Hello Radio GDR listeners! I am so pleased to bring you the second episode of two with my new friend Herta Peter. My favorite thing about doing this podcast is hearing stories from those of you who lived in the GDR. Your stories are always extremely compelling, and we welcome them with open arms. History deserves to be preserved, and Radio GDR has been here to do it. Herta was born in Halle in 1981. While she was only 8 when the wall fell, her memories of her childhood in the GDR to two parents ...
Dec 14, 2024•44 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Hello Radio GDR listeners! I am so pleased to bring you the first episode of two with my new friend Herta Peter. My favorite thing about doing this podcast is hearing stories from those of you who lived in the GDR. Your stories are always extremely compelling, and we welcome them with open arms. History deserves to be preserved, and Radio GDR has been here to do it. Herta was born in Halle in 1981. While she was only 8 when the wall fell, her memories of her childhood in the GDR to two parents w...
Mar 23, 2024•46 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Hello everyone! Season 4 is coming! We also have a new domain this season - radiogdrpodcast.com . Please do visit us soon to tell us your GDR story! I'll be updating show notes across old episodes so you can the same great content at our new website. Season 4 is coming! Look forward to announcing more details soon. Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at https://www.radiogdrpodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute....
Oct 14, 2023•1 min•Season 4Ep. 1
In this episode John Paul Kleiner ( GDR Objectified blog ) speaks with Attila the Stockbroker , an English poet, musician and songwriter with roots in the punk movement and socialist politics. During his forty year career as independent artist, Attila has produced numerous albums and books and performed more than 3,800 shows including many in the GDR and, after unification, eastern Germany. In this conversation, Attila vividly recalls his visits to the East, the people whom he met there and aspe...
Jul 17, 2023•43 min•Season 3Ep. 21
In 1952, a 24-year old American soldier defected to the Eastern Bloc in order to avoid a US Army disciplinary hearing and what he feared would be draconian punishment for his involvement in socialist and communist politics in the United States. This decision put his life on an entirely new trajectory, one that left him with a new name, Victor Grossman, and left him in the then young German Democratic Republic, a country that became his home for the remaining 37+ years of his existence. A committ...
Apr 08, 2023•36 min•Season 3Ep. 20
I am truly honored to be joined today by author and illustrator Vesper Stamper who in 2022 published Berliners, a historical fiction about two twin brothers, Rudi and Peter, who end up divided by their views of the GDR and then, quite literally, by the Berlin Wall. This is a must read, guys. Listen as we talk to Vesper about how the theme of "history rhymes" inspired this book, how the characters reckon with Judaism, race and their Nazi pasts and how each twin develops opposing views of the GDR ...
Mar 05, 2023•57 min•Season 3Ep. 19
Hello everyone, and welcome to yet another incredible episode of Radio GDR. We are on episode 3 of 3 of our listener interviews to round out season 3. I hope you have enjoyed hearing about fellow listeners' interest in the GDR as much as I have. In our final listener interview, I have the honor of speaking to Kris Hinz of Australia, who was adopted from Sri Lanka to a German dad who visited the GDR often to see family. Kris' memories of his father's trips and how they influenced his father's per...
Jan 15, 2023•1 hr•Season 3Ep. 18
We are interviewing some of our most special listeners this season in gratitude for your amazing contributions to make season 3 of this podcast so special. We are especially grateful to the listeners who financially contributed to this season via our Patreon. One of our contributors, Fred Esposito, has gone above and beyond this season as our lone Interflug member at $35 a month. Thank you so much for your generosity, Fred, as you really made the behind the scenes work for the podcast that much ...
Dec 08, 2022•57 min•Season 3Ep. 17
I have said this often, but I am so grateful to you all for your continued loyalty to the podcast this season. Most of you all don't know this, but I got this amazing gig when Shane Whaley interviewed me as a listener of the show back in 2020. I love the concept of interviewing our listeners so much that, to color the back half of season 3, I have interviewed 3 of you, the listeners, on why more than 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall the GDR still fascinates you. Many of you have person...
Nov 23, 2022•42 min•Season 3Ep. 16
Hello, everyone, and welcome to our third installment of our interview with Ralph Hanel, Kung Fu Master, former Stasi prisoner and amazing storyteller. I am so glad you have enjoyed the first two installments, and Ralph and I sat down for a third interview to talk about the objects he has collected in recent years that remind him of his survival story. Today, Ralph tells us about his Stasi handcuffs, his GDR kung fu certificate, how special PanAm is in his life and about other objects that we re...
Oct 23, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Season 3Ep. 15
Welcome to another incredible episode of Radio GDR. Judging by your extremely positive reaction, you thoroughly enjoyed part 1 of our three part interview with Ralph Hanel, Kung Fu Master, former stasi prisoner and an incredible survivor. Now it's time for part 2 - listen how Ralph confronts his past when he discovers how his ex-girlfriend oddly "borrowed" a baby in his name after they broke up, what stasi handcuffs did to his wrists when he was in prison, and how he became an actor and even pla...
Sep 29, 2022•1 hr•Season 3Ep. 14
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Radio GDR. This is your host Steve Minegar, and the next three episodes will truly be a humbling and eye opening experience for all of us. On the Cold War Conversations podcast, our good friend Ian Sanders interviewed Ralph Hänel, Kung Fu Master, actor and just plain wonderful guy, about the lengths he went to learn martial arts behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany. In an attempt to leave for the west, Ralph was arrested and spent several yea...
Sep 13, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Season 3Ep. 13
Did you know East German artists used their Stasi files as artwork after the fall of the Berlin wall? Ever heard of the Erfurt Women's Artists Group who stormed the Stasi Headquarters in their city? These were jaw-dropping facts I learned when I read Parallel Public - Experimential Art in Late East Germany by our guest today, Dr. Sara Blaylock, Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Sara's book is a masterpiece and reveals that experimential artists in the fina...
Aug 22, 2022•1 hr 19 min•Season 3Ep. 12
I often speak about what a privilege it is to preserve the stories of the past, many of which are disappearing quickly, through this podcast. You our contributors and listeners are truly helping us to advance that mission. In today's episode of Radio GDR, I'm honored to be joined by teacher and author Daniel Burghard all the way from Berlin who with his book The Things They've Seen - Reflections on WWII and the Cold War by German Eyewitnesses fulfills our common mission as he captures the storie...
Aug 04, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 11
There is no shortage of recent articles regarding the too long overlooked subject of female directors. While many of these articles are specific to the women directing films today (Patty Jenkins, Kelly Reichardt, Kathryn Bigelow, etc.), there are many more that claim to be comprehensive overviews of the contributions made by women to the art of cinema. These articles are careful to remember female directors from the distant past (Lotte Reiniger, Alice Guy-Blaché) and the ones who boldly made fil...
Jul 13, 2022•59 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Gay spies and espionage….absolutely one of the most incredible topics you can study about the GDR. On today's episode of Radio GDR, we are going to dive into the topic of LGBT espionage, life and struggle for equality behind the Iron Curtain. We have the honor to be joined by Dr. Samuel Huneke, assistant professor of history at George Mason University and author of the riveting book States of Liberation - Gay Men Between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany. In the book, Huneke traces ...
Jun 28, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Venceremos! We will overcome! This one word defined the socialist political movement of Salvador Allende's presidency in Chile and, after the military coup of 1973, rolled off the tongues of Chilean exiles and musical bands who found a new home in East Germany. As many of you know, I have long been interested in the GDR's international relations, particularly with Chile given that I studied abroad there in 2007. I was amazed to learn that Chilean refugees fled to the GDR after the 1973 military ...
Jun 16, 2022•50 min•Season 3Ep. 8
From an outside perspective, it would seem that human rights would be an idea that the East German regime would have had great difficulty reconciling itself with. However, in this episode of the pod, Dr. Ned Richardson-Little, author of The Human Rights Dictatorship: Socialism, Global Solidarity, and Revolution in East Germany , explains how the ruling SED Party fostered the development of a concept of human rights which was compatible with the socialist regime’s domestic and international aims ...
Jun 02, 2022•58 min•Season 3Ep. 7
This episode seeks to answer a burning question - what does an artist do with a piece of the Berlin Wall? In our last episode, we interviewed Dr. Jim Doti, Professor and President Emeritus of Chapman University in Orange, California ( chapman.edu ), about how Chapman secured a piece of the Berlin Wall for the university's lovely campus. Today I am honored to be joined by Chapman's own Professor Emeritus Richard Turner, the artist who designed Liberty Plaza where Chapman's Berlin Wall is displaye...
May 18, 2022•53 min•Season 3Ep. 6
There are many pieces of the Berlin Wall on display all around the world. How did universities, museums and other places secure these sections of what was once the most intimidating symbol of the Iron Curtain? In this episode of Radio GDR, I have the privilege of being joined by Dr. Jim Doti, Professor and President Emeritus of Chapman University in Orange, California (chapman.edu), to tell us how he secured for Chapman what is today the second largest piece of the Berlin Wall owned by an Americ...
May 07, 2022•29 min•Season 3Ep. 5
We Radio GDR hosts all agree on this simple truth - our favorite interviews are of you the listeners and members of the Facebook group. Jeff Myers joined the group in January of 2022 and has proceeded to post some of the most captivating photos of his trip to the GDR in 1987. From pictures of old East Berlin to Trabants to an eerie "teaching assistant" Stasi officer observing a class, Jeff's pictures tell a story of a trip he's never forgotten. Today an Associate professor at Wake Tech Community...
Apr 29, 2022•48 min•Season 3Ep. 4
In 1952, a 24-year old American soldier defected to the Eastern Bloc in order to avoid a US Army disciplinary hearing and what he feared would be draconian punishment for his involvement in socialist and communist politics in the United States. This decision put his life on an entirely new trajectory, one that left him with a new name, Victor Grossman, and left him in the then young German Democratic Republic, a country that became his home for the remaining 37+ years of his existence. A committ...
Apr 12, 2022•50 min•Season 3Ep. 3
In our first interview of season 3, we speak with Michael Califra, author of "No Man's Land," one of our favorite works of fiction about life in divided Berlin. Michael lived and worked in Germany, mostly in Berlin, from 1986 to 1998 where he crossed between East and West many times. When he first considered writing about Berlin, it was still divided. The challenge then was to render in fiction a situation more absurdly fictional than any he could imagine. When the Wall fell and Germany and Berl...
Mar 29, 2022•56 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Welcome to Radio GDR Season 3! Join Steve Minegar, Shane Whaley, Anke Holst and John Paul Kleiner as we talk about what we’ve been up to, what we’re learning and what we look forward to sharing in this season. Our ability to bring you stories from behind the Berlin Wall is dependent on monthly donors like you. Visit us at https://www.eastgermanypodcast.com/p/support-the-podcast/ to contribute. For the price of a Berliner Pilsner, you can feel good you are contributing to preserve one of the most...
Mar 17, 2022•32 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Radio GDR co-hosts, Steve and Shane share news of the upcoming Season 3 and how you can help us!
Feb 16, 2022•6 min•Ep. 45
In this episode of Radio GDR our host John Paul Kleiner ( gdrobjectified.wordpress.com ) interviews Debby Pattiz about the unusual semester she spent in the GDR back in 1988 as a Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island, USA) student at Wilhelm-Pieck Universität in Rostock.
Jan 06, 2022•50 min•Ep. 44
What do you do with a hundred thousand idle spies? By 1990 the Berlin Wall had fallen and the East German state security service folded. For forty years, they had amassed more than a billion pages in manila files detailing the lives of their citizens. Almost a hundred thousand Stasi employees, many of them experienced officers with access to highly personal information, found themselves unemployed overnight. This is the story of what they did next. Former FBI agent Ralph Hope uses present-day so...
Jul 29, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 43
Thanks to Tim Mohr for taking time to speak with John Paul Kleiner (GDR Objectified blog) and Prof. Ed Larkey (University of Maryland - Baltimore County) about his book Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution and the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Tim's book is well worth a read and you don't have to be into punk music to enjoy it. Thats a wrap for season 2! Hopefully we will be back with season 3 after a few months break. Thanks for your support and in the meantime do not hesitate to get your Ea...
Jun 27, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 42
In this episode of Radio GDR - the East Germany podcast, we are joined by Patrick Hoffmann, assistant director, pedagogue and historian at Borderland Museum Eichsfeld, one of the more than 20 museums along the former Inner German Border Founded in 1995, the museum sits at the border crossing point Duderstadt-Worbis, which is about 190 kilometers west of Leipzig on the border of Thuringia and Lower Saxony. The museum is comprised of the original buildings of the former border crossing point, whic...
Jun 11, 2021•50 min•Ep. 41
From being raised by a World War 2 veteran who spent time in a Soviet prison camp to having of view of the Berlin Wall from her apartment to meeting westerners like Celeste and her family who she finally visited in California after the wall fell, Adelheid has quite a story to tell!
May 31, 2021•49 min•Ep. 40
