorist who makes statements about things they've only read about, but as someone whose life was one of many shapes by the experiences of life in an ostensibly socialist society that makes it very refreshing and gives Grossman's account a unique kind of purchase, at least to me on a personal level. He takes stock of all the bad things, the good things and the downright weird things that everyday people like us would have felt or seen that, again, just hits different for me because it's laced with not only the typical historical context and facts (which appear from time to time to situate the otherwise jumpy narration) with mundane life experiences that give his account a unique vibrancy, I can almost see the twinkle in Grossman's eye as I read the page.
As with all personal accounts, this is probably flawed and shouldn't be taken as the last word on the GDR experience, but it was never meant to be. the author repeatedly states that was never the intent. Grossman's last sections comparing the current situation with stuff in his day make this clear, many of the problems remain similar, but the strategy will have to change. And I think this is where the true beauty of this work lies, Grossman, like any good grandpa, is fully aware of change and contingency and it's effect on our designs, but he says his piece, shares the insights of a long storied life and shares the hope that each small contribution we make throughout our lives will leave the world a better place for those that will come after us. One day we may live to be Commie Grandpas in turn, and one day will also share our own life lessons to the younger generations to, hopefully, inculcate those values of friendship, selflessness and kindness into them.
Rest in Power, Victor Grossman.
September 25, 2019
This is the best critically supportive defense I have read of the DDR. The author, American by birth, defected to the Soviet Bloc in the early years of the DDR which became his adoptive country where he continued to live and work until the country was swallowed by its neighbour. The book is presented in roughly two parts. The first deals with the authors direct experience of "Really Existing Socialism". He talks both biographically about his own, and family's, experience of living in the DDR and examines in detail the workings of all areas of the Workers and Peasants State. What we get is neither the ill-informed outsiders Stasi focused hatchet job so common to many critical works, nor a glossed over picture of a socialist paradise. Setting into context the emergence of the DDR into a bi-polar world based on knife edge potential conflict and looking at how the DDR rose by its own bootstraps from the ruins of WWII, the author shows how the DDR was dealt a poor hand from the start with no heavy industry, few natural resources and saddled with 95% of reparations to Poland and the USSR. He goes on to illustrate how despite this the DDR was able to capture the imagination and support of a significant part of the population which worked with enthusiasm to build the new state.
In looking at the emergence of the DDR the author compares and contrasts the composition of the leadership of the DDR with that of the BRD. He shows that while the leadership of the DDR was overwhelmingly made up of active anti-fascist fighters, with Nazis thoroughly purged from DDR society, in the BRD leading Nazis and their financiers were quickly back in positions of power and influence and many war criminals went on to lead happy lives in the BRD as anti-Communism became the BRDs mantra. Just how extensive the post-war prominence of Nazis in BRD public life was is quite an eye opener to anyone not familiar with this dark spot in the history of the BRD. Indeed DDR journalists and lawyers were key in exposing, and in cases attempting to prosecute or at least remove from polite company, some of those war criminals. The author examines key areas of DDR society, including health, education, factory life, leisure, trade unions, central planning. In each case he looks at how these areas developed, why they developed as they did, how successful they were and how they compared with practice in other countries. Throughout its existence the DDR had to struggle for its survival, even the USSR could not always be relied on to support it and in the end betrayed the DDR like a pawn in dealings with the BRD. The subversion that the DDR faced from the West and how this worked to poison aspects of DDR society (something which was clearly the aim of the Western enemy) is examined in detail from a DDR perspective including the 1953 events and the circumstances leading to the construction of the Wall. Finally the time leading up to the demise of the DDR, the politics and social pressures that led to the dissolution of the country are examined.
The second part of the book takes a critical look at the authors birth country, the decades of repression of workers, native peoples and migrants to the USA. It compares and contrasts the lot of working people in the USA with conditions in the DDR. The author then goes on to look at the state of the world, the ruling economic system and the wars of the ruling elites. It makes quite grim reading even for those not new to the topics covered.
Unfortunately this book is unlikely to be read by many people who do not approach the subject oAf the DDR without at least a degree of curious sympathy which is a shame. It is also illustrative of the power of media and the western hegemonic position in that this sort of stuff can be happily published unmolested in the knowledge that its impact will be restricted, insignificant outside a relatively small and controllable circle and thus harmless.Now in his eighth decade the author writes with an amazingly positive freshness, free of dogmatism and open to possibilities of a brighter future. While positive about the DDR he is not someone who comes over as gripped by Ostalgia. Rather he comes across as one of those rare people who have spent their life struggling for something better, who have picked themselves up after each defeat and have rejoined the renewed struggle. An all round excellent book recording an incredible life in an under appreciated and much (wrongly) maligned country.
In looking at the emergence of the DDR the author compares and contrasts the composition of the leadership of the DDR with that of the BRD. He shows that while the leadership of the DDR was overwhelmingly made up of active anti-fascist fighters, with Nazis thoroughly purged from DDR society, in the BRD leading Nazis and their financiers were quickly back in positions of power and influence and many war criminals went on to lead happy lives in the BRD as anti-Communism became the BRDs mantra. Just how extensive the post-war prominence of Nazis in BRD public life was is quite an eye opener to anyone not familiar with this dark spot in the history of the BRD. Indeed DDR journalists and lawyers were key in exposing, and in cases attempting to prosecute or at least remove from polite company, some of those war criminals. The author examines key areas of DDR society, including health, education, factory life, leisure, trade unions, central planning. In each case he looks at how these areas developed, why they developed as they did, how successful they were and how they compared with practice in other countries. Throughout its existence the DDR had to struggle for its survival, even the USSR could not always be relied on to support it and in the end betrayed the DDR like a pawn in dealings with the BRD. The subversion that the DDR faced from the West and how this worked to poison aspects of DDR society (something which was clearly the aim of the Western enemy) is examined in detail from a DDR perspective including the 1953 events and the circumstances leading to the construction of the Wall. Finally the time leading up to the demise of the DDR, the politics and social pressures that led to the dissolution of the country are examined.
The second part of the book takes a critical look at the authors birth country, the decades of repression of workers, native peoples and migrants to the USA. It compares and contrasts the lot of working people in the USA with conditions in the DDR. The author then goes on to look at the state of the world, the ruling economic system and the wars of the ruling elites. It makes quite grim reading even for those not new to the topics covered.
Unfortunately this book is unlikely to be read by many people who do not approach the subject oAf the DDR without at least a degree of curious sympathy which is a shame. It is also illustrative of the power of media and the western hegemonic position in that this sort of stuff can be happily published unmolested in the knowledge that its impact will be restricted, insignificant outside a relatively small and controllable circle and thus harmless.Now in his eighth decade the author writes with an amazingly positive freshness, free of dogmatism and open to possibilities of a brighter future. While positive about the DDR he is not someone who comes over as gripped by Ostalgia. Rather he comes across as one of those rare people who have spent their life struggling for something better, who have picked themselves up after each defeat and have rejoined the renewed struggle. An all round excellent book recording an incredible life in an under appreciated and much (wrongly) maligned country.
May 3, 2023
Victor Grossman’s life story is one of a kind. Born a US citizen, he defected to the other side of the Iron Curtain during the time he was drafted in Europe as a result of the intense pressure of the McCarthy era in the early 1950s. He was resettled by the Soviet authorities to live in the German Democratic Republic, then married an East German woman and started a family of his own in East Berlin. His leftist view and activism forced him to defect in August 1952, when he swam across the Danube to the Soviet Zone in Austria. He watched the rise and fall of the GDR and as he describes in his book, has the chance to make a comparison between the system he left behind and the socialist society in the GDR.
A Socialist Defector is hardly a typical memoir. Whilst Mr Grossman begins his book with his own life story of swimming across the Danube, what follows is a comprehensive analysis of the GDR’s existence and post-GDR life in the reunified Germany that he frequently compares with the life condition in the US. As a gifted journalist (with a degree from the Karl Marx University in Leipzig), Mr Grossman’s analysis is heavy with data and he frequently cites statistics or analysis by other experts, mostly with regard to increasing inequality and the problems beguiling the Germany of today.
Whilst acknowledging the shortcoming of the GDR during its 40 years of existence (mostly due to pressure from the West), Mr Grossman defends the GDR with sound reasons. His analysis provides a counter-narrative to Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall which focuses on the role of the Stasi – the GDR’s Ministry for State Security and the country’s state intelligence apparatus, and how it spied on its own citizens. Mr Grossman emphasises the fact that most GDR citizens had little to do with the Stasi in their daily life and were still able to enjoy their lives despite the shortcomings of the GDR. He sometimes points out some sectors in which the GDR was more advanced compared to West Germany, i.e. the lack of homeless people, free education and healthcare, early introduction of legal abortion law, and anti-fascist politicians with (presumably) good intentions.
Mr Grossman’s views are unlikely to be accepted easily by people unfamiliar with the history of the GDR. It leans heavily towards defending the GDR, compared to other books on the GDR, such as Anna Funder’s Stasiland or Mary Fulbrook’s The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker, the latter of which I find more neutral in its assessment of the GDR. Yet I find this book interesting and it provides an alternative point of view on the GDR, from someone who lived through almost the entire period of the GDR’s existence. In some ways, Mr Grossman’s views also offer a reflection on the cause of fascism (as often pointed out, the temporary alliance between the mob and the capitalists) and the need to address it as the GDR had done during its existence.
A Socialist Defector is hardly a typical memoir. Whilst Mr Grossman begins his book with his own life story of swimming across the Danube, what follows is a comprehensive analysis of the GDR’s existence and post-GDR life in the reunified Germany that he frequently compares with the life condition in the US. As a gifted journalist (with a degree from the Karl Marx University in Leipzig), Mr Grossman’s analysis is heavy with data and he frequently cites statistics or analysis by other experts, mostly with regard to increasing inequality and the problems beguiling the Germany of today.
Whilst acknowledging the shortcoming of the GDR during its 40 years of existence (mostly due to pressure from the West), Mr Grossman defends the GDR with sound reasons. His analysis provides a counter-narrative to Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall which focuses on the role of the Stasi – the GDR’s Ministry for State Security and the country’s state intelligence apparatus, and how it spied on its own citizens. Mr Grossman emphasises the fact that most GDR citizens had little to do with the Stasi in their daily life and were still able to enjoy their lives despite the shortcomings of the GDR. He sometimes points out some sectors in which the GDR was more advanced compared to West Germany, i.e. the lack of homeless people, free education and healthcare, early introduction of legal abortion law, and anti-fascist politicians with (presumably) good intentions.
Mr Grossman’s views are unlikely to be accepted easily by people unfamiliar with the history of the GDR. It leans heavily towards defending the GDR, compared to other books on the GDR, such as Anna Funder’s Stasiland or Mary Fulbrook’s The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker, the latter of which I find more neutral in its assessment of the GDR. Yet I find this book interesting and it provides an alternative point of view on the GDR, from someone who lived through almost the entire period of the GDR’s existence. In some ways, Mr Grossman’s views also offer a reflection on the cause of fascism (as often pointed out, the temporary alliance between the mob and the capitalists) and the need to address it as the GDR had done during its existence.
July 17, 2023
Victor Grossman defected from the U.S. Army in Austria in 1952, after he had studied at Harvard and joined the Communist Party USA. Worried that he was going to be thrown in prison for his red past, he swam across the Danube into the Soviet sector. He was sent to the German Democratic Republic, and he lived there for 38 years, until the state collapsed in 1989. He worked for the GDR's English-language bulletin, the Democratic German Report, and later wrote about U.S. politics for East German publications.
Grossman is still in Berlin (at 95!) and still very much a socialist. At a time when the state spends billions trying to convince people that East Germany was hell on earth, it's refreshing to hear a foreigner explain what life was like in a society where everyone had an apartment, a job, free education, free healthcare, etc. Grossman also explains in great detail that West Germany's Federal Republic was built by Nazis, while the GDR was built by antifascists.
Grossman's model for understanding the GDR with all is contradictions is based on Roosevelt's idea of the four freedoms. East Germany provided people with "freedom from want," and that, for Grossman, is more valuable than "freedom of speech." This is, in some ways, a convincing argument. What good is "freedom of travel" to someone living in a tent under a bridge in Berlin today?
Despite decades in the CPUSA and then in the GDR, Grossman doesn't seem to have studied much Marxism. His argument is that East German society was more humane than in the West. That might well be the case. But the big question is: Were the policies of East German Stalinism leading to a classless society, i.e. to communism? Marxists defend freedom of speech under socialism not because freedom is more pleasant than censorship. No: Socialism can only be successful based on the common efforts of all working people. Effective economic planning requires open discussions, debates, and criticism. The GDR, with all its censorship and faked statistics, was actually throwing a wrench in its planned economy. Grossman admits that the East German leaders were often conservative and heavy-handed, but he doesn't reflect about how democracy is essential for socialism to work efficiently.
This is really two books in one: The first half consists of Grossman's memoirs, and the second half is a polemic against capitalism, relying on lots of newspaper clippings from the 2010s. The former is a great read — the second is kinda boring, like a much-too-long blog post. Like many Stalinists, Grossman contains an abstract defense of socialist revolution with gushing support for the lukewarm reformist Jeremy Corbyn and the bourgeois politician Bernie Sanders. In short: Not my politics, but a fascinating life story in a country that no longer exists!
Grossman is still in Berlin (at 95!) and still very much a socialist. At a time when the state spends billions trying to convince people that East Germany was hell on earth, it's refreshing to hear a foreigner explain what life was like in a society where everyone had an apartment, a job, free education, free healthcare, etc. Grossman also explains in great detail that West Germany's Federal Republic was built by Nazis, while the GDR was built by antifascists.
Grossman's model for understanding the GDR with all is contradictions is based on Roosevelt's idea of the four freedoms. East Germany provided people with "freedom from want," and that, for Grossman, is more valuable than "freedom of speech." This is, in some ways, a convincing argument. What good is "freedom of travel" to someone living in a tent under a bridge in Berlin today?
Despite decades in the CPUSA and then in the GDR, Grossman doesn't seem to have studied much Marxism. His argument is that East German society was more humane than in the West. That might well be the case. But the big question is: Were the policies of East German Stalinism leading to a classless society, i.e. to communism? Marxists defend freedom of speech under socialism not because freedom is more pleasant than censorship. No: Socialism can only be successful based on the common efforts of all working people. Effective economic planning requires open discussions, debates, and criticism. The GDR, with all its censorship and faked statistics, was actually throwing a wrench in its planned economy. Grossman admits that the East German leaders were often conservative and heavy-handed, but he doesn't reflect about how democracy is essential for socialism to work efficiently.
This is really two books in one: The first half consists of Grossman's memoirs, and the second half is a polemic against capitalism, relying on lots of newspaper clippings from the 2010s. The former is a great read — the second is kinda boring, like a much-too-long blog post. Like many Stalinists, Grossman contains an abstract defense of socialist revolution with gushing support for the lukewarm reformist Jeremy Corbyn and the bourgeois politician Bernie Sanders. In short: Not my politics, but a fascinating life story in a country that no longer exists!
July 1, 2019
Loved every single page. Having read "Crossing the River: A Memoir of the American Left, the Cold War and Life in East Germany", I knew I'd love Victor's style, and I couldn't wait for more of his reflections on the GDR, the US and the socialist experiences of the 20th century.
He is honest and fair, does not sugarcoat anything but neither falls prey to cynical condemnations. He makes an excellent job presenting the story of the GDR in a very structured way, with small chapters for different sections (from the Stasi to the price of consumer goods, while also delving on the cultural life, the Wall and work in the factories and public enterprises) which manage to both paint a humane picture of the GDR and draw useful comparisons with Western countries. The book mixes his personal experiences and reflections with historical accounts, but is not an autobiography, so it is an excellent complementary read to his "Crossing the River".
I did like his condemnation of imperialism, and how he draws the link between the luxuries we enjoy in the imperialist core and exploitation of billions of people in the Third World, and all the historical context he adds to put things in perspective in the Eastern Bloc: it is hard to see the GDR as a country run by a group of evil careerists trying to stay in power by any means necessary after reading his account of events.
It's a great book by a great man, and will be my go-to recommendation for people interested in learning more about life in East Germany.
He is honest and fair, does not sugarcoat anything but neither falls prey to cynical condemnations. He makes an excellent job presenting the story of the GDR in a very structured way, with small chapters for different sections (from the Stasi to the price of consumer goods, while also delving on the cultural life, the Wall and work in the factories and public enterprises) which manage to both paint a humane picture of the GDR and draw useful comparisons with Western countries. The book mixes his personal experiences and reflections with historical accounts, but is not an autobiography, so it is an excellent complementary read to his "Crossing the River".
I did like his condemnation of imperialism, and how he draws the link between the luxuries we enjoy in the imperialist core and exploitation of billions of people in the Third World, and all the historical context he adds to put things in perspective in the Eastern Bloc: it is hard to see the GDR as a country run by a group of evil careerists trying to stay in power by any means necessary after reading his account of events.
It's a great book by a great man, and will be my go-to recommendation for people interested in learning more about life in East Germany.
July 8, 2024
Was very excited to read a book by an anti capitalist, critical of the US gov. Unfortunately this book fell so short.
1. Have no respect for an anti-nationalist who has no criticisms of trump.
2. Have no respect for anyone who actively celebrated the Berlin wall going up and was sad to see it taken down.
3.this book has absolutely no structure to it. He has a brief introduction where he prefaced what the book was about then it turned into a long run-on book with no chapters, outlines, or focus of themes and points to be made. He rattles off a bunch of historic moments of US war crimes, but without any insight, detail, or direction it just turns into a book of lists.
4.The first half of the book feels like a tourist perspective of the GDR, he rambles on how he got to go to the beach and opera alot. He never once gave his descriptions of living in NYC or going to school at Harvard to compare them to socialist life, which was supposed to be the whole point of the book.
5. he never had one critical thing to say about the GDR which actively shot any person trying to cross the Berlin wall and escape to West Germany. He literally just skirted around that whole fact.
I think it's dangerous to make an autobiography about an era in history. This American living in the GDR, who never worked one day in a factory/ trade as does 80% of the people who lived in the GDR during the Cold war did, gives the most ego driven, narcissist perspective of the Cold war you could probably find.
1. Have no respect for an anti-nationalist who has no criticisms of trump.
2. Have no respect for anyone who actively celebrated the Berlin wall going up and was sad to see it taken down.
3.this book has absolutely no structure to it. He has a brief introduction where he prefaced what the book was about then it turned into a long run-on book with no chapters, outlines, or focus of themes and points to be made. He rattles off a bunch of historic moments of US war crimes, but without any insight, detail, or direction it just turns into a book of lists.
4.The first half of the book feels like a tourist perspective of the GDR, he rambles on how he got to go to the beach and opera alot. He never once gave his descriptions of living in NYC or going to school at Harvard to compare them to socialist life, which was supposed to be the whole point of the book.
5. he never had one critical thing to say about the GDR which actively shot any person trying to cross the Berlin wall and escape to West Germany. He literally just skirted around that whole fact.
I think it's dangerous to make an autobiography about an era in history. This American living in the GDR, who never worked one day in a factory/ trade as does 80% of the people who lived in the GDR during the Cold war did, gives the most ego driven, narcissist perspective of the Cold war you could probably find.
July 13, 2020
What begins as a joyful personal biography quickly becomes one of the most incredible, thorough, and at times heart-breaking, analysis of communism and capitalism I have read. Written by a brilliant mind that is nostalgic, yet no less critical for that, of an era he outlived, A Socialist Defector is more than I could have imagined it being.
May 20, 2021
One of the most interesting books I've ever read it's full of interesting insights and opinions as well as historical facts that you do not hear too often.
November 3, 2025
A Socialist Defector: From Harvard to Karl Marx Allee by Victor Grossman (alias Stephen Wechsler) is a first-person account of a Jewish American who defected to East Germany and lived there for decades. Grossman offers a rare insider’s view of the German Democratic Republic which is sympathetic but not naïve. He defends the GDR’s genuine achievements in areas like healthcare, housing, leisure, and work-life balance, while also acknowledging its bureaucracy, censorship, and eventual stagnation. His reflections on ordinary life behind the Iron Curtain are humane, nuanced, and often illuminating.
Unfortunately, the book badly needed an editor. The final hundred pages become a slog as Grossman veers from tangent to tangent, offering brief, superficial takes on topics as diverse as CIA meddling in the Congo to Monsanto. Even readers who share his politics will find these sections thin and repetitive. The narrative loses its focus and authority precisely when it drifts furthest from his lived experience in the GDR. Even his American experiences have some value added (e.g. his electoral efforts on behalf of the Progressive Party in the 1940s).
When Grossman stays anchored in his lived experience, the book is compelling and historically valuable; when he strays, it becomes unfocused. Still, for anyone interested in everyday socialism outside the tired cliches, A Socialist Defector remains worth reading
Unfortunately, the book badly needed an editor. The final hundred pages become a slog as Grossman veers from tangent to tangent, offering brief, superficial takes on topics as diverse as CIA meddling in the Congo to Monsanto. Even readers who share his politics will find these sections thin and repetitive. The narrative loses its focus and authority precisely when it drifts furthest from his lived experience in the GDR. Even his American experiences have some value added (e.g. his electoral efforts on behalf of the Progressive Party in the 1940s).
When Grossman stays anchored in his lived experience, the book is compelling and historically valuable; when he strays, it becomes unfocused. Still, for anyone interested in everyday socialism outside the tired cliches, A Socialist Defector remains worth reading
March 30, 2019
A gripping and endearing account of the extraordinary life of Victor Grossman, the US soldier who in the early 1950s defected to the German Democratic Republic. Marrying a German woman, studying and working, raising children and grandchildren, he lived in East Germany until its 1990 absorption into the Federal German Republic, and indeed still lives in Germany today. As such, he's uniquely well placed to discuss the experience of German socialism, including both its (sometimes astonishing) successes and its assorted failings, mistakes and excesses.
Grossman has a wide understanding of modern history, and he does a good job of contextualising the experience of the GDR. The comparisons between life in the GDR and the US are particularly interesting and useful. An excellent book.
Grossman has a wide understanding of modern history, and he does a good job of contextualising the experience of the GDR. The comparisons between life in the GDR and the US are particularly interesting and useful. An excellent book.
July 23, 2022
Victor Grossman saw the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from the inside, through the eyes of a westerner. As such, his book provides a highly unique, and important, angle to the subject. He is very clear on what aspects of the GDR impressed him and what didn't. This is an immensely interesting book to read for anyone interested in the GDR, the Cold War, socialism, economics, politics. Highly recommended!!
July 26, 2024
Awesome and informative.
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