Well now you can read a sample of the book on-line, all you have to do is “Like” the author’s Facebook page.

Click here to go to Wolfgang Lippert’s Facebook page

Once you have clicked on “Like”, or “Gefällt mir”, the sample text (called “Leseprobe” in German) will be in the “Willkommen” tab.

And if you like what you read, then please use one of the links below to buy the book on-line – yes, it’s even available in the UK through Amazon!

Buy “Lippi-Bekenntnisse” at Amazon.de

Buy “Lippi-Bekenntnisse” at Amazon.co.uk

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

• Lippi-Bekenntnisse – a different look at life in the GDR
• Störtebeker Festspiele – Open-Air Theatre on Rügen

The transcripts in this pack are:

• Tag der Deutschen Einheit
• Die DDR
• FDJ
• SED
• Solidaritätszuschlag
• Stasi

To find out more, visit the AllThingsGerman Download Store.

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

• Lippi-Bekenntnisse – a different look at life in the GDR
• The night the Wall came down
• Solidaritätszuschlag

I had only been living in Germany for a year and although I was aware of the significance of whose computer I was looking at in terms of how important the customer was for my employer, only recently have I discovered the significance of the person behind it for the former East Germany’s show business industry.  This I have to thank to his autobiography Lippi-Bekenntnisse.

Rather than being just another autobiography of a German celebrity, Lippi-Bekenntnisse gives an inside look into the way that the entertainment business worked in the GDR from someone who was part of it in quite a unique way.  Reading it made me realise how little I know about that part of Germany’s history.

When I was studying German in the 1990s re-unification had only just taken place.  I had a lecturer who was a specialist for the GDR and whose course on the country I took.  However on reflection, I think that we learnt a lot about the politics and maybe the economy of the country.  At least, we probably learnt whatever was known about it at that time as far as Universities in the UK were concerned.

Only later, since I have been living in Germany, have I learnt more about the GDR’s culture like Ost-Ampelmännchen (East German traffic lights), the Sandmännchen, or about sporting events like the 1974 World Cup match between East and West Germany (which incidentally the East won 1-0).

Through Lippi-Bekenntnisse I have now learnt about music groups like the Puhdys and television shows like Glück muß man haben.

But I have also learnt more about the bureaucracy of the GDR, such as the occupation “Staatlich anerkannter Moderator” (official approved presenter), and that it was even possible for East German presenters and singers to travel to the West to perform – with sufficient permission – and how the payment for such performances worked.

Wolfgang – Lippi to his fans, hence the title of the book – talks about how difficult it was to get that permission, but also about simple things like having his first autograph cards printed.  Before bringing the story up to the present day, he also talks about where he was on the night that the Berlin Wall came down – and it wasn’t in Berlin!

Singing the part of Abellin during the Störtebeker Festspiele 2011

The years after re-unification only have a small part to play in the book, which is a shame on the one hand, because I would have liked to have read more about that time as well.  But the fact that three quarters of the it takes place during the days of the GDR is actually what makes the book so appealing, not just for fans, but for anyone interested in or even studying that part of Germany’s history.

Buy “Lippi-Bekenntnisse” at Amazon.de

Buy “Lippi-Bekenntnisse” at Amazon.co.uk

Read a sample on Facebook

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

• A sample of “Lippi-Bekenntnisse”
• The night the Wall came down
• The GDR Transcript Pack

And so a large number of East Germans made their way to the border, leading to the now famous scene of the crowd pushing up the barrier at Checkpoint Charlie and flowing into West Berlin.

Much of the blogosphere is buzzing about this today, as are the mainstream media. And one of the biggest questions being asked is “where were you on that day?”

So where was I?

Well, at the time I was still living at home and studying for my A-levels. I remember waking up the next morning and watching the reports from Berlin during breakfast. I think at the time I may have realised that this was a significant event in German history, but maybe not quite the importance that it has come to have.

You see, I don’t think I knew that much about the GDR. I knew about the wall being built, and how Germany and Berlin were divided. I knew a little bit about the rules for visiting the East and how difficult it was to get to the West. But I could probably only name three towns in the East: Dresden, Weimar and Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz) and I cannot say that I knew much about things like the Stasi, or the internal politics and culture of the state.

One of my A-Level subjects was German, so inevitably the fall of the wall was going to be something that we talked about. I remember keeping files of newspaper cuttings about the events that followed, and in lessons we talked about the events that were changing Germany. We followed the first elections in March 1990, and the discussion about reunification in the same year.

However some wheels turn slower in A-Level education, and I do not remember these topics coming up much in the exams a year later.

They did have a larger impact on my time at university. With the GDR being one of the core components of studying German, much of this part of the course was probably re-written for my first year there. Many other components had to take a new direction as well, as current affairs in the country inevitably looked towards the East.

In front of the Berlin Wall in November 1996

I never made it to the GDR myself. My first visit to that part of the country was in November 1990 when I spent a day in Erfurt. Not much had changed in the few weeks since reunification. The buildings were still drab and there were still Russian troops on the streets. Some of the roads were in bad way. In a way, I had a taste of the country without ever visiting it.

Strangely, I have never been back. With the exception of a few visits to Berlin, one of which I returned by car from, which entailed travelling through the Neue Bundesländer, I have never visited that part of Germany again, despite travelling extensively throughout the rest of the country either on business or with the Scouts. I don’t really know why, the opportunity just never arose.

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

• Lippi-Bekenntnisse – a different look at life in the GDR
• The GDR Transcript Pack
• DDR

The Stasi monitored the people of the GDR, especially those with contact to people in West Germany.  Letters were opened, read, and re-sealed.  Telephone calls were recorded.

Many people co-operated unofficially with the Stasi, the so-called “IMs” (inoffizielle Mitarbeiter) and reported information about their friends and neighbours.  The Stasi then archived this information, creating a large source of information about the people that they were monitoring.

Much of this information was destroyed before German re-unification, although there are projects that reconstruct these documents leading to new revelations about who informed on whom.

To hear a simple explanation and a short discussion in German, listen to the podcast:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download the MP3 file | Comment in the forum

Subscribe to the podcast | Listen by telephone

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

• The GDR Transcript Pack