Friendship without Borders

<p> Across half a century from the division of Germany through the end of the Cold War a cohort of thirty women from the small German town of Schönebeck in what used to be the GDR circulated among themselves a remarkable collective archive of their lives: a <em>Rundbrief</em> or bulletin containing hundreds of letters and photographs. This book draws on that unprecedented resource complemented by a set of interviews to paint a rich portrait of ordinary life in postwar Germany. It shows how these women-whether reflecting on their experiences as Nazi-era schoolchildren or witnessing reunification-were united by their complex interactions with official power and their commitment to sustaining a shared German identity as they made the most of their everyday lives in both the GDR and the Federal Republic.</p>