Das letzte Jahr

Rediscovered after thirty years: Martin Gross: The Last Year. Notes from an Invalid Country. The West German author Martin Gross lived predominantly in East Germany in 1990 to closely observe the decline and restructuring of the country. In numerous everyday notes, he described how people transitioned from the old system to the new one. He portrayed a diverse range of individuals, including the guard of a former Stasi prison, the branch manager of one of the new supermarkets, the heating engineers of a power plant, the bodyguards of a minister, and the cleaning staff of a government building. His book The Last Year was published in 1992 by BasisDruck Berlin but then fell into obscurity. In 2019, Jan Wenzel came across Martin Gross during his research for his book Uncovering the Year 1990 and incorporated many of his notes. With a 30-year distance, they have now been recognized by critics as "prescient," "precise," and "stylistically brilliant" observations of the turning year. The author himself was, however, untraceable. It was not until June 2020 that a contact was established through indirect means, allowing for the planning of a new edition of the title. Martin Gross, born in 1952 in the Black Forest, moved to West Berlin in 1970. From 1981, he worked as a lecturer in German studies and as a cultural journalist. Later, he served as a coordinator for projects between Russian, Indian, and European universities. He currently lives near Lüneburg.