Das Leben der Anderen

[Мастер]

Just watched this film about Stasi surveillance in East Germany, for the second time. I liked it every bit as much as the first time.

Doing a little Google research, I came across some information about the Alexanderplatz demonstration, five days before the wall fell. (Well, I guess it didn't "fall", it was torn down.) The Alexanderplatz wasn't so full of people when i stayed there a few months ago.

And just look at that, bottom photo on the right of the Wikipedia page, there he is at the Alexanderplatz demonstration, Ulrich Mühe. The Stasi agent in the film.

[Heid the Ba]

I think we need some of those slogans for the next "Yes" demo.

[Arneb]

... the wall fell. (Well, I guess it didn't "fall", it was torn down.) The Alexanderplatz wasn't so full of people when i stayed there a few months ago.

Not even that, some checkpoints were opened and GDR citizen were allowed to travel "abroad" without any conditions present or paperwork to be done done beforehand.
The physical removal of the Grenzbefestigungsanlagen wasn't finished until a long time after Nov. 9

[Мастер]

The physical removal of the Grenzbefestigungsanlagen wasn't finished until a long time after Nov. 9

I think they're still not done, no?

[Arneb]

Oh, they've been done for a long, long time. Where there are remnants, they are there for museal purposes. You can sometimes see that, say, a row of houses is crossed by a strangely misplaced-looking strip of greenery - especially at the border of former West Berlin with Brandenburg State. Some of these areas aren't really being developed. Where the wall was in the inner city, it was sitting on what is now prime city ground. Nothing left there.

FAZ.net did a nice photo story on the occasion of the 25 th anniversary of the Wende. You can see the difference by sliding a split screen. Veery nice.

[Heid the Ba]

Those are excellent photos, I love the one of Karl-Liebknecht-Straße where they waited to get a train in the modern one. When I first went to Berlin in April 1999 some of the Wall was still there but being removed on a daily basis. When I went back a few years ago there was nothing in the centre.

[Arneb]

Oh, and just because there seens to be a contradiction between my two posts. With "a long time after Nov. 9" I meant several years. With "they've been gone for a long, long time" I meant more than a decade. It was into the late 90s that the Wall was more or less gone.

When I studied in Berlin (I graduated in '96), there was still a lot of an East-West feeling to the city. When I returned to Potsdam in '12, that feel had been almost completely erased, and I had missed most of that process.

[Heid the Ba]

I know what you mean, in 1999 at the eastern end of Unter den Linden there were still a couple of unrenovated buildings and others showing bullet scars. The new Reichstag opened the weekend we were there and there were still pipes for cement and water running along the streets. By 2010 the city was all repaired and looking great, though it had become slightly sanitised in the process.

The main thing I noticed was that the centre of the city seemed to have shifted from K'damm to Unter den Linden, back to where it had been pre-war. I can't explain why I thought that, just that what had been the Mitte seemed rundown and neglected while other areas had thrived.

[Мастер]

At the west end of Unter den Linden, there is a nest of spies.

[Heid the Ba]

Is that the place where the Stasi did all the renovations for them?

[Мастер]

Is that the place where the Stasi did all the renovations for them?

Not sure we are talking about the same place - I am referring to the Great Satan embassy, which was built years after the Stasi closed shop.

[Heid the Ba]

I knew who you were taking about; I misremembered the story, which involved their Moscow branch office and their contractors Kremlin Guaranteed Builders.

[Мастер]

My DVD copy of the film has subtitles in English, French, and Spanish. But not German

As a result, I'm having trouble making out what Christa says near the end, as she is struggling to get the words out. The English subtitles say,

I was too weak. I can't ever put right, what I've done wrong.

But even if the volume cranked way up, I can't quite make out the German words.

I will continue to work on this important project.

[Arneb]

The translation in the subtitle is literal. "Ich war zu schwach. Ich kann nie wieder gutmachen, was ich getan habe."

[Мастер]

The translation in the subtitle is literal. "Ich war zu schwach. Ich kann nie wieder gutmachen, was ich getan habe."

OK, I just put it back on, and I can now hear "Ich war zu schwach. Ich mann hie wider gutmachen," quite clearly. The remainder still sounds like "mumble mumble mumble" to me, even though I now know the exact words :)

Vielen Dank für die Übersetzung! (Rückübersetzung?)

[Arneb]

No no, not Rückübersetzung. I actually sought out the segment on YouTube and watched it. Of course, she doesn't really talk too distinctly,and ...was ich getan habe was really barely above a mumbele, But as she is dying from internal haemorrhage caused by massive blunt-force trauma to the head, thorax, abdomen and pelvis, I hope you'll excuse her.

[Мастер]

No no, not Rückübersetzung. I actually sought out the segment on YouTube and watched it. Of course, she doesn't really talk too distinctly,and ...was ich getan habe was really barely above a mumbele, But as she is dying from internal haemorrhage caused by massive blunt-force trauma to the head, thorax, abdomen and pelvis, I hope you'll excuse her.

:) Not clear whether she understood what Ulrich Mühe said to her, in her dying moments. It seems like it would have been a good thing to take with her. (On the other hand, her reaction might have been, so why didn't you tell me that before I jumped in front of this ****ing lorry?)