In their book -Wustungen, - Anne Heinlein (b. 1977) and Goran Gnaudschun (b. 1971) delve deep into recent German history. Between 1952 and 1988, the authorities razed more than a hundred villages, farms, hamlets, and homesteads on East German territory near the border with West Germany. The structures were in the way of a clear field of fire, difficult to guard, or simply too close to the line of demarcation. The people who lived there were forcibly resettled, forever losing their homes. Gnaudschun und Heinlein traveled to these localities to take photographs and write; they interviewed...