Beautiful New Sky
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A01=Ines Geipel
aerospace
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anti-doping activism
astronaut
astronaut training
Author_Ines Geipel
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B06=Nick Somers
books about the space race during war
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBJD
Category=HBLW3
Category=NHD
communism in space
COP=United Kingdom
cosmonauts
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doping
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eq_history
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German Democratic Republic
health
how did the GDR exploit its citizens
how did the GDR participate in the space race
Interkosmos
Language_English
man on the moon
Olympic athlete
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Sigmund Jahn
softlaunch
Soviet Union
space
space experiments
space race
Sputnik
surviving in space
USA
wartime space exploration
weightlessness
what did the GDR do to train cosmonauts
Product details
- ISBN 9781509559992
- Weight: 408g
- Dimensions: 145 x 221mm
- Publication Date: 01 Nov 2024
- Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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It was a bold, ambitious and wildly arrogant idea: extending the reach of communism into space. Spurred on by the defeat of Hitler and the competitive rivalry with the United States, the Soviet space programme saw a frenetic surge of scientific activity focused on the objective of demonstrating Communist mastery beyond the confines of the Earth. In order to create the optimally standardized bodies that cosmonauts would require, top secret military laboratories were set up in 1970s East Germany. The New Man – the modern colonist of space – was intensively trained for the purpose of surviving years of weightlessness in outer space. Experiments were carried out in prisons, hospitals and army barracks with the aim of creating the perfect body: self-sufficient and able to endure extreme conditions for as long as possible. In order to exert dominance over space, it was first necessary to exert total control over those who were being trained to conquer it.
Ines Geipel unravels this largely unknown and extraordinary history by delving into East German military records and talking to those who bear the scars of this state-inflicted trauma. Some of the older scientists conducting experiments had already served under the Nazi regime; others threw themselves into collaborating with the Stasi via the military research programme in order to avoid dealing with the war’s emotional legacy. Written like a thriller and infused with empathy from someone who had herself experienced the debilitating effects of state-administered doping programmes in the former GDR, this book exposes some of the most disturbing episodes in Germany’s recent past.
Ines Geipel unravels this largely unknown and extraordinary history by delving into East German military records and talking to those who bear the scars of this state-inflicted trauma. Some of the older scientists conducting experiments had already served under the Nazi regime; others threw themselves into collaborating with the Stasi via the military research programme in order to avoid dealing with the war’s emotional legacy. Written like a thriller and infused with empathy from someone who had herself experienced the debilitating effects of state-administered doping programmes in the former GDR, this book exposes some of the most disturbing episodes in Germany’s recent past.
Ines Geipel is a writer and Professor of Verse Arts at Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin.
