1. Introduction.- 2. Origins and Early Years, 1930-1950.- 3. The Ulbricht Years: The PHS under Hanna Wolf, 1950-1971.- 4. The Honecker Years: The PHS under Hanna Wolf, 1971-1983.- 5. The PHS under Kurt Tiedke, 1983-1989.- 6. Conclusion.
Dietrich Orlow is Emeritus Professor of History at Boston University, USA. Before teaching at Boston University, Dietrich was a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Hamburg in Germany, and Amsterdam in the Netherlands. His research activities focus on aspects of the comparative history of contemporary Europe. He has written several books dealing with the history of modern Germany, including Socialist Reformers and the Collapse of the German Democratic Republic (Palgrave, 2015).