{"podcast":{"title":"Conversations with Tyler","slug":"conversations-with-tyler-887044","podcast_index_feed_id":887044,"rss_url":"https://cowenconvos.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"https://www.conversationswithtyler.com","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/7/1/7/b/717bd07f94e956cea04421dee9605cbd/CWT_-_Podcast_Art_-_3000x3000.jpg","author":"Conversations with Tyler","episode_count":290,"summary":"Tyler Cowen engages today's deepest thinkers in wide-ranging explorations of their work, the world, and everything in between. New conversations every other Wednesday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-11T00:19:11.580470+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/conversations-with-tyler-887044"},"episode":{"title":"Katja Hoyer on Weimar, the GDR, and the German Character","slug":"katja-hoyer-on-weimar-the-gdr-and-the-german-character","published_at":"2026-06-10T11:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/conversations-with-tyler-887044/katja-hoyer-on-weimar-the-gdr-and-the-german-character","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/conversations-with-tyler-887044","url":"https://cowenconvos.libsyn.com/katja-hoyer-on-weimar-the-gdr-and-the-german-character","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/cowenconvos/CWT-285-KatjaHoyer-Audio-Final.mp3?dest-id=850607","summary":"Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian who has made a career out of explaining Germany to the world—and, just as importantly, to Germans themselves. Born in East Germany in 1985 and now based in Britain, she has written acclaimed histories of the German Empire, the GDR, and most recently the Weimar Republic. Tyler and Katja discuss why communism made East Germans more loyal to the system while it bred dissidents in Poland and Hungary, how happy or unhappy life in the GDR actually was, Tyler's own bleak day-trip to East Berlin in 1984, the underrated literature of the GDR (Christa Wolf, Brigitte Reimann), whether Good Bye, Lenin! got the era right, why it's no coincidence that Richter and Polke came from the East, the strange coexistence of communist prudishness and Germany's nudist culture, what Merkel's East German background did and didn't give her as a chancellor, why East Germans remain dramatically underrepresented in leadership positions today, what makes Weimar the cultural and spiritual heart of Germany, why relatively few Jews ever settled there, how much the citizens of Weimar knew about Buchenwald, what actually killed the Weimar Constitution, how she'd rewrite the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler's citizenship problem, underrated German thinkers, the complacency behind Germany's current economic decline, which side of the Weißwurstäquator she'd choose to live on, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video on the new dedicated Conversations with Tyler channel. Recorded March 30th, 2026 . Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Katja on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercat…","meta_description":"Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian who has made a career out of explaining Germany to the world—and, just as importantly, to Germans themselves. Bo…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3680,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/conversations-with-tyler-887044/episodes/katja-hoyer-on-weimar-the-gdr-and-the-german-character/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/conversations-with-tyler-887044/katja-hoyer-on-weimar-the-gdr-and-the-german-character.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}