William Cook

Notes on… Eastern Germany

The country behind the wall

New old city: Dresden [Getty Images/Shutterstock/iStock/Alamy] 
issue 26 April 2014

Ever since the Berlin Wall came down, I’ve been pottering around eastern Germany, where my father’s family came from, and fled from at the end of the second world war. I thought my interest would fade as my father’s fatherland was absorbed by the Bundesrepublik — but for me, this strange hinterland grows more intriguing with each passing year.

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