The Lives of Others: Controversy or Necessity?

                                            Lives of Others: Controversy or Necessity?



The Lives of Others was directed by Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck in 2006, it was not only a success in Germany but around the world as well, winning best foreign language film of the year at the 2007 Oscars award ceremony. However due to the content and subject matters it can be dubbed a controversial movie. It sees a member of the Stasi “Secret police agency of the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany).” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2013) spying on a couple who it is believed are disloyal to East Germany. As Ebert notes the Member of the Stasi “Sits in an attic day after day, night after night, spying on the people in the flat below.” (Ebert,2007). This invasion of privacy and lack of trust shown in the film shows the fearful conditions that people in East Germany had to live in. Yet this historical depiction of what Germany was like during the Berlin wall being up is what makes it such a necessity as the Berlin wall was something reported around the world and affected many people not just those in Germany. Therefor a film showing the true story is considered necessary by many.

As the film The Lives of Others shows and Miller perfectly describes “The Stasi was present during every discussion like the monster in a horror film.”(Miller,1999. P.95.).However, this historical depiction of the Stasi is not only what makes The Lives of Others so controversial; it is also the attachment that Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler develops towards the couple he is surveying. It can be argued that he begins to fall in love with the women, approaching her in a public and eventually turning against the Stasi principles to try to save the couple from being convicted of any wrong doings. However, it has been disputed that “The film doesn't accurately portray the way totalitarian systems work, because it needs to leave room for its hero to act humanely.” (Funder, 2007). The antagonist in the movie having such a change of heart makes the film more controversial as it does not show the accurate lives of people in East Germany and how the Stasi truly acted. This may anger many viewers especially viewers who may have been victimized by the Stasi in the past as they feel that the Stasi members have been shown in a more positive light, almost as heroes.





The necessity of such a film to be made is still apparent however as some would say “ It was impossible not to view the film as a political statement, and in what it shows about the East Germany communist regime, it will always remain a great political film.” (Scott and Taylor, 2014.P.103.). The film does still show as mentioned previously the lives people in East Germany had to lead, constantly being fearful of who was watching them or overhearing what they were saying. The corruption of the powerful men in charge at the time and how women were treated by these men as throw away objects. Women are not respected in this film. As shown with Christa-Maria Sieland prostituting herself in order to keep her social status and Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler hiring a prostitute to fulfil the loneliness’ in his life. Therefor due to the historical content of the film and the fictional alteration of the historical content The Lives of Others is both a necessary and a controversial film.

Works cited

Ebert, R. (2007). The Lives Of Others. [Blog] RogerEbert. Available at: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-lives-of-others-2007-1 [Accessed 6 Jan. 2015].


Encyclopedia Britannica, (2013). Stasi | East German government. [online] Available at: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/563751/Stasi [Accessed 6 Jan. 2015].


Funder, A. (2007). Tyranny of terror. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/may/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview12 [Accessed 7 Jan. 2015]


Miller, B. (1999). Narratives of guilt and compliance in unified Germany. London [u.a.]: Routledge.


Scott, C. and Taylor, F. (2014). Totalitarianism on Screen. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky.

The Lives of Others. (2006). [film] Wiedemann & Berg Filmproduktion,: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck[Director].