Gerd wiesler biography of donald

2006 German film by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

For other uses, see The Lives of Others (disambiguation).

The Lives of Others (German: Das Leben der Anderen, pronounced[dasˈleːbndeːɐ̯ˈʔandəʁən]) is a 2006 German drama film written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck marking his feature film directorial debut. The plot is about the monitoring of East Berlin residents by agents of the Stasi, East Germany's secret police. It stars Ulrich Mühe as Stasi Captain Gerd Wiesler, Ulrich Tukur as his superior Anton Grubitz, Sebastian Koch as the playwright Georg Dreyman, and Martina Gedeck as Dreyman's lover, a prominent actress named Christa-Maria Sieland.

The film was released by Buena Vista International in Germany on 23 March 2006. At the same time, the screenplay was published by Suhrkamp Verlag. The Lives of Others won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. The film had earlier won seven Deutscher Filmpreis awards—including those for best film, best director, best screenplay, best actor, and best supporting actor—after setting a new record with 11 nominations. It also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language and European Film Award for Best Film, while it was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The Lives of Others cost US$2 million and grossed more than US$77 million worldwide.

Released 17 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, marking the end of the German Democratic Republic, it was the first notable drama film about the subject after a series of comedies such as Good Bye, Lenin! and Sonnenallee. This approach was widely applauded in Germany, and the film was complimented for its accurate tone despite some criticism that Wiesler's character was depicted unrealistically and with undue sympathy. The film's authenticity was considered praiseworthy given that the director grew up outside of East Germany

Gerd Wiesler

"You've done nothing, know nothing...You think we imprison people on a whim? If you think our humanistic system is capable of it, that alone would justify your arrest."

Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler was a dedicated and meticulous Stasi officer in East Germany, a subordinate of Oberstleutnant Anton Grubitz. Wiesler was a staunch supporter of the state's surveillance system, believing firmly in its necessity to root out dissent. His primary duty involves monitoring and interrogating suspected subversives.

In 1984, at the request of Minister of Culture Bruno Hempf, Wiesler was assigned to surveil playwright Georg Dreyman and his girlfriend, actress Christa-Maria Sieland. Wiesler and his team bug Dreyman's apartment, set up surveillance equipment, and report Dreyman's activities. Wiesler is disappointed to discover that Hempf is having Dreyman observed not for suspicions of disloyalty or dissent, but for his own romantic interest in Dreyman's girlfriend. Through his surveillance, Wiesler becomes increasingly engrossed in their lives and begins to empathize with them. After an intervention by Wiesler leads to Dreyman's discovering Sieland's relationship with Hempf, Wisler went to chat with Sieland in a bar as a fan of the actress, and implores her to be true to herself. Sieland later reconciles with Dreyman.

This growing empathy leads Wiesler to question his own beliefs and the morality of his actions. Gradually, he begins to covertly protect Dreyman and Sieland, even at great personal risk. After it was discovered, his remaining career with the Stasi was assigned to steam-opening letters for inspection in Department M, a dead-end assignment for disgraced agents.

After the reunification of Germany, Wiesler found work delivering mails.

Awards[]

• Stasi College of Law Graduation Badge

Gallery[]

For two years in my mid-20s, I lived in a tiny garret apartment in the 18e arrondissement of Paris with the sort of haussmannien structure that makes Americans swoon: it had an antique (defunct) chimney, beautiful floor-length windows, and two mini balconies. Just looking at it, you would never guess that the space was actually a nightmarish hellscape. Originally one normal-sized apartment, a paper-thin sheet wall had been erected straight down the middle of the living room, and on the other side of that wall was Lionel. 

Our relationship as neighbors quickly went from cordiality to seething antagonism. Not all of it was his fault; he couldn’t help that every time he plugged his phone into the wall, my picture frames would rattle. But as for the rest—the slamming doors at 3 a.m., which would cause books to fall off my shelves, or the girl he brought home one night who would never, in fact, leave…that was all him. 

I gradually became obsessed, but in ways I couldn’t quite admit. I felt a wave of revulsion as I tried to write my thesis during their epic amorous sessions; I felt physically enraged as their spats turned into screaming tantrums in the middle of the night. And yet, I couldn’t help but listen—despite my better judgment, I even felt a surprising attachment, or slight protectiveness. 

If Lionel was the bane of my existence, he also occupied its center. I found myself “editing” my movements, my conversations, not only so that I could hear his better, but also in full knowledge that he could hear mine. I started whispering while on the phone, recounting my sleepless nights. 

I had become an unwilling voyeur, running a system of constant surveillance in my own home.  

If this case was unpleasant, there are plenty of counterexamples of the art of illicit listening and watching. After all, who among us hasn’t hesitated just a little too long outside a well-lit apartment window, sneaking a peek into

The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) is an award-winning German drama film from 2006. It is the debut film of screenwriter and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

The film takes place in 1984 in state-socialist East Germany and tells the story of Captain Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe), a stoic officer of the Secret Police, Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (also known as The Stasi). His job is to find and interrogate "enemies of socialism", people with Western sympathies or just plain wrong opinions. He is ordered by friend and superior Anton Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur) to carry out a spying operation against playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), whom they suspect is not what he seems. Wiesler and his men install numerous microphones in Dreyman's apartment, and his life is filled with sitting in the attic, listening in on Dreyman and his girlfriend, actress Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck).

Eventually, Wiesler starts to warm up to the couple, noticing how empty and emotionless his own life is. He learns the real reason behind the operation, a jealous minister in love with Christa-Maria trying to get rid of his rival, and is disillusioned by his colleagues' selfish motivations. After the suicide of his director friend Albert Jerska, Dreyman decides to do something about the state's rigid censorship and writes an article about the secret suicide rates of East Germany for Western publications. Wiesler has to take more and more radical measures to protect him while Grubitz becomes increasingly suspicious of him.

The Lives of Others won seven Deutscher Filmpreis awards and the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2006. It has been praised for its portrayal of Stasi, its employees, and its victims as human beings trapped in an unforgiving dictatorship. Although the story is widely considered narmy by actual survivors of Sta