Episode · Conversations with Tyler · 2026-06-10
Books mentioned on Katja Hoyer on Weimar, the GDR, and the German Character
Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian who has made a career out of explaining Germany to the world—and, just as importantly, to Germans themselves. Born in East Germany in 1985 and now based in Britain, she has written acclaimed histories of the German Empire, the GDR, and most recently the Weimar Republic.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Weimar
Discussed“She just published a new and very interesting book called Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe.”
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Beyond the Wall
Discussed“She’s well known for her history of East Germany called Beyond the Wall and a broader book on earlier German history called Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire.”
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Blood and Iron
Discussed“She’s well known for her history of East Germany called Beyond the Wall and a broader book on earlier German history called Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire.”
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Divided Heaven
Discussed“If you take Christa Wolf, for example, who wrote a famous book called Divided Heaven, which was also translated and also a huge bestseller in West Germany, that’s highly critical of the Berlin Wall”
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Speculations about Jakob
Discussed“Uwe Johnson is good. Speculations About Jakob.”
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Der Osten: eine westdeutsche Erfindung
Discussed“there was a book that came out at the same time as mine by Dirk Oschmann called Der Osten: eine westdeutsche Erfindung—The East is an Invention of the West, in which he brings out some really quite stark figures.”
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Own book Weimar
“Before my final question, just to plug your book again, Katja Hoyer, Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe.”