It was Professor Jaime Cerrolaza who presented me with what would be my first impressions of GDR literature. At that time, that country beyond the Iron Curtain still"really existed". The fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the division of the world into two antagonistic blocs caused a social, political and individual collapse within the population in both East and West Germany, a change which necessarily led to a period of deep reflection. This contribution is intended as a double tribute: to the person who made it possible for me to know this reality, geographically and culturally so distant from our own, and to the memory of a vanished country, with its bright and dark sides. This paper is a response to the urgent need to delve into the past so as to be able to face the future. The playwright, novelist and essayist Christoph Hein will guide us through this complex reality, a reality which does not permit only one interpretation.Las primeras impresiones sobre la literatura germano-oriental me llegaron de la mano del profesor Jaime Cerrolaza. Por entonces aquel país al otro lado del telón de acero aún era «realmente existente». La caída del Muro de Berlín y el fin de la división del mundo en bloques antagónicos generó una ruptura social, política y personal que animaba a una reflexi ón profunda. Esta contribución quiere ser un doble tributo: a quien me hizo posible el conocimiento de una realidad tan alejada geográfica y culturalmente de la nuestra, y a la memoria de un país desaparecido, con sus luces y sus sombras, a la necesidad imperiosa de recordar para avanzar. La figura del dramaturgo, novelista y ensayista Christoph Hein nos guiará por los entresijos de una realidad compleja y poliédrica, que no admite una única lectura
