On the 8th In March 2024, we celebrated the women of this world for their strength, courage and passion in the fight for equality and emancipation. Regardless of this date, we celebrate all our authors who have enriched the program of VersaScript Publishers since the beginning - in non-fiction, in literature and with novel biographies of extraordinary women who will not be forgotten in this way. Have fun reading!

Our non-fiction books for more enlightenment and justice

In the anniversary year 2024, the German Bundestag commemorates the difficult new beginning on the material and moral rubble of the Nazi dictatorship with "The next speaker is a lady". Five literary-essayistic portraits, written by Helene Bukowski, Julia Franck, Shelly Kupferberg, Terézia Mora and Juli Zeh, a contemporary historical classification and short portraits of the 38 female deputies in the first German Bundestag show the shaping role of women in the development of a stable parliamentary democracy.

In times when women's rights are once again on the brink worldwide, two authors of male historiography encounter new. Kirsty Loehr writes in "A short history of queer women" of women who loved women and challenged the patriarchy in their time, Marion Gibson in "Witches" of the women on the margins of society who were and are labeled as evil and dangerous - from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Natalie Amiri looks at the current situation in the country in "Afghanistan" and asks what future people, especially women, are facing there. And "Mothers who go" by Begoña Gómez Urzaiz questions the narrative of the "bad mother" in an enlightening and emotional way, explores the many, contradictory feelings of a motherhood and the decision to leave one's own child behind.

Thuringia is an example of the threat to democracy in Germany. With the state elections in 2024, the AfD could now become decisive for the government there. In "Germany of Extremes" Martin Debes shows continuities of almost all today relevant lines of conflict in the Federal Republic on the basis of the history of the country and explains what lessons we can learn from Thuringia.

You are Thuringian, write in the foreword to "Germany of the Extremes", and your ancestors have already lived there, as farmers, pastors and doctors. Have you sometimes thought about "your" people while writing and how they will probably record the book?

I think anyone who works on a longer text thinks about how family, friends and those people with whom he or she is connected will read the result. In this case, it is an explicit concern of the book to explain why Thuringia is not just any corner of the eastern accession area, where strange things happen, but that it is an old, German country, with an interesting, independent and, yes, partly problematic history - and that the current political developments have something to do with this story. Precisely because I myself am a product of this country, I try to approach the events and the people involved as objectively and fairly as possible. Whether I have succeeded, the readers should judge.

In your book, you impressively show how important it is to look into the history of Thuringia if you want to understand the current situation there. Only then is it noticeable, for example, that constellations such as governing could be repeated together with extremists. Did the Thuringians learn nothing?

The pressing question of whether people learn from history is really not limited to Thuringia. The war of conquest of Russia against Ukraine, the escalation of violence in Israel and Gaza, the possible re-election of Donald Trump in the USA: Everywhere, the lessons of world wars, the Holocaust, the Middle East conflict or, as in the case of Trump, events just a few years ago - such as the storm on the US Congress - are knowingly ignored. The special feature of Thuringia is that certain, even extreme developments were observed here particularly early, 100 years ago, and even now. I try to discuss the possible reasons for this in the book, although I do not want to presume to be able to give universal answers.

Almost all important lines of conflict of the Federal Republic can be traced on the basis of Thuringia, write in your book. Which are they specific?

Conflict line here means not only confrontation, but also friction, which can be quite productive. The rural structure of Thuringia with its rather small cities, which remained cultural and university centers as former princely courts, makes the city-country conflict stand out more clearly than elsewhere. Weimar embodies this ambivalence most strongly - whereby the city also stands for the precarious self-image of the German people: for the culturally fertile, but also partly absurd-looking small state, for the national hemoistle with Urburschenschaft and Wartburgfest, for the foundation of the first parliamentary republic, for Hitler's particularly early seizure of power and, of course, for the German division and its notoriously underestimated after-effects in West Germany. Thuringia, first occupied by the Americans, then occupied by the Red Army for 40 years, had the largest share of the state border with the FRG in the GDR and was particularly affected by the transformation after 1989. Except for Jena, there was no real industrial center left. Anyone who is now looking at the political conditions in the country should at least bear all this in mind. That is the concern of my book.

Democracy in Germany is currently under extreme pressure. In Thuringia, she has been doing this since the 5th. February 2020, when a prime minister came into office with the votes of the AfD - for a short time. What can be done better at the federal level than (at that time) in Thuringia?

Democracy in Germany is currently under extreme pressure. In Thuringia, she has been doing this since the 5th. February 2020, when a prime minister came into office with the votes of the AfD - for a short time. What can be done better at the federal level than (at that time) in Thuringia?