Brüche

Wolfgang Engler has explored the soul of East Germany like no one else. Now, the most personal book by the great East German sociologist is being published, unmistakable in tone, playful, yet retaining analytical sharpness.

In light of the current erosions of German society and after experiencing his own deep inner crisis, sociologist Wolfgang Engler writes his most personal book. With great openness and radicality, he bears witness in a way that few from his generation and background have done in Germany. His main sources of orientation are the books of French authors from recent years. Édouard Louis, Didier Eribon, and Annie Ernaux – their accounts of class and identity shifts, social upheavals, and political changes serve as milestones for Engler, through which he narrates his own life path and that of the society he came from and moved into.

"What Didier Eribon was for Édouard Louis, Wolfgang Engler was for me." - Thomas Ostermeier.