Konrad H. Jarausch is director of the Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam and Lurcy Professor of European Civilization at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. His research interest is currently focused on the German unification in 1989/90, the nature of the East German dictatorship and the problem of interpreting 20th-century German history in general. His publications include The Shattered Past: Reconstructing German Histories with Michael Geyer (Princeton 2002) and Die Umkehr: Deutsche Wandlungen 1945-1995 (München 2004).