JONATHAN GRIX is a Lecturer at the Institute for German Studies, Birmingham. His recent publications include, East Germany: Continuity and Change, with Paul Cooke (1999), and the following articles, Civil Society in East Germany pre and post-1989 (1999), The German Democratic Republic, with Julie Smith (1999), and Competing Approaches to the Collapse of the GDR: 'Top-Down' vs 'Bottom -Up' (1998).