Edith Sheffer (Assistant Professor, History, Stanford University) has been awarded the 2011 Fraenkel Prize, for her book Burned Bridge: How East and West Germans Made the Iron Curtain (Oxford, 2011).

The Fraenkel prize, sponsored by Mr. Ernst Fraenkel OBE, joint President of the Wiener Library, Institute of Contemporary History, and former Chairman, is awarded for an outstanding work of twentieth-century history in one of the Wiener Library’s fields of interest, ie. the political history of Central and Eastern Europe; Jewish history; the two world wars; anti-semitism; and the ideologies and movements of political extremism and totalitarianism.

From the publisher of Burned Bridge: "The building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 shocked the world. Ever since, the image of this impenetrable barrier between East and West, imposed by communism, has been a central symbol of the Cold War.  Based on vast research in untapped archival, oral, and private sources, Burned Bridge reveals the hidden origins of the Iron Curtain, presenting it in a startling new light.  Ultimately, a wall of the mind shaped the wall on the ground. East and West Germans became part of, and helped perpetuate, the barriers that divided them. From the end of World War II through two decades of reunification, Sheffer traces divisions at Burned Bridge with sharp insight and compassion, presenting a stunning portrait of the Cold War on a human scale."

"An accessible, intriguing academic study tracking the building of the "wall in the head" between East and West Germany long before the actual construction in 1961." -Kirkus Reviews

Details and publishing information on Burned Bridge: How East and West Germans Made the Iron Curtain are at: http://www.us.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryWorld/European/Germany/?view=usa&ci=9780199737048