Jenny Erpenbeck’s Go,Went, Gone is set in modern-day Berlin, Germany. Berlin has a unique place in history with its post-WWII history being decidedly different from the rest of the nation. In 1945, at the end of WWII, Germany was divided into four occupation zones, with the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union (now Russia) each controlling the land. Further, the capital city, Berlin, was divided into sectors and occupied by those respective powers despite it being deeply located within the Soviet zone, which was known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The United States, Britain, and France eventually united their occupation zones within German into a single zone, which became known as the Federal Republic of Germany (or West Germany).

For the ‘East Germans’ dissatisfied with life under the Soviet communist system, getting to West Berlin was a way to start a new life in the democratic West Germany. Between 1949 and 1961, some 2.5 million East Germans fled from East to West Germany, most via West Berlin. Many of the fleeing were skilled labourers, such as professionals, and intellectuals, a loss that had a devastating effect on East Germany. To tackle this, East German soldiers laid a barrier of more than 30 miles of barbed wire through the heart of Berlin and, on the night of August 12, 1961, when it became evident that the West was not going to take any major action to protest the closing, East German authorities began replacing the barbed wire with a 3.5m high concrete wall. East German authorities declared the wall was to protect their citizens from the unwanted influence of capitalism and the West. Thousands of East Germans were captured while attempting to cross the wall and 191 were killed. The Berlin Wall is emblematically featured in Erpenbeck’s novel as a barrier to the newly arrived refugees to German. Erpenbeck presents the reality that many Germans seem to have forgotten their isolation on one side of the wall, especially the East Germans’ languishing behind their West German compatriots in wealth and opportunity and, with the wall down now down and the two sides reunified, are hindering the newly arrived Africans from aspiring to the same freedoms.

In 1989, East Germany’s communist regime was overwhelmed by protesters as the demand for democracy swept across Eastern Europe. On the evening of November 9, 1989, East Germany announced an easing of travel restrictions to the West, and thousands demanded passage through the Berlin Wall. East German border guards eventually opened the borders and Berliners immediately began tearing at the wall, they climbed on top of it, painted graffiti on it, and removed fragments as souvenirs. The next day, East German troops officially began dismantling the wall and, in 1990, East and West Germany were formally reunited. Erpenbeck describes how neighbours who had essentially lived on the same street but were divided by a wall, joined in songs and shared food. The wealth of the West flowed into the East, and protagonist Richard and his friends still marvel at the simple things they did not know about under the GDR, such as dishwashers. As the unified Germany became steadily prosperous, it became a potential destination for refugees who had arrived in Europe, often via Italy.

The bureaucracy of the previous incarnations of government are still prominent in Berlin, with legislation and the senate control effectively serving as another barrier, or concrete wall, to new arrivals. In particular, European Union (EU) legislation that regulates asylum applications lodged in one of the EU Member States by a third-country national, known as the Dublin agreement (Dublin II), mandates that a refugee can only seek asylum in the EU country of entry. As a function of geography, and the economic realities of refugees, the vast majority of refugees will arrive in EU countries like Italy and Greece rather than Germany or the Netherlands. As such, Dublin II appears to have served as an accommodation of the rich north, who effectively turned the poor south into a defensive wall to keep refugees out.