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This text examines East Germany's postwar development from the defeat of Nazism to the stabilization of a new socialist state by 1968. Using a range of previously unexamined contemporary documents, the book investigates how ordinary East Germans experienced this extraordinary political and social upheaval, and how central policy decisions were translated into the reality of everyday life in the provinces. Allinson shows how some East Germans, at their own behest, worked alongside the Soviet occupiers to construct the new socialist order, while others merely tolerated or opposed their new masters. Particular emphasis is placed on the attempt to coopt East Germany's Christina churches and young people to "real existing socialism". Key events in the country's development, such as the death of Stalin, the 1953 uprising, the building of the Berlin Wall and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, are seen from the perspective of popular reactions. This approach reveals how outward political stability coexisted with a high degree of ideological non-conformity.