the_old_gray_cat 's review for:

Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall by Tim Mohr

5.0

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A history of the last decade of East Germany, told through the prism of the punk rock movement.

Mohr, a former Berlin DJ, writes in a lively way and has interviewed scads of the punks who were tortured and went to prison for their ideas and outfits.

I learned so much about East Germany from this book. My heart went out to the youths with "too much future": facing a life where their jobs (and it was illegal to be unemployed), educational level, where they lived, and what they wore was controlled by the state.