After the Wall

by Jana Hensel

Jana Hensel was thirteen on November 9, 1989, the night the Berlin Wall fell. In all the euphoria over German reunification, no one stopped to think what it would mean for Jana and her generation of East Germans. These were the kids of the seventies, who had grown up in the shadow of Communism with all its hokey comforts: the Young Pioneer youth groups, the cheerful Communist propaganda, and the comforting knowledge that they lived in a Germany unblemished by an ugly Nazi past and a callous capitalist future. Suddenly everything was gone. East Germany disappeared, swallowed up by the West, and in its place was everything Jana and her friends had coveted for so long: designer clothes, pop CDs, Hollywood movies, supermarkets, magazines. They snapped up every possible Western product and mannerism. They changed the way they talked, the way they walked, what they read, where they went. They cut off from their parents. They took English lessons, and opened bank accounts. Fifteen years later, they all have the right haircuts and drive the right cars, but who are they? Where are they going?

In After the Wall, Jana Hensel tells the story of her confused generation of East Germans, who were forced to abandon their past and feel their way through a foreign landscape to an uncertain future. Now as they look back, they wonder whether the oppressive, yet comforting life of their childhood wasn't so bad after all.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Germany, Memoir, German Literature, Biography, Politics

182 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Jana Hensel is a German journalist and author.

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

Reread this in translation, it seems far less interesting now than when I first read it. A brief book, I came across it, either as a review or excerpts, or both in some news magazine or other way back towards the beginning of the century.

The author was then a young woman looking on entering into puberty just as the DDR/GDR came to an end. It was written I think as Ostalgie was trending after the abandonment of everything associated with the DDR in the immediate post Wende period. Hensel recalls the particularities of her youth before 1989. It seems to me to be Leipzig-centric and I don't imagine it was entirely typical, but still very readable and sympathetic. On the reread her sense of alienation from her own past, but also from her peers and family merges into a sense of colonialism, her experience of the end of one way of life was of being colonised by West Germany, which is interesting, because formally one might look at it or expect to have seen elements of decolonisation too, but such as they might have been they were washed away by the flood from the West.

The voice is a slight problem as it is both a personal account but also aspires to being representative, a book about 'we' and 'us', but this is a young woman who was writing for serious news magazines in her 20s and had this book published while she was still young - so an unusual person in her generation, quite apart from how typical or particular her suburban Leipzig upbringing was.

There was an instant in which she becomes aware of the Nazi past of a west-German boyfriend's grandfather that her experience of an abruptly lost past which can't be defended and maybe can't even be spoken about is not unique but has parallels in recent German history. But she doesn't explore it.

Funnily the translation works against the sense of alienation and a particular way of life that was lost because everything is homogenised in to conventional US-English so there are: Grade schools, High Schools, sneakers and cookies, so even the word choice represents colonisation by a dominant culture indeed the implication of the word choice is that everywhere is like the USA really, which in the context of a book about the permanent loss of a culture is a bit odd ! Utterly bizarrely there is the technically correct machine translation of Sanssouci castle! which is a bit shocking as a display of cultural ignorance from a translator (allegedly) based in Berlin though I suppose travelling as far out as Potsdam might be a challenge for somebody extremely lazy. Presumably the translator is or was so trendy as not to be interested in anything more than five minutes old...The translator felt the need to add a note explaining that Communism was bad and that there are lots of BAD things not mentioned in the book that the reader has to be reminded of because they happened more than five minutes ago and there is a risk that the typical American reader might have forgotten that Communism is VERY BAD.

Anyhow. A Zeitgeisty gust of Zeitgeist.

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has certainly and definitely been both enlightening and also for the most part truly engagingly enjoyable to read Jana Hensel's Zonenkinder (the English translation of which is titled After the Wall), to textually encounter Hensel's memoirs and remembrances of her childhood and young teenager-hood in the former GDR prior to and immediately post the 1989 collapse and fall of the Berlin Wall, and which have felt for me and to me both delightfully and informatively educational, personal and also thankfully and fortunately also not just a negatively angry rant against anything even remotely East German in thematics and thus of course by necessity also supposedly and somehow inherently Communist in EVERY SINGLE way (indeed with Zonenkinder coming from the pen of someone who was both born and raised in the GDR, and whose childhood was, as Jana Hensel was born in 1976 near Leipzig, totally determined by the GDR and its government, but yes of course also by its often unique culture, language and by the more than 40 years of forced separation between East Germany and West Germany).

And indeed (and with absolutely no contrition and apologies on my part either), I can and do also totally and utterly understand and relate on an emotional and personal level to Jana Hensel's obvious and palpable feelings of alienation, sadness and yes equally to her often frustrated textual annoyance, for I do appreciate how in Zonenkinder Hansel o evocatively and heart-feelingly describes being suddenly and yes in my opinion also rather heavy-handedly, even at times seemingly viciously and almost from one day to the next so to speak totally torn from her past, from her life in the GDR prior to 1989, and which suddenly Jana Hensel is obviously also meant to just discard, forget and at best only remember with anger, shame (and yes, that any feelings of regret, of sadness and even a bit of nostalgia regarding life in East Germany prior to the wall's collapse are generally and all encompassingly seemingly to be seen as something to be not only critical of but also something not acceptable in and of itself, that in particular any nostalgia towards anything East German was often and still is often considered and approached as being akin to somehow one hundred percent supporting the former's regime and Soviet Stalinist style Communism and this even with cases where individuals are obviously just regretting that their favourite television shows have changed and that suddenly, GDR common vocabulary even if not all that or inherently political in scope is considered unacceptable and not to be used anymore).

But be that as it may, and my general appreciation and enjoyment of Zonenkidner quite notwithstanding and even though I do in fact get and am able to very much totally personally relate to Jana Hensel's philosophies in Zonenkinder and especially to her taking back at least those parts of her East German childhood that are or that at least should be considered as unproblematic and as not political, as apolitical, I also tend to think that she, that Jana Hansel should probably not be using the personal pronouns we and us in Zonenkidner but simply be utilising I and me in her presented text for Zonenkinder. Because while I do in fact and strongly agree with Jana Hensel's narrative and her musings on East Germany and her childhood in East Germany, Zonenkinder is still and nevertheless but a personal take on the GDR and what are the author's, what are Jana Hensel's personal remembrances and her own attitudes towards the former East Germany are not necessarily those of everyone else (and this of course also includes East Germans). And thus, that royal we, it does rather bother me enough to consider not five stars but only four stars for Zonenkidner. For albeit that I do tend to very strongly be in concurrence with Jana Hensel's take on especially many West Germans (and also rather many Canadians, Brits and in particular Americans) sporting an at times rather arrogant and patronising attitude towards not only the former GDR as a country but in fact also and equally towards East Germans in general, I also do find it a trifle arrogant in itself how Jana Hensel often does seem to categorically assume that she speaks not only for herself but for each and every East German in Zonenkinder and that yes, it would in my humble opinion be much better for Hensel to have avoided this kind of an attitude regarding Zonenkinder (as it does leave behind a bit of a potentially problematic aftertaste of entitlement).

[Dominick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Communism, Pink Floyd, the Cold War, Gorbachev – these and other terms come to mind when thinking about the Berlin Wall that once encircled West Berlin. Hensel’s book does touch on some of them. However, “After the Wall” is neither a political manifesto nor the attempt of a historian to explain the time from 1945 to 1989. Rather, the book is a very personal walk down memory lane. In eight chapters, the author summons the GDR of her childhood, leading the reader from her classroom to her life as daughter and Young Pioneer to the Wall and its fall.

Both the table of contents and the timeline at the beginning of the book reveal much about “After the Wall”: This is not a novel but a documentary of a life from past Germany. Chapter one is titled “On Growing Up in the GDR,” and chapters five and seven educate the reader about the educational system during the communist years. “On Searching for Home,” “On Dealing with Our Parents,” and “On Our Battles with Bad Taste” teach the reader about the struggles that followed the fall of the GDR. So, a quick overview of the topics being discussed in the book help to understand the overall theme of it: What were the events and experiences that burned themselves into the memory of a girl who grew up in East Germany?

The book is promoted as being a bestseller in Germany, but the claim would have to be researched. Is “After the Wall” a bestseller because it is required reading for every high school student in Germany? The topic is certainly an important one and fits any world history course. However, the author’s style is a bit exhausting. There is some rambling going on, and one does not necessarily develop a personal “connection” to the protagonist. “After the Wall” is certainly not mawkish like other autobiographies. In fact, the opposite is true. The writings style is very matter-of-fact, maybe even a bit antiseptic. Still, this book is worth the time it takes to read it because it provides a much-needed personal perspective about life under an oppressive communist regime.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is written from one person's experience growing up in the former East Germany, and then being thrust into a new way of life after German reunification. The book isn't large about 166 pages and is more of a collection of thoughts and memories written as the author remembers them. It is more about life after reunification rather than before it.
The author views the former East Germany through the rose tinted glasses of childhood. Since she was young while still under the rule of the socialist state, and obviously wrapped up in her childhood, the thoughts, ideas, politics, repression, economics, etc. escape her. She sees things as probably being more perfect and ideal over what they most likely were.
I read the book Forty Autumns before this, and find it an extremely well researched and comprehensive book about life in East Germany, compared to this book. However, this is more of a collection of memories and feelings, not a history lesson. It is important in its own way because this part of history should be recorded and remembered, and the feelings of those who lived it, no matter how well we like their feelings, are important as well.

[Telaara Dunwin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh Mann, war das übel. Ich gehöre ja selbst zur Generation der "Zonenkinder", aber die Erfahrungen der Autorin decken sich nicht einmal annäherungsweise mit meinen. Aber das wäre ja nicht so schlimm, da ja jeder die Welt anders erlebt. Schlimm war der Stil, in dem das Buch geschrieben wurde: vollkommenes inhaltliches Durcheinander, kein Konzept und der weitgehende Verzicht, diese biographische Geschichte auch biographisch darzustellen. Stattdessen immer nur ein "Wir", so als ob alle Kinder dieser Generation exakt dasselbe erlebt, getan und gefühlt haben.

[Stephen Durrant · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an important personal account of cultural dislocation. Jana Hensel was born in East Germany and was in her early teens in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell. In her own words, "It frightens us to think that we were but brief guests in our native land." While she is not entirely nostalgic about her childhood in the GDR, she does remember a way of life and a set of values that were essentially wiped away at the time of reunification. So began her attempt to adapt to the reality of Western Germany, which in so many ways had become, in the years since the partition, a different country. This book contains no profound political meditations and makes no attempt at "deep anthropology." It is, instead, a modest, straightforward account of one person's experience about what it felt like suddenly to lose one's foundation and then start over with a new set of rules and expectations. I like books that force us to rethink a historical event in a more complex way. Yes, perhaps the fall of the wall and the reunification of Germany as a democratic states was a step in the right direction. But when it comes to the level of individuals, and their actual experience of events, the story is never such a simple one.

[Karschtl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ein Mädel, kaum älter als ich, berichtet über ihre Kindheit die sie in der damaligen DDR verbracht hat. Das ganze ist kein Roman sondern mehr eine Ansammlung von kleinen Essay-ähnlichen Kapiteln.
Da wir beide wie gesagt fast gleichaltrig sind, sind ihre Erlebnisse fast auch meine Erlebnisse und wirklich hab ich mir auf fast jeder Seite gedacht: genau so war es.
Ich stimme nicht ganz mit ihrer Ansicht überein, wie wir uns damals und nach der Wende selbst gesehen haben. Sowas ist immer subjektiv, da kann man kaum übereinstimmen.
Aber die Dinge die sie aufzählt, die wir damals hatten, die uns wichtig waren, unsere Vorbilder, unsere Rituale, unsere Festtage - all das hat sie genau so beschrieben, wie ich es in Erinnerung habe. Franzi war unser Vorbild (zwar erst nach der Wende, aber immerhin), genauso wie die FDJler, die wir total cool fanden wenn sie beim Fahnenappell "Freundschaft" grummelten. Ich hab Trommel + Frösi gelesen, war Gruppenratsvorsitzende, hab Altpapier zur SERO gebracht. Am 13. Dezember war auch in unserer Schule eine große Party, ich hab 'Alfons Zitterbacke', 'Ottokar Domma' und 'Ich bin die Nele' mehr als einmal gelesen. Trotzdem - nicht unbedingt heimlich - auch Westfernsehen geschaut und war neidisch auf die, die mit Tintenkiller und neonpink-farbenem Radiergummi zur Schule kamen. Ein schönes Sammelsarium voller DDR-Details.

Ich kann dieses Buch empfehlen für alle, die ebenfalls in der DDR aufgewachsen sind und sich auf nostalgische Weise zurückerinnern wollen und auch allen anderen, die einen kleinen Einblick in die Alltagswelt der DDR haben möchten.

[Katniss · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a pain in my neck. If it wasn't for my class, I would not have finished it. Jana Hensel totally annoyed me! Maybe it's my lacking ability to identify with the Eastern-Germany-I-lost-my-home-Theme ... but I doubt that. I'm usually quite interested in history and the event itself is fascinating, also the time and people. But Hensel is just one annoying Ossi.

I hoped to learn something about the German Democratic Republic and the way of life perceived by a mere child and the consequences these took on the up-growing... but that book totally lacks of information, due to constant whining.

If you wanna know something about the German Democratic Republic and it's way of life: Don't read that book. Don't read that book, no matter what. It's not worth the trouble.

[Gisela Hafezparast · Rating 5 out of 5]

The English version of this book is called "After the Wall: Confessions from an East German Childhood"

Very interesting personal story. Jana Hensel explains very eloquently an aspect of the German reunification I had never really thought about, i.e. that really so much of the former DDR and therefore the life and in Jana's case childhood they have grown up with, has to a very large part disappeared in the effort in the East to "catch up" and from the West to reunite. I also left Germany for England in my late teens, and whilst obviously a lot has modernised (that's the German way), more or less my Bavarian home town is the same and the way of life is the same, which is comforting to go back to and throughout my adult life I always had this reassurance, that should it all go wrong, I could just go back. That is very different for people grown up, like Jana, in the East, which as she states, is very alienating. To walk through the streets you had walked through all your childhood, and nearly nothing is the same!

What she has hinted at is that with many of the now sounding comical aspects of life in the DDR, but can't have been comical at the time, i.e. that you bought what was there and what you felt was worth trading at some stage so that after a few trades you actually could have what you wanted or needed, some aspects which we very soon were aware of have also gone, i.e. good affordable childcare, jobs for life, a feeling that the state would take care of you (even if not very well or not the way you wanted) disappeared into a much more self-centered way of life. I thoroughly believe that us in the West have also had a lot to learn from the East and should not always just hark on the negatives. After all the DDR has produced Angela Merkel!

Very interesting read.

[Jimmy Scheich · Rating 3 out of 5]

auch hier bin ich zwiegespalten und kann wieder nur 3 punkte geben... das buch gilt ja so ein bisschen als monument und klassiker in ostdeutscher aufarbeitungsliteratur und wurde mir oft empfohlen. deswegen war ich gespannt. erstmal zur form: irgendwie bin ich mal wieder an den schreibstil nicht rangekommen. andere haben hensels verworrene sätze und den für mich ein bisschen zu sehr "auf abgeklärt gemachten" sarkasmus als unterhaltsame lakonie bezeichnet. mich hat der stil etwas angestrengt, weil ich eine sachlichere ebene vermisst habe und keine so individuelle/ironische. aber dadurch spürt eins vielleicht auch den schmerz, die verwirrung und die orientierungslosigkeit der zonenkinder, die sich während und nach der wende irgendwie im friede-freude-eierkuchen vereinigten deutschland zurechtfinden mussten. also eigentlich ein passendes mittel um all das auszudrücken.
am ende ist das buch voll von kindheitserinnerungen, ostdeutschen oha-da-kann-ich-relaten-momenten und unterschwelliger kritik an der nachwendepolitik und einigen westdeutschen. aber alles bleibt doch etwas zerfasert, random zusammengewürfelt und es zu lesen fühlt sich irgendwie tagebuchsmäßig an- ohne ziel, ohne problematik, die am ende verhandelt, abgewägt wird.
kurz um- eins kann es mal lesen aber eins muss kryptische hints und seltsame oberflächliche bewertungen von dingen und menschen abkönnen. trotz alldem doch sehr kurzweilig und spannend/humorvoll, aber leider etwas linienlos, zerstückelt, verwirrend.

[Flora Jolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

meh

[Min · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty interesting book. Jana Hensel is of the last generation of the GDR. The Berlin Wall came down whens he was 13. Her perspective was interesting for me, mostly because we're about the same age. My perspective of East German and Soviet Union kids were equally as foreign as Hensel's description of Western kids.

While I think she paints in very broad strokes - saying things like "we" and "they" or "western people" a lot - it is a fairly well written exploration of what it was like on her side of our generation split by the Iron Curtain.

Some points are repeated too often - especially the issues surrounding the differences between East German parent/child relationships and those she perceived between her Western friends.

It's a worthwhile read. Gaining such an intimate perspective from someone who lived (at least in my World during that time) in such a secretive place was very interesting.

Also, the cover is fantastic. : D I must give the publishers props for excellent cover appeal.

[Pam Rasmussen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had an au pair who grew up in East Germany, then moved to the West, and I remember her telling me that she missed how the East took care of its residents. The West, she said, seemed rather cold and uncaring in contrast. That would be a surprise to many people who think Communism was all bad. Jana Hensel's book is indeed unique in focusing on the transition required of that generation. But what I found very sad was the sense of loss, confusion and abandonment felt by her parents' generation. And how distanced she felt from them.

[Andrea · Rating 1 out of 5]

Only gave this one a single star. My faculty partner assigned our students to read this text this term and thus I, of course, read it along with them as well. During the reading of this text my students and I had several discussions about the text and our issues with it. One issue is that there is not narrative to the story-- it is all just a collection of memories written in no particular order. Mostly explanations of the GDR. Some of my students mentioned that it just seemed like the author was complaining the whole time or that she was victimizing herself. Many of my students as well as myself identify with various marginalized culture groups and have grown up with these sorts of issues, but we have grown accustom to them. We do not complain, if anything we take action. I discussed with my students that for Hensel she had grown up in the majority culture until she turned 13 when suddenly the Wall came down and she became part of the marginalized culture. I talked with my students that this may be why she appears to be making such a big deal about the change in her life-- not only was she going through puberty, which is already a hard time in life, but she also became a minority at the same time. All this aside, I still gave the book a single star. Had the course readings been up to me I would have picked a different non-fiction text, or even a fictional text, for our students to read.

[GONZA · Rating 4 out of 5]

What will you do if your country chase to exist and everything that was known to you from one day to another is not there anymore? What would you feel if your new country is full of people that despise you or try to help you and you do not want to be helped? Life after the fall of the wall is different for whom was behind the wall. GDR life described by a girl that was thirteen when "her world" comes to an end and from her parents on, no adults are able to teach her how to live or survive in the "new" world. Fascinating and well written.

Cosa faresti se il tuo paese cessasse di esistere da un momento all'altro e tutto quello che conosci scompare? Come ti sentiresti se il tuo nuovo paese fosse pieno di gente che non ti calcola o ritiene di doverti aiutare anche contro la tua volontá? La vita dopo la caduta del muro in quella che era la GDR é completamente diversa da quella che conosceva questa ragazza che a 13 anni vede cadere il muro, e da quel momento in poi nessun adulto é in grado di aiutarla a vivere o a sopravvivere nel nuovo mondo che la ingloba. Affascinante e ben scritto.

[anieva · Rating 4 out of 5]

The voice of the author is often irritating, particularly because of the generalizations about groups of people which she makes quite firmly.

Nonetheless, I haven't seen a lot of books on this fascinating topic, so it was interesting. And, it's a really easy, quick read.

Was this young adult non-fiction does anyone know? For some reason, it seemed so, perhaps because of the age of the author during the time period in question.

She has another book in German, I think. Wonder if it was translated....

[Nancy Schumann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Offensichtlich muss die Erfahrung von Wende und dem Aufwachsen in der DDR zwischen Groß- und Kleinstadt extrem verschieden gewesen sein. Anders kann ich mir nicht erklären, warum so gar nichts aus diesem Buch sich mit meiner Erfahrung derselben Zeit im selben Alter deckt.
Natürlich will ich der Autorin ihre eigene Erfahrung nicht streitig machen. Allerdings spricht sie auch die ganze Zeit von „wir“, „uns“, „unseren Eltern“ und nicht ein einziges Mal fühlte ich mich dabei angesprochen.
Sorry, aber diese Wende und diese DDR müssen sich auf einem anderem Planeten abgespielt haben.

[Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every generation's experience of the GDR is different, from those who were alive before WWII, to their children who were born when East Germany was a "given," to those of different ages who lived through the Fall of the Wall. Hensel makes a point of stressing that she and kids of her generation often need to act as translators for their parents, even though their parents speak the language. Interesting.

[Kathy Halsan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nathan gave me this book for Christmas. Having visited both East and West Berlin this summer and hearing stories frm some of our tour guides about the end of the GDR, this book was especially interesting. For these young people, they can "never go home again".

[Gregory Duke · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Hensel strangely uses the first person plural just as much as as singular go universalize her experience, but I don't buy the reality of that due to her already realizing that her nostalgia for East Germany is rooted in fading reminiscences. Irregardless, Hensel's memoir is fascinating for its balance between preventing a hagiography of East German life and depicting the beauty of what was lost during Germany's reunification.

Sadly, the English translation of this is horrifically bad. It's abridged and has a particularly American anti-Communist slant to the point that there is a ridiculous note from the translator to give cultural context for the book in which the translator feels the need to bash it into your head that the Soviet Union was awful and capitalism is the system that offers liberation. Sad to see.

[Tenaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting critique and personal history, and it was pretty groundbreaking when it first came out in 2002, I think. 22 years later I dont find it particularly revolutionary any more. That being said, it was well written

[Spachtelmasse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fast 20 Jahre nach dem Erscheinen ist dieses Buch selbst historisch geworden. Es ist ein Dokument der frühen 2000er Jahre, in denen die Erinnerung an den DDR-Alltag nach Jahren der Dominanz von Texten zur Repression wichtiger wurden. Darüber hinaus gehört der Text auch in die Reihe der Generationen-Essays dieser Jahre, man denke nur an das Buch über die westdeutsche "Generation Golf".

Dass sich an den DDR-Alltag nur mit ironisch gebrochener Distanz und unter weitgehender Auslassung des politisch-gesellschaftlichen Kontext erinnert werden kann, scheint mir auch ein Kennzeichen dieser Jahre zu sein. Vielleicht ist diese Art des Schreibens auch eine Folge der Spaltung der End-DDR-Bürger in einen öffentlichen und einen privaten Teil. Da man die öffentliche Rolle oft nur spielte, bleibt nach dem Zusammenbruch des Bezugssystems DDR nur das privatisierte Gefühl des Absurden. Für mich ist insgesamt das Kapitel über die familiären Beziehungen der Abschnitt, in denen der Umbruch 1989 und seine Folgen am besten hervortreten.

Hensels Buch drückt so sicher das Gefühl der Mitte 20-Jährigen Ostler eine Dekade nach dem Umbruch aus und zeigt zugleich, wie begrenzt die Sprachmodi über die DDR Anfang der 2000er Jahre noch waren. Letzteres mag in der Gegenwart sogar der weitaus interessantere Teil an diesem Buch sein.

[Amalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gut aber wirkt unstrukturiert

[Natira · Rating 2 out of 5]

hmmm. Ich dachte, es ist ein autobiographisches Buch der Autorin, aber ich finde viele Passagen mit wir und "uns". Ich konnte nicht erkennen, was in diesem Zusammenhang ("wir", "uns") aus der Sphäre der Autorin stammt und was sie verallgemeinert (u. auf welcher Basis bzw. mit welcher Berechtigung). Oder ist der Gebrauch von "wir " u. "uns" nur stilistisches Mittel? Letzteres fände ich wegen der verallgemeinernden Wirkung in einem Buch der vorliegenden Art unpassend (gerade weil es grundsätzlich biographisch wirkt und nicht auf Interviews mit Dritten etc. verweist). Ich bin mir nicht sicher, ob andere dieser Generation so in (potentiell) individuelle Erfahrungen und Ansichten der Autorin einbezogen werden möchten.

Zum Teil las das Buch sich für mich wie eine Auflistung. So wird angeführt, was es nicht mehr gab (ESP) oder wie Dinge alt und neu hießen, aber es fühlt sich nach einer Aneinanderreihung von Fakten an, die nach meinem Geschmack mit zu bemühten Metaphern kombiniert werden (Kindheit wie ein aus der Mode gekommenes Sommerkleid oder ein Museum ohne Namen).

Auch wenn das Buch in Teilen Erinnerungen hervorbrachte u. der Bruch im Gesellschafts- u. Wertesystem sowie die Umorientierung u. Anpassung für die Generation der Autorin herausfordernd u. schwierig war (er war es, wie im Buch auch deutlich wird, aber ebenso für andere): Es war nicht "meins".

[Susan Ovans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this right after finishing Petropolis, which was a fictional story of coming of age in the Soviet Union. Jana Hensel, who wrote After the Wall, tells a real-life story of coming of age in the former GDR, known in the U.S. as East Germany, and of feeling adrift when, as a young teenager, the wall fell and her Communist country was reunited with the West.
The problem is that Ms. Hensel tells only her own story, and it's a boring one. It's hard to tell why this book apparently became an instant sensation in Germany because it's devoid of drama, humor, pathos, or even insight. Since Ms. Hensel is a journalist, it's too bad that she didn't reach out to other sources, if not for any other reason than to add a livelier voice to 160 tedious pages.

[Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought After The Wall by Jana Hensel during a recent trip to Berlin and found it an interesting peek into what life was like in the GDR (East Germany) following the toppling of the wall. Jana was a young teenager in 1990 when Germany reunified, when the whole foundation of how she'd been brought up was stripped away overnight. Here she shares a short account of what that meant not only for her generation, born under a communist regime then having to learn the unwritten rules of the West, but also for her parents' generation and the rift/problems the change caused. The writing style feels a little clunky at times, which was surprising as Hensel is also a journalist. That said, it's the first time I've read such a piece, from an East German perspective, and I'm so glad I did.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really thought there would be a lot of interesting anecdotes about East Germany, but I only found one or two things interesting and the rest of it came off as whiny.

[Svalbard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Avevo già letto parecchio tempo fa, e poi recensito qui su Anobii, l'edizione tedesca originale di "Zonenkinder", concludendo col rimpianto che questo libro non fosse mai stato tradotto in italiano. La gentile anobiana Lilicka mi ha fatto sapere che invece esiste una traduzione, questa. Per cui non ho potuto fare a meno di leggerla. Peraltro, non appena mi è arrivato il pacco di Amazon, ho avuto un'altra bellissima sorpresa: questo libro riporta il testo originale tedesco a fronte, cosa rarissima quando non si ha a che fare con poesie o classici della letteratura. Non solo; c'è anche un esteso apparato critico. Un ampio saggio-introduzione di Karin Birge Gilardoni-Buch, un glossario più esteso di quello dell'edizione tedesca, un'ampia bibliografia e una postfazione di Tiziana Gislimberti relativa all'evoluzione e allo sviluppo della lingua nell'ambito delle Germanie separate. Tutta questa documentazione è di estremo interesse per la comprensione profonda del testo di Jana Hensel (che non dev'essere certo stata una passeggiata rendere in italiano) e dimostra un'attenzione e un amore per la cultura tedesca che non mi capita di incontrare spesso. Rileggere questo libro in italiano è stata una bella emozione, vedendo quello che si era già compreso nella lingua straniera ricomporsi in mente nella propria lingua, e ritrovare, forse più profonda e sensibile, la commozione per il vissuto di chi ha visto la propria Heimat sottratta da sotto i piedi. Copioincollo il testo della recensione che avevo già scritto per l'edizione tedesca. "In Germania oggi credono di poter fare a meno della cultura nata nella RDT; un tempo si sono liberati della cultura di sinistra, della cultura ebraica, di quella spaventosa, grande, umana cultura che esisteva al suo interno. Sappiamo quali sono state le conseguenze, e di chi la Germania adesso crede di liberarsi, ponendo, tra gli altri, me ed Heiner Müller in una luce che può soltanto criminalizzarci". Paragonare Wiedervereinigung (riunificazione) tedesca e nazismo apparirebbe palesemente un'esagerazione grottesca, se queste parole non le avesse pronunciate Christa Wolf, la scrittrice contemporanea più significativa delle Germanie (e dico "Germanie" a ragion veduta). Nata negli ultimi anni del nazismo, cresciuta nella Germania Est e parte a pieno titolo della sua storia culturale, dopo la riunificazione si vide ostracizzare dalla Germania riunificata per le sue scelte politiche e per non essere mai stata disposta a mettere in discussione la sua appartenenza politica (ovvero, a diventare una dissidente a tutti gli effetti) pur ponendosi in maniera sempre critica nei confronti del regime del suo Paese; avrebbe poi narrato lo straniamento di chi viene da altrove e viene perseguito per quello che è nel suo capolavoro, "Medea". Questo piccolo libro, invece, parla d'altro: parla di quelli, come la sua autrice, che trascorsero la loro infanzia nel mondo organizzato e irregimentato della RDT, abbracciandolo come l'unico mondo possibile per poi vederlo afflosciarsi su sé stesso e sostituito con qualcosa d'altro, non immaginato né desiderato; peggio, trovarsi poi circondati da persone che stigmatizzavano il loro universo infantile - buono o cattivo, quello era, ma era il loro - come cosa profondamente sbagliata e abnorme, subendo una vera e propria deprivazione, se non dell'infanzia, del sistema di valori che in essa si erano costruiti per essere costretti ad abbracciarne altri arrivati da altrove.

[Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up because I wanted to read more about the distinctions between East and West Germany and what it was like to be on the East side when, and after, the wall came down.

While this book did give me some insight into that, and I did enjoy the distinctions between the Eastern German youths and university students and their western counterparts, I found the overall premise weak. Hensel mostly seemed to be trying to argue that her generation, the generation that lost their GDR childhood with the fall of the wall, had been… what? Overlooked? Gotten the shortest end of the stick?

Many valid and interesting points were made here. Growing up in a communist country that disappeared when you were 14 had to be extremely strange. Your childhood experiences and touchstones disappeared forever. Want to eat your favorite candy bar from childhood? It doesn’t exist anymore. Watching familiar cartoons for a jolt of nostalgia? They’re gone. Your country doesn’t even exist anymore. That is something that didn’t really apply to many eastern bloc countries, and a worthwhile and interesting point to make.

But the whole time I was reading this I found myself struggling to just absorb what she was saying, because almost everything she wrote made me think, “but wait…” the overall feeling I had — that she was trying to say hey, we had it the hardest — is crazy. She even talks about the struggles her parents faced. And what about the students who had just finished university or were in the midst of it? She grew INTO the western system. The transition was challenging.

An interesting example was in the way she compared the different attitude to parents. At university, the East German students were almost ashamed of theirs, while the West German students treated their parents as friends who they talked to whenever they had a hard experience. Many times I felt the attempts to make a point that might have been interesting or poignant was driven way too hard, to the point of being overdramatic. For example:

“We East Germans couldn’t afford to engage in ‘constructive’ generational conflict. We didn’t have the luxury of rebelling against our parents. Their generation was depressed and defeated enough as it was, and we, hi had been lucky enough to have been born relatively late in the life of the GDR, didn’t want to kick people who are already down” (p. 74)

Isn’t this often how people from low-income families feel? Not to mention the children of immigrants and teenagers who live in war-torn countries, not just politically tumultuous ones. She could have tapped into that and made a much better general point about it, but instead it felt like she was trying to claim such general experiences to just her own specific generation of GDR teens.

Perhaps I am missing something here. And, to give her credit, I assume she meant the book to be read in the context of a reunified Germany. However, I think the efforts to make her point backfired, because to me a lot of this read like “poor us, we had it the hardest.”

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 STERNE

Das Buch wurde mir von einer Kollegin empfohlen, als ich mich nach Büchern über die DDR erkundigte. Meines Erachtens wurde dieses Kapitel der deutschen Geschichte nämlich in der Schule etwas unzureichend thematisiert und ich finde es wichtig, die doch noch nicht allzu weit in der Vergangenheit liegenden Ereignisse zu begreifen und zu verstehen.

Jana Hensel berichtet hier von ihren Erfahrungen bzw den Erfahrungen ihrer Generation, die die DDR nur im Kindesalter erlebt und schließlich die weiterführende Schule bereits nach neuen westdeutschen Strukturen durchliefen. Es war durchaus interessant zu lesen, allerdings war der Schreibstil etwas anstrengend und wohl der ausschlaggebende Punkt, dass ich das Buch nicht in einem durch lesen konnte.

Die Thematik insgesamt hat mir viele Denkanstöße gegeben und ich werde auf jeden Fall mehr Literatur über die DDR suchen und lesen. Als jemand, der die DDR wirklich nur aus dem Geschichtsunterricht kennt und auch schon dutzende Male in Berlin war (oft ohne einen Gedanken darauf zu verschwenden, ob ich nun im ehemaligen Westen oder Osten war), finde man sollte sich der Geschichte klar werden. Mein einziger Berührungspunkt mit den Folgen der Wiedervereinigung ist das Schimpfen von einigen Verwandten über den Solidaritätszuschlag, und ich glaube es wird schnell vergessen, dass praktisch von heute auf morgen ein ganzes Land mit all seinen Strukturen und Institutionen verschwand und durch ein anderes ersetzt wurde.

Ich bin froh, das Buch gelesen zu haben, hatte mir allerdings etwas mehr erhofft. Nicht zu vergessen ist, dass dieses Werk sehr subjektiv ist und natürlich jeder andere Erfahrungen gemacht hat aber ein gab einen guten Einblick in die Generation der "Zonenkinder", wie Hensel es ausdrückt.