Guter Osten – Böser Osten

Just in time for the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9th, the richly illustrated publication “Guter Osten - Böser Osten” (Good East—Bad East) was published this autumn. The Cologne-based design agency Leitwerk, together with the editorial staff of ZEIT in Osten, conceived and designed the publication for the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung / bpb. (Federal Agency for Political Education / bpb)

As in many of the publications of the bpb, the diverse topics are presented in a meaningful context, informative and emotional. The history of East Germany in “Guter Osten - Böser Osten” is made accessible to a large number of people through the diverse artistic approaches found in the imagery. This way it is a lot more entertaining than you might think—even with appropriately serious content.

Over the past 30 years, East Germany needed to reinvent itself. It has changed profoundly and is still changing to this very day. The texts and debates from ZEIT in Osten collected from 2012 to 2019 show East Germany in all its ambivalence: dark ages and stories of success, the past and the future, continuities and subversion. The publication is part of the series “Zeitbilder” of the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung / bpb.

The publication "Guter Osten - Böser Osten" is available for 7.– € here.