In "Biographical Episodes from Different Germanys", the now almost 80-year-old author provides anecdotal insights into his life, which began in January 1945 when his family fled what is now Poland and was initially shaped by growing up in the GDR. He talks about the hurdles of the time, the political discrimination, his time in a Stasi prison and his academic career, which was nevertheless successfully crowned with a doctorate. The reader is given an insight into the reunification period and the professional opportunities that the author seized in a united Germany. The tensions between the East and West German perspectives on history - which persist to this day - are illustrated in a differentiated manner.