German Comedy: Scenes of Life after the Wall [Paperback]

Peter Schneider (Author), Philip Boehm (Translator), Leigh Hafrey (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 brought its share of comic absurdities. For example, the Germans' newfound freedom, as Schneider shows, has complicated the romances of lovers who once navigated the Wall's restrictions. For the most part, though, the author ( The Wall Jumper ), who lives in Berlin, grapples with weightier issues in this ironical, witty report. He cites "the two good reasons" to fear a reunified Germany: resurgent anti-Semitism and the questionable stability of German democracy. He explores how people are coping with the chaos of events, with the mass influx of refugees from East Germany and of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe. Whether he is exposing the exploitation of 60,000 Vietnamese slave workers in the old Democratic Republic or assessing the failure of both left and right to come to grips with socialism's demise, Schneider is a penetrating and astute critic.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

When the Berlin Wall was breached in November 1989, German and European history undertook another of its periodic lurches into unknown territory. Schneider, in this compact and elegantly written book, presents his analysis of the new Berlin/Germany and what lies ahead. Personal anecdotes abound, and readers will enjoy the author's "man-on-the-spot" style. As well, the big questions, such as a possible revival of German nationalism, militarism, and anti-Semitism, are deftly treated by the author. In short, this is an entertaining and enlightening book that most libraries should acquire. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/91.--Ian Wallace, Agriculture Canada Lib., St.
Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (October 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374523584
• ISBN-13: 978-0374523589
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #441,294 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Life after the Berlin Wall., May 30, 2006

By 

Kevin M Quigg (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: German Comedy: Scenes of Life after the Wall (Paperback)

A nice series of essays on what life was like after the fall of the Wall. East Berlin and East Germany become part of the Federal Republic. East Germans face a new society as they seek to integrate into the Federal Republic and Western Europe. This shock produced by the fall had many unsettling results. Schneider tells these stories in a series of essays addressed to German readers.

There are some interesting situations described here. The East German policeman pursuing a Vietnamese into West Berlin so as to deport him. Poor Polish merchants peddling goods in a walled off West Berlin portion of the city. Questions whether the greater Germany will pose a threat to Europe. The costs of bring East Germany up to West German standards. There are many fine points to discuss here.

This is an OK read for those interested in the division of Germany. I wish I could have read this book when I visited the remains of the Berlin Wall in April, 1990. Germany and Berlin are now united, but the Germans will be working through the problems of the separation for many years to come.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Catching up on recent history, July 16, 2001

By 

dorthy shellorne (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: German Comedy: Scenes of Life after the Wall (Paperback)

I started reading this book several months ago and now have slowly wandered my way to the end. It is a book best read an essay at a time. Otherwise it seems to jump around too much. A movie in the Seattle International Film Festival, "No Place to Go (Die Unberuehrbare)" reawakened my interest in the book. In the movie, a leftist writer struggles to discover how to survive after the Berlin Wall has fallen and all her hopes for a socialist Germany have been dashed. She has become an anachronism moving across the landscape with nowhere to go. This book is much lighter in tone, a series of good-humored irony-laden essays about life in Germany in 1989 and 1990 in the absence of the legendary Wall. Schneider points out various paradoxes such as West Berliners becoming less enthusiastic about the Wall coming down as the probability of its demise approaches. Also, the book is full of interesting historical footnotes, such as that most of the Wall has disappeared as people have hacked off bigger and littler pieces of it as personal momentos and much-in-demand tourist items. For someone as little aware of recent German history as me, this book was very informative and leaves me wanting to read more about recent German history to find out what has happened since 1991.