The Brainstorm Plus: Brainstorm 254: East Germany & the Berlin Wall

This past week on Nov 9 we celebrated 32 years since the Berlin Wall came down. I thought it would be a great time to share nonfiction and fiction books about East Germany before or during the fall of the Wall. Click on the titles to see my full review and any content notes/trigger warnings for each book.

Cloud and Wallfish by Anne Nesbet

Noah's parents show up one day in the middle of March after school in a rental. They speed him off to the airport, informing him that his mom has been granted permission to do her doctoral research comparing speech defects and education in the US with East Germany. (And FYI, readers, it's 1989.) So they are off to Berlin and Noah will finally get to use that German he's been learning. Then his parents start getting weird. They tell him they've lied about his name. It's not Noah Keller on his birth certificate, it's Jonah Brown, so from now on he's Jonah. His parents have new - or old - names too. What?! And another thing about that birth certificate, the birthday is different too. And for that matter, if asked, he grew up in a different town from Oasis, Virginia. Mind spinning to remember all his new info and new rules (such as talk as little as possible about the past and don't talk about anything important in the new house) Noah is on a flight (yes, Noah, because he still thinks of himself that way). Upon arriving in Berlin, Noah's mom is soon off doing her research. His dad says he's going to write an amazing novel about a mink farmer crime sleuth while they're there. Noah wants to go to school, but because of his stutter, they at first deny him. Most kids would love not going to school, but Noah quickly grows bored...and lonely. There's no one for him to be friends with. But one day he meets a girl from the apartment downstairs, Claudia. There's mysteries about Claudia. Like where are her parents? Why does she live with her grandmother? Which gets Noah thinking about other mysteries, like why did mom burn the picture of her 4th birthday before they came, and why did they change their names to come here? East Germany is such a strange place, especially in 1989.

This is a slow burn plot that explores life with a stutter, life in East Germany in 1989, and how hard it is to uncover secrets in a land overflowing with secrets. Nesbet herself spent time doing doctoral research in East Germany's Berlin in 1989, so she didn’t just research this stuff, she lived it.

Target Readers:
Friendship Story Fans, Historical Fiction Fans, Slow Burn Thriller Fans, Those Interested in Stuttering Characters, Mystery Fans, Middle Grade Readers

The Collapse: the Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall by Mary Elise Sarotte

Mary Elise Sarotte takes readers through all the tiny little incidents, accidents, and unprecedented choices that happened at just the right time and were capitalised on so that the opening of the Berlin Wall happened when no one knew it would, not the East Germany authorities, not the Western intelligence agents, not even the reform movements inside East Germany.

Sarotte has obviously done her research. Years and years of research and interviews and scouring of primary documents. And the story she tells is crazy! If someone wrote this as fiction they'd be accused of using too many crazy coincidences or deus ex machina moments. The potential for horrible violence was there and even ordered, but it never happened. Peaceful protests instead of chaotic violence, miscommunication at the highest levels, and unprecedented ignoring of orders worked together in ways no one could have predicted. When you read it all together it seems nothing short of miraculous.

Target Readers:
History Fans, Reluctant History Readers, Engaging Nonfiction Fans, Adult Readers (though approachable to YA and even high reading middle graders)

Flight for Freedom: the Wetzel Family’s Daring Escape from East Germany by Kristen Fulton, ill. by Torben Kuhlmann

A picture book biography of the Wetzels, what life in East Germany was like for them, and how they and another family made a hot air balloon and escaped to the West.

This was a nostalgic read for me as I remember watching a film retelling this amazing escape in elementary school (which must’ve been made immediately after the events). The picture book does a great job of relaying the basics of the difference between life in East and West Germany, and extensive back matter includes a lot more information on why the Berlin Wall went up, why people tried to escape over (and under) it, various methods that worked, and why the Wetzels didn't really open up about their escape until recently.

Target Readers:
Picture Book Biography Fans, Escape Story Fans, History Fans, Suspense Story Fans, Lower Grade/Middle Grade Readers

A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen

The night East Germany put up the Berlin Wall, Gerta's father and middle brother, Dominic, were in the West scouting out options for the family there. Her mother had decided to stay behind with Gerta and her oldest brother, Fritz. But then the Wall went up, and suddenly Gerta's family was cut in half. Gerta's father had long been hounded by the East German police, the Stasi, for probable involvement in the resistance movement. It had made things challenging for the family. You would think that since he is stuck in the West, the rest of the family would be left alone, but that isn't the case. When a friend of Fritz tries to escape to the West, Fritz is brought in for questioning and he discovers that the Stasi have files on the entire family, even him and Gerta, and that there are microphones hidden in their apartment. Suddenly, Fritz loses his job, and soon he will have to join the East German military. On the way to school one day, Gerta glances towards the West and sees a familiar face on the platform that looks from the West into the East. It's her brother, and then her father. Her father does a strange dance, which Gerta first interprets as him being silly for her, but later she realizes it was a message. Papa wants her to tunnel. Later he manages to sneak a picture to her of an abandoned building. Eventually, Gerta finds it and starts her project. It is extremely dangerous, though. She knows if she is caught the very signs of digging will be a death sentence. She tries to cover it by gardening, but she suspects nosy neighbors are about to turn her in. Can she get her family to freedom before it is too late?