Monograph reviewed for H-Soz-u-Kult (3.11.2025).
Summary: Kloiber does a particularly good job using a commodity history of coffee to link together East-West conflict and North-South relations, domestic and international politics, state policies and citizen responses, and the GDR’s four decades of existence with pre-1945 and post-1989 continuities. This concise, engaging monograph thus manages to be both broad in range and tight in focus, offering an accessible introduction to GDR history for undergraduates, interested non-specialists, and coffee lovers alike.