German Comedy

Peter Schneider takes us on an insider's tour of the Germanys that were and the Germanys that will be. In a shrewd, lucid narrative full of telling vignettes, Schneider captures the paradoxes and absurdities of life in the absence of the legendary Wall. He introduces us to the West German family man who counts on the Wall to keep his East Berlin mistress a secret, Stalinist functionaries who were just "following orders," and Western capitalists newly fond of the word "revolution."

Through these incisive anecdotes, Schneider addresses those aspects of the new Germany that are really to be feared: the cult of self-righteousness, the mistrust of foreigners, and especially the moral vacuum that threatens this nation so intent on forgetting the ghosts that haunt its memory. Elegantly written, full of wit and irony, this book offers a much-needed picture of Germany's new political order.