It could have been a media event: For the first time, a Federal Chancellor privately visited East Germany. However, Helmut Kohl's trip has remained largely unknown to this day. The press was not welcome. Thus, in 1988, the Chancellor visited East Germany quietly and gained an unvarnished view of the situation in the other part of Germany. Journalists Jan Schönfelder and Rainer Erices have reconstructed this spectacular journey. They spoke with Helmut Kohl and former government spokesman Friedhelm Ost about their sometimes bizarre experiences. They identified numerous eyewitnesses who happened to encounter the Chancellor at that time. Additionally, they researched Helmut Kohl's Stasi files and previously unknown SED documents. The authors reveal a completely forgotten chapter of German-German history: the unannounced visitors from the West immersed themselves in everyday life in East Germany and experienced the other German state from a perspective that official guests never had. Helmut Kohl today describes the trip as one of the most moving experiences of his life. For him, it was the internal compass towards German unity. From the foreword by Helmut Kohl: "As hoped, we learned more about the 'real-existing' socialist everyday life during this weekend trip than during an official visit. Whether we were in Gotha, Erfurt, Weimar, or Dresden - everywhere we had direct encounters with our fellow countrymen. Some of them asked for help in leaving East Germany, while others encouraged me to stick to the politics of German unity. It was clearly palpable to me how oppressive the surveillance state was and how much the people suffered under it.".