Katja Hoyer

Katja Hoyer is visiting research fellow at King’s College London and author of Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949–1990 (Allen Lane, 2023)

Construction of the Berlin Wall begins at Ebertstrasse. The barrier would divide the city for 28 years (Photo by von der Becke/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Life in East Germany: the cultural evolution behind the Iron Curtain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

1871: Otto von Bismarck reads the Proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles following Prussia's victory in the Franco-Prussian War. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)

Germany’s pre-Nazi history: rethinking the Second Reich. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Otto von Bismarck, pictured on horseback, was instrumental in the creation of a unified German state and was among the most influential politicians of late 19th-century Europe.(Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Otto von Bismarck: a brief guide to the ‘founder of modern Germany’