I was lucky to work with Robert Legvold, Jack Snyder, and Mark von Hagen at the Harriman Institute as I explored the newly-opened archives in Moscow and Berlin for my dissertation on the communist decision to build the Berlin Wall. The resulting book, Driving the Soviets up the Wall: Soviet-East German Relations, 1953–1961 (Princeton, 2003) won the Marshall D. Shulman Book Prize in 2004 and was released in a German edition in 2011. I went on to publish another book, After the Berlin Wall: Memory and the Making of the New Germany, 1989–Present (Cambridge, 2019), and a Great Courses/Audible book, The Berlin Wall: A World Divided (2021). For my engagement with German history and transatlantic relations through my publications, media appearances, board service, and work with students, I am happy to report that I was honored by the German government this year with the Cross of the Federal Order of Merit. German President Frank Walter Steinmeier made the decision to award the honor in November 2024, and the then-German Ambassador to the United States, Andreas Michaelis, hosted a beautiful ceremony and dinner with my family, friends, and colleagues at his residence in March 2025.