The GDR in Kodachrome colors! A comprehensive compilation of Magnum photographer Thomas Hoepker's photographs from the vanished "other" German state - with many previously unpublished photos! With an essay by Wolf Biermann.

In 1974, Thomas Hoepker became the first West German photographer to be officially permitted to take photographs in the GDR. He moves to East Berlin and from there travels all over the country. He documents people's everyday lives, photographs the bright state parades with their banners and slogans, but also the old inscriptions on the house walls of the decaying cities of the former workers' and farmers' state. In 1990, Thomas Hoepker became the chronicler of the GDR's disappearance from history.

Until now, only a small part of Thomas Hoepker's recordings from the former GDR were known. Together with Christine Kruchen, the photographer's widow, we examined the archive's extensive holdings of Kodachrome slides created in the GDR between 1972 and 1990, rescanned a selection and developed the illustrated book from them. Thomas Hoepker shows the GDR in its own colorfulness and sees color as an independent element of the image composition, which allows him to transform simple moments into abstract situations. He succeeds in showing a different image of the country and its residents and questioning the official representations of state propaganda.

With his deep understanding and his own humor, he describes life in the GDR and creates souvenir images that give us and future generations the opportunity to understand and understand this time.