Institutional Erasure: The Decline of East German Publishing (faz.net)

• Documentation of systemic state interference in media institutions.
• Analysis of forced consolidation and license withdrawal strategies.
• Examination of the destruction of intellectual and cultural independence.

"Christoph Links provides a critical historical reconstruction of the systematic dismantling of East German publishing houses. Before 1989, two-thirds of all publishers were liquidated through forced mergers, state-mandated license revocations, or the flight of their owners. The study exposes the mechanisms of bureaucratic control and ideological censorship used to centralize and suppress independent publishing, ultimately gutting the cultural infrastructure of the former GDR."