The lives of others ( Das Leben der Anderen ) beginning

[Willi1990]

JonniDDR your discusting me!!

[JonniDDR]

In the DDR it was preferred that the citizens focus their efforts on building the socialist society instead of counterrevolutionary activity such as that prisoner

[zackhanscom]

sleep deprivation isn't torture, it's a valid interrogation method, as employed very effectively by this stazi agent. look at his objectiveness, it is sublime.

[bachtin10]

@zackhanscom

Try to stay constantly awake for 72 hours. Then we'll talk again.

[teachme2fish]

What America will look like in 2110 if progressives have their way with it!

[yaknbo]

@teachme2fish I agree. Go RIGHT WING on Nov 2!

[Sbisbee3]

@teachme2fish wtf? Progressives?

[Sbisbee3]

@teachme2fish ? Progressives?

[smorinjo]

Good old Stasi...

[OrangeKarl7]

Klaus, danke. Es gibt hier Idioten die machen absurde Witze ueber das was tagtaeglich schrecklich war. Man koennte nie frei bewegen. Ein Erlaubnis nur von Dorf zu Dorf aufs Land. Meinungen in Zeitungen? Niemals. Diese Kids hier wissen Freiheit und Meinungsfreiheiten nicht zu schaetzen. Ich furchte schlimmes fuer unsere Zukunft wenn wir nicht errninern. Las diese Geschichten von Ihre Mutter in DDR Zeit nie weg, Klaus.

[RWT683]

They probably masturbate to this movie at Guantanemo.

But ironically, Germany still has a Stasi....it's called the Verfassungschutz.

[CuMaoVaoMiengHo]

@RWT683 your mom is one of these terrorists?

ha ha ha

[MelancholiaImpact]

This is so cool. I just watched this film in Russian and now in German so I know what they are talking about and the English subs below also help if I forget what was the coversation about.

Great way to learn some German and it's history too,so this film is educational on more than one level. And interesting also.

Thanks for uploading.

[MrJaraJara]

This is actually the USSR in the vanquished country of East Germany.

[klaus4044]

...by the way, my friend in Wales wrote me that you can buy this film from Amazon for 3 English pounds.

Ich bin Deutscher und habe bis zu meinen 11. Lebensjahr in der DDR gelebt und habe durch Erzählungen meiner Mutter viel mitbekommen, sie war auch im Gefängnis für 6 Monate, weil sie sich kritisch äußerte und verraten wurde. klaus h aus Duisburg

[RadioBlaBlaFM]

Welcome to PrisonPlanet !

Everything looks normal, colorful, some nice camera's, strange clouds, black president smiling, Harry Potter look a like president robot, television, radio... telling you what to think about eveything and what to do, what is "in" or "out."

Nice forums on the internet......full of stasi-like people.

Nice blogs about you, facebook, hyves...

A passport with a chip in it.

Unicode on your products.

Some strange ingrediants in your food.

But all is just FINE...

[HEAT18]

Well another answer: whats bring anyone in the US to work for the CIA ?

[VitoPossilipo]

What brings young people wanting to work for an organization like the Stasi?

[MebefromBelgium]

They got many extras, good food, the best houses, they got quicker acces to cars, etc

[VitoPossilipo]

Thank you very much. I think, that would explain alot.

But I am sure, that many of them also went there, because they had been born denuncants and sadists.

[VitoPossilipo]

I like that beginning...so humble and unpretentionous, like the simple seeming first sentence of a world literature novel.

[KronprinzAdam]

The greatest novels from the 20th century about totalitarian regimes and systems are:

1. 1984. George Orwell.

2. A Brave new world. Aldous Huxley

3. Animal Farm. George Orwell.

In 1984, there are 4 ministeries, they have a name which is just the opposite of what the ministery really does. A big lie.

Minipax= the ministery of war.

Miniplenty= the ministery of scarcity

Minilove= the ministery of hate (torture)

Minitrue= the ministery of lies.

[VitoPossilipo]

What may happen with the "marked" student?

[eldunno73]

Kicked out of the Stasi training, probably sent to a brick factory.

[VitoPossilipo]

Thank you for the answer. I think, you are right.

[yaknbo]

Don't you stupid krauts get it? CAN'T you vishtace?

YOU HAD TO BUILD A FUCKING WALL, A W A L L TO KEEP PEOPLE IN. THAT'S NO GOOD. It wasn't to keep people OUT, by the way, but to NOT ALLOW THEM TO LEAVE. F U C K Y O U .

[VitoPossilipo]

Sorry, but what does "vishtace" mean.

P.S.: In German schools we learn, that the wall was to not allow the people of the GDR to leave.

Only in the GDR it was said, that the wall was for protection against fascism.

[KronprinzAdam]

Berlin Wall = instrument of death.

It protected no one. It killed thousand of people.

[VitoPossilipo]

Yes, of course. I know that. I just wrote, what was taught in the GDR.

[Zeitzler]

Why are you talking to the "Krauts"? It was the communist regime in East Germany, which built the wall, not the democratic West Germany. I guess you have no idea of history.

[yaknbo]

The Stasi were a cadre of degenerates run by Markus Wolfe. Jews getting even = The history of "communism".

[VitoPossilipo]

The Stasi was lead by Erich Mielke. Markus Wolfe was the leader of the GDR intelligence service.

[Rorton08]

Obwohl Wiesler war ein glühender sozialistischen, die glaubten, in der DDR und alles, was es auf, bis er unter die Verbrechen, die von Georg Dreymann und gelogen zu seinem Vorgesetzten, die Kenntnis der Konsequenzen, die sein Handeln hätte in seinem Leben. Das ist ein sehr schwer für jemanden zu akzeptieren, um zu helfen, einem anderen Menschen.

[Rorton08]

The Stasi's methods of interrogation were not inhuman, they were necesssary.

[Ilikechickenpoop]

Watched the movie, this part made me quite emotional. Really sick if this happened.

Quite impressed if it's true tho, about the liar-kinda thing

[BlauerBooo]

It is a fact that these things happened! Those victims can be asked today - they are of course still alive - most of them.

You mean that an innocent person would become angry and a guilty person silent? I don't think that this can be said generally. It depends on the character, doesn't it? Maybe I would become silent and would cry either, seeing that there is no way out - doesn't matter if I were guilty or not.

[hutch976]

It is important to realize that any country is capable of doing this. The East German secret police were one of the most effective and professional in the world.

Democracy, socialism, fascism, monarchy...every type of government is capable of something like this and no doubt has committed acts like this.

Evil, inhumane, etc....depends on who you ask.

[vdvsoldat]

Exactlly Herr hutch. "The East German secret police were one of the most effective and professional in the world." They didn't waste time trying to look, or seem important like federal police in the USA, who mentally masterbate and try to create problems so they can look important trying to solve them.

[KronprinzAdam]

Big brother is watching you!!

[KronprinzAdam]

How do you dare to call these criminals "effective and professional"? They infiltrated the personal lives of common people, following them and listening everything, violating the basic human rights. Gestapo 2.0

[hutch976]

And what would you have done in their place?

[KronprinzAdam]

Simply...nothing. Let people have their lives. Or, do you like to be infiltrated and your private life and everyday conversations filmed and taped? No way!!

STASI kept odor samples of people, so trained dogs were able to track dissidents, if they dared to scape.

[hutch976]

Yeah its just not that easy.

Its not like these people were maliciously evil and just wanted to go ahead and invade private lives.

I am quite aware of das Ministerium fuer Staatssicherheit and what they did against the public they tried to safeguard. But when you live under the oppressive gun of a de facto dicatatorship, its not easy to go against the grain.

All I am saying is, you cannot hate all of these men for simply doing the jobs assigned to them. Its more complex than that.

[KronprinzAdam]

Are you aware that STASI practiced torture and intimidation?

Are you aware that this was the most intense surveillance in history of the private lives? 91,000 agents, 300,000 informers, and a lot of secrecy, what they hide? Ties with others organizations, maybe?

[hutch976]

I am quite aware of all that actually. I studied them quite intensely.

But I would like to quote a German who lived in the DDR:

"The only ones who were innocent during that time were infants and drunks."

Do I endorse what the Stasi did? No. Do I condemn people for faults that I am also capable of? No as well.

[KronprinzAdam]

I can understand that people can modify their behavior if they are engaged in military, paramilitary or radical political organizations.. I can understand that children can be brainwashed if they learn the wrong things in a school. I will blame the leaders, the people who build the system, high functionaries, directors generals and so on, because they brainwash their own people, and daily life becomes a hell under these people.

[StudentResistance]

There is no society, that has clean hands.

[KronprinzAdam]

I wil say, "system" insted of society. But, if we compare with modern human rights standards, many social systems of the past were very oppresive, or discriminative. STASI is the worst case of civilian monitoring in history, that's why it shouldn't have to be repeated. So sometimes, societies or social systems, need evolution and development into something better.

[vdvsoldat]

The Stasi were very intellegent and didn't waste time chasing ficticious criminals like US agencies do every day to try to justify their own existance. Now German soldiers are sadly playing Bush & Merkel's war games. Life was better in the 80's.

[MitchMaker]

i think you did never suffer under the stasi an the sed rgime didn't you ?

[vdvsoldat]

No my friend, I didn't. But I assure you, if a man loved the GDR and was a patriot and a good soldier he wouldn't suffer as movies suggest. But in the USA, a patriot who follows the constitution is arrested and called an extremeist by illegal federal agencies. The differerence is this; The GDR never made all of the false promises of freedom that the USA makes, and the GDR were not hypocrites but the USA are the worlds biggest hypocrites. The GDR was ready for war, while the USA creates wars.

[KronprinzAdam]

Do you want bricks to re-build the Berlin Wall again?

[Silberfang]

correct. Instead of chasing fictional criminals they came up with fictional crimes.

[polkapi]

Wow it's like Gitmo avant-la-lettre.

[EnchantingNature]

I adore foreign films and this one is at the top of my list. Run lola run is another favorite of mine.

[Harnolb]

Both are excellent films.

[kaffeekunst]

Ironically the german police collected those infamous odor samples of anti-G8 summit-protesters in 2007 like the Stasi did in this film.

[DanielSahne]

proof?

[QuieroGuerra]

It's somewhere in the pudding, or in your the case the cream, lol! :-)

[Gavrilis78]

I loved everything of this movie: acting, music, setting, plot. I must have seen it 4 times by now.

[Harnolb]

You are right. It is an excellent movie.

[EnchantingNature]

Yes they are. Germany makes excellent films, at least the ones I've seen.

[Harnolb]

I was fortunate enough to be a foreign student in West Berlin in 1984.

On a day pass in East Berlin, I actually tempted fate by trying cross over to the West, over a checkpoint not intended for tourists.

Of course the Grepos came down from their watchtowers and asked me what on Earth I thought I was doing.

I just played innocent, lol!

My father was not happy upon learning this: ''What were you doing? They could shoot you to death!''

[Harnolb]

The mande un mensaje sobre la Alemania, pero fue bloqueado.

[liamos85]

Wow! what a start to a movie unbelievable the way he marks one of the students down when he asks a question!!! That sets a tone plus the prisoners confession. Thanks again for this.Danka!!

[AlannahMuriel]

I know how it is not being allowed to sleep although you're incredibly tired^^ When I was back from the USA I had been awake for 18 hours already. But when I arrived at Passau, Germany, it was only 8 in the morning. I had to stay awake the whole day, my mum wanted me to get used to the german time again. But at least I was able to drink lots of coffee to stay awake^^

I really loved that movie, although it was very shocking sometimes.

[Gnickk]

Sounds like you know a lot about police state torture! liek lol ^_^

[PolskaUrban]

It's a great film!

But what the "x" means?

[BunkerJunker]

X stands for ten. So HGW XX/7 means 'HGW twenty/seven'.

[Celeon999A]

You mean the x he makes near the students name ?

It propably means that this student is potentially unreliable.

[zargorn]

That will probably go into the students file. He is just marking the name so he remembers to add the incident later.

Throughout the students life his boss, the police and the government may access this information and they will then know that he once called Stasi methods "inhuman". Probably not good for his career ...

[Harnolb]

Inhumane.

The Stasi methods were indeed inhumane, lol!

[bylandl]

...lol? Seriously?

[KonradAdenauer]

Oops. One of the students said it was "unmenschlich". He gets the "x" by his name.

This guy's a scarier prof than Chas Kingsfield.

[DieterVB28]

The greatest film I've ever seen!

[josephdrew87]

Looks like a great film. Hmmm... and qhich country is it that's interrogation people with sleep deprevation today. If we just imagine the guy on the chair in orange overals, a bit Arab looking and in shackles... remind you of anything?

[georgieladygeorgie]

yes now they're called "enemies of freedom" or of emocracy.

[KronprinzAdam]

There's a great difference. The guy in the film is a common citizen. He does not belong to any guerrilla, paramilitary or terrorist group.

[PeterMayer]

@josephdrew87 Although we aren't even close to the Stasi or East Germany, you are correct that what we did was terrible.

[EvilTube2007]

@josephdrew87 That's exactly what I was thinking when I saw this film. "Mein Gott! We are just like they were!"

[EvilTube2007]

@josephdrew87 Hey, if you think our benevolent government capable of such things, that alone would justify your arrest.

[helix1066]

@josephdrew87 PAY ATTENTION JOSEPH!

"...YOUR PRISONERS ARE THE ENEMIES OF SOCIALISM..."

WAKE UP JOSEPH!

[bachtin10]

@josephdrew87

The difference is: this guy is interrogated because one his friends fled the Republic, not for buildung a bomb.

[mswehde]

@josephdrew87

Joseph...Das ist eine blöde Analogie. Wie waren die Staatsangehörigen der DDR, die nur in den Westen fliehen wollten weil sie in Freiheit leben wollten, gleich mit Terroristen?

[Nerdovich]

@josephdrew87 B&Q employee interivew? lol