East German science fiction enabled its authors to create a subversive space in another time and place. One of the countrys most popular genres it outlined futures that often went beyond the partys official version. Many utopian stories provided a corrective vision intended to preserve and improve upon East German communism. This study is an introduction to East German science fiction. The book begins with a chapter on German science fiction before 1949. It then spans the entire existence of the country 19491990 and outlines key topics essential to understanding the genre popular literature socialist realism censorship fandom and international science fiction. An indepth discussion addresses notions of high and low literature elements of the fantastic and utopia as critical narrative strategies ideology and realism in East German literature gender and the relation between literature and science. Through a close textual analysis of three science fiction novels the author expands East German literary history to include science fiction as a valuable source for developing a multifaceted understanding of the countrys short history. Finally an epilogue notes new titles and developments since the fall of the Berlin Wall.