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Das DDR-Handbuch

The East German Handbook
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Das DDR-Handbuch offers an encyclopedic exploration of socialist East Germany through around 2,000 items from the Wende Museum in Los Angeles. This volume presents a comprehensive spectrum of visual and material culture, capturing official symbols, dissident expressions, and everyday life from the GDR era. Featuring essays by international scholars, it delves into themes from secret police activities to sexuality, providing multilayered insights into a vanished yet influential world.
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Format: Hardback
$9200
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This volume is ideal for enthusiasts of history, arts, and culture, especially those fascinated by Cold War studies, East German society, and visual archives. Scholars, students, and general readers interested in the cultural and political legacies of the Eastern Bloc will find it invaluable.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

For 40 years, the Cold War dominated the world stage. East and West Germany stood at the frontlines of the global confrontation, symbolised by the infamous Berlin Wall, which separated lovers, friends, families, coworkers, and compatriots.

The Wende Museum in Los Angeles, California, is named after the period of change immediately following the Wall's destruction. It was established in 2002 to study the visual and material culture of the former Eastern Bloc and, with physical and psychic distance, to foster multiple perspectives on this multilayered history that continues to shape our world.

This encyclopedic volume features around 2,000 items from its extraordinary collections. Based on our XL-sized volume, this edition includes a full spectrum of art, archives, and artifacts from socialist East Germany: official symbols and dissident expressions, the spectacular and the routine, the mass-produced and the handmade, the funny and the tragic.

Accompanying these remnants of a now-vanished world are texts from scholars and specialists from across Europe, Canada, and the United States, with themes ranging from the secret police to sexuality, from monuments to mental-mapping.

More than 800 pages, featuring around 2,000 objects. A smaller, more accessible version of our XL-sized volume, the most comprehensive overview of GDR visual and material culture to date. Several dozen images of everyday life and public events from the most famous GDR photographers. Special two-language edition featuring texts both in English and German.

Visit the Wende Museum at its expanded campus in Culver City’s Armory Building, a site originally created in preparation for World War III but redesigned by Michael Boyd, Christian Kienapfel, and Benedikt Taschen to welcome its 100,000+ collection of artifacts.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Praised as a comprehensive pictorial history by The New York Times, the book houses what Steven Heller calls quite possibly the greatest such collection in the world. Vice regards it as the best-kept collection of Cold War memorabilia, while The Daily Telegraph highlights its blend of mundane kitsch and poignant daily realities behind the Iron Curtain.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9783836565202

Publisher: Taschen GmbH

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 15 November 2017

Country: Germany

Imprint: Taschen GmbH

Edition: Bilingual edition

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 55.0mm

Width: 165.0mm

Height: 240.0mm

Weight: 1746g

Pages: 816

About the Author

Justinian Jampol is Founder and Executive Director of the Wende Museum. His work focuses on visual cultural studies and the connection between contemporary art and Cold War iconography. Jampol studied at UCLA before earning his doctoral degree in Modern History from Oxford University. The curator of several exhibitions, Jampol has also produced two documentary films on the Cold War, as well as urban art programs including The Wall Project. His writing and work has been featured in The Atlantic, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and The New York Times.

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