German literature and publishing history from the aftermath of the Weimar Republic to the present day. The life story of an outstanding German publisher captures a dramatic chapter of German history with a consistently political perspective. Elmar Faber takes stock: a distinctive view of nearly three-quarters of a century of German intellectual history. One could call the memories of the German-German publisher Elmar Faber "A Life Between Downfalls": from the ruins of Weimar through the collapse of 1945 to the end of the GDR in 1990. However, nothing is mourned here; instead, there is a lucid cheerfulness in recounting a life that was always political and never conformed to any widely held opinion. His commitment was to the authors of the GDR - most of whom he knew personally, and many of whom he published himself until just a few years ago, including Christoph Hein.