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When the Berlin Wall came down, historians found themselves unexpectedly challenged to reassess the nature of the German Democratic Republic. The period since the heady changes of 1989-90 has seen feverish activitiy in the archives, as historians have sought both to deepen understanding of how the regime functioned and to move beyond earlier views inescapably conditioned by Cold War antagonisms. But if hopes were harboured that some kind of consensus would eventually emerge as a result of all this activity, they have not been realised. Controversy in undiminished, in part because of the continuing importance of interpretations of the GDR's history to German political culture. One result of the prolifiration of published research is that the contours of debate have shifted or new issues have arisen, not always in a clear-cut fashion. Even scholars working in the area have, at times, difficulty in seeing the wood for the trees. This book offers a detailed mapping of the area, identifying key interpretational issues, describing the evolution of different approaches to them, and providing the author's own evaluation. A wide range of themes is covered, from state/society relations to the role of opposition to the GDR's place in the longer sweep of German history, and central aspects of the regime's foundation, internal organization, social and economic system, collapse, and "after-life" receive close attention.