The Lives of Others

Assignment for the movie The Lives of Others

This movie is about the monitoring of the cultural scene of East Berlin by secret agents of the Stasi, the GDR's secret police. But it is also a movie about living in a totalitarian state.

Read the assigment before watching the movie!

1. Three important persons who work for the government of the GDR are:

Bruno Hempf (minister of culture)
Anton Grubitz (chief officer of HGW/XX/7) and
Gerd Wiesler (Stasi agent and responsible for operation ‘Lazlo’)

All three of them are convinced of the necessity of 'following' Georg Dreyman. But their motives differ. Explain the motives of each of them.

2. Art and artists play an important role in the movie. Actors, directors, autors and journalists are among the friends of autor Georg Dreyman.

a. Give the name of four persons and their discipline of art.
b. In totalitarian states, like the GDR, artists and their work are used by the government. With what goal in mind uses the government of the GDR artists and how is this perceptible in the movie?
c. On the other hand artists are under a control and surveillance. Why? What is the government afraid of?

3. Priests and apostles of peace are often also under control and surveillance. Why these kind of people?

4. Give some examples of the way people are put under pression by the government.

5. The picture below is a so called 'still' from the movie. This is a picture from a very important scene in the movie. Why is this scene so important? (Explain the heated reaction of Christa-Maria)

6. The picture below is also a 'still' from the movie. Name some of the measures the Stasi took to follow and watch people.

7. Why did Albert Jerska got a 'Berufsverbot' ? Could he live with this situation?

8. Could a person, according tot the movie, make a career, under one's own steam in a totalitarian state?

9. The opinions of stasi Gerd Wiesler (HGW XX/7) change during the movie. This change is first perceptible when Wiesler 'borrows' a book from the autor Bertolt Brecht. How is this change perceptible in the scene with the little boy in the elevator?

10. What is meant by the remark: 'Christa-Maria Sieland 'sells' herself for the sake of the art'.

11. Here 's a list with persons from the movie. Each of them had a certain attitude towards the regime in the GDR.
a. Write down in the first column the attitude of each person.
b. Discuss your answers with a fellow student en make, if necessary, additions to your own answer in the second column.

Name	Attitude	Addition
Gerd Wiesler
Bruno Hempf
Anton Grubitz
Geord Dreymann
Albert Jerska
Christa-Maria Sieland

12. Some years after the fall of the Berlin wall (november 9 - 1989) Georg Deymann writes a book 'Sonata from a good human being', which he didicates to Gerd Wiesler (HGW XX/7).

a. Explain the title of the book.
b. Do you think this dedication is deserved?

12. Write down, in short sentences, the feelings about living in the GDR the movie arouses.

13. Try to categorise these feelings. In other words which (kind of) feelings go together?

Web sources

The Lives of Others
The Lives of Others
Rotten tomatoes site
The Lives of others (Wikipedia)
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/s/stasi/index.html
http://www.filmeducation.org/livesofothers/LivesofOthers.pdf
Engelstalige gids bij de film