Katja Hoyer (@hoyer

Katja Hoyer

18.5K posts

Katja Hoyer

@hoyer_kat

"Britain's favourite German historian" (Sunday Times). Visiting Research Fellow at King's College London. FRHistS. 📚 Weimar. Beyond the Wall. Blood and Iron.

Joined October 2020

Pinned
Katja Hoyer
@hoyer_kat
Mar 24
Look what's arrived! The very first copies of WEIMAR - LIFE ON THE EDGE OF CATASTROPHE! I have to say, the maps and the cover look fantastic. Allen Lane really make beautiful books. WEIMAR is available for pre-order now and will be out on 7 May 📚
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Katja Hoyer
@hoyer_kat
Feb 18, 2023
#OTD in 1943, at 10.45am, siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl walked into Munich University and distributed anti-Nazi leaflets. They were caught. On 22 Feb, they were sentenced to death and decapitated. Sophie had defiantly told the judge: "Somebody, after all, had to make a start."
1M
Katja Hoyer
@hoyer_kat
Nov 4, 2025
Brilliant to see how happy the Prague Astronomical Clock makes people. When I watched it do its hourly thing (a show of moving figures), a crowd gathered. All ages and nationalities. Much oohing and clapping. Comforting thought that people have stopped to admire it for centuries.
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Katja Hoyer
@hoyer_kat
Sep 23, 2022
I love London. Where else does a modern-day German get to stand on a 20th-century bridge that replaced a Victorian Bridge that replaced a medieval bridge, photobombing a 19th-century bridge, a WWII war ship and a Norman castle with Tudor cupolas? 🤯🥰
Katja Hoyer
@hoyer_kat
Jun 14, 2023
Places Beyond the Wall 🧱 🇩🇪 #4 The border between East and West Germany. It ran nearly 1,400km from the Baltic coast to Czechoslovakia. The border strip was a deadly no-man's land, so a haven for wildlife developed, which is preserved today as the 'Green Belt' nature reserve.
430K
Katja Hoyer
@hoyer_kat
Nov 3, 2025
My grandparents lived close to the Czech border in Germany. We used to go over for delicious hearty food. So lunch in Prague today felt pleasantly familiar: beef goulash with bread dumplings washed down with a glass of Staropramen. Would have been rude not to 😋
124K
Katja Hoyer
@hoyer_kat
Aug 7, 2023
My life has changed since I discovered travelling through London by boat. Advantages vs Tube: ⛵️ fellow passengers are cheerful (it's difficult to be grumpy on a boat) ⛵️you get waved at by people on bridges ⛵️there's fresh air ⛵️there's a bar
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Katja Hoyer
@hoyer_kat
Mar 3, 2023
It's here! An actually existing copy of BEYOND THE WALL: EAST GERMANY, 1949-1990!! It looks and feels incredible 😁📚 Out 06 April @PenguinUKBooks @AllenLaneBooks
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Katja Hoyer
@hoyer_kat
Aug 7, 2022
From death strip to safe haven: Das Grüne Band - Germany's Green Belt. During the Cold War, the 870-mile border network between East and West Germany was inaccessible, so around 1200 endangered species moved in. Most of is now a protected nature reserve. ©Klaus Leidorf / Lencer
Katja Hoyer
@hoyer_kat
Dec 17, 2022
#OTD in 2001, Euro starter kits became available in Germany for people to familiarise themselves with the new coins. I opened mine at a bus stop in rural Brandenburg when an old lady next to my sighed: "This is my 6th currency!" Tells its own story about German history... 🤯
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Katja Hoyer
@hoyer_kat
Apr 6, 2023
Having a very British publication day with bracing sideways drizzle... but nothing's going to rain on my parade today! BEYOND THE WALL: EAST GERMANY 1949-1990 is out....NOW!! 🥳🥳🥳 amzn.eu/d/biEX0Ry
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Katja Hoyer
@hoyer_kat
Jun 14, 2024
"Hello, Katja. I'm Chris." "Nice to meet you, Chris. What do you do?" "Oh, I travel a lot. Quite a bit in Germany, actually." We talked for an hour about Germany, the Cold War and the Stasi before he told me his last name 😳🤦‍♀️ Well, nice to meet Chris de Burgh @dalkeybookfest 😄
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Katja Hoyer
@hoyer_kat
Jun 8, 2021
Very excited to announce that I'm working on my next book! 'Beyond the Wall' will be a new history of East Germany - from the ashes of the Second World War to the fall of the USSR. thebookseller.com/news/allen-lan… @AllenLaneBooks @PenguinUKBooks @thebookseller @lecyberflaneur
Katja Hoyer
@hoyer_kat
Oct 6, 2024
I was speaking at an event at the reconstructed Berlin Palace today. I still can't get over the oddness of the building. Its facade is three-quarters reconstructed Prussian Baroque, one quarter modernist meh. To me, it's mostly a monument to Berlin's permanent identity crisis.
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