From nowhere East Germany came to dominate international swimming and athletics in the 1970s and 80s - an astonishing sequence of sporting success based upon a secret state-run doping programme that involved the notorious STASI secret police and the most senior political leaders. Many of the East German sporting starts of that time suffered sever health consequences, especially the young female athlete given huge - in fact experimental - doses of steroids and male sex hormones to boost their physical performances.

Despite this some remain intensily proud of what they achieved; one of many paradoxes explored in Katja Hoyer’s fascinating new book about East Germany, the country of her birth. Hoyer adds colour and compassion to a story often told in stark black and white terms, revealing lives lived in a lost world that was much more complex than most Westerners every understood.

You can buy her book - and thousands of others - in our Scandal Mongers bookshop and help support us and a range of small, independent, profit-sharing booksellers in the UK.

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/beyond-the-wall-east-germany-1949-1990-katja-hoyer/7149638?aid=12054&ean=9780241553787

For those interested, Phil produced a documentary on this subject a few years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR9CUGBVH-Q&t=351s

Andrew Lownie

twitter.com/andrewlownie

Phil Craig

twitter.com/philmcraig

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Kerem Isik

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