This carefully researched history draws on archival sources as well as a wealth of new interviews with on-the-ground activists, political actors, international figures, and others to move beyond the narratives both the German and American varieties that have dominated the historical memory of German reunification.

Alexander von Plato was founder and director of the Institute for History and Biography of the University of Hagen, guest professor in Vienna and Winnipeg, recipient of the Diefenbaker Award 2012)