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Slow German # 051: Good Bye, Lenin!

Today, once again a film tip from me. He is from 2003 and is called "Good Bye, Lenin!"

The film is about a family in East Germany. The father left the family and fled to the West. The mother left with her two children in the GDR. She is committed to socialism. One day she sees her son Alexander was arrested during a demonstration. The shock for them is so great that she has a heart attack and falls into a coma. The year is 1989, and the wall comes down. But Christiane Kerner does not notice because she's in a coma.

Half a year later, she wakes up again. Her body is still weak, they may not get excited, that would be bad for your heart. But a lot has happened. The GDR no longer exists. Would this not a lethal shock to the woman?

So has her son Alexander the idea that it is not easy to tell her. In her apartment, he can revive the GDR. Together with a friend, he even takes on a news show, the mother looks on TV. It is touching to see how much trouble the son to protect his mother from the excitement. He has fun himself, to invent its own DDR.

How the film, I will not tell here. The main role of the young Alexander is played by Daniel Brühl, who is one of Germany's most famous actors of his generation. The film was directed by Wolfgang Becker. The film was a huge success in Germany, six million people have seen it in movies. He got nine German Film Awards and the Felix European Film Awards.

I liked the movie at that time very much, because the one he portrayed the characters very warm-hearted and humorous. Second, it shows the search of a young man then, what the GDR was. Have a look at this video if you have not seen it yet!

It's music time again, from Ewa Firsowicz the song "You do not know well."

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Slow German # 043: Stauffenberg

Especially in the cinema film "Valkyrie - The Stauffenberg assassination" has begun. Tom Cruise plays the main role. The film was shot mainly in Berlin. Many of the actors are well-known German. I myself will not watch it - and as Tom Cruise plays the main role. That annoys me. Actually was the wonderful German actor Thomas Kretschmann to play the main role. But then Tom Cruise announced in Hollywood and grabbed him off the roll.

But perhaps Thomas Kretschmann is now happy that he has not played the role. For I have read many bad reviews about the movie. There has been criticized above all that the film misrepresents many facts. Historically, the film is not correct. It also seems to be a typical Hollywood movie with a lot of explosions, suspense, action and exciting music. I think in this case, it would make more sense to make a character study. Has thus go into detail on what felt Stauffenberg thought and planned. What kind of man he was. A few facts I want to tell you here.

His full name was Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. So even it you realize that he was a nobleman. After graduation he joined the military, where he made career. He became a lieutenant, sergeant and colonel. He married in 1933 his wife Nina and they had five children. Stauffenberg was politically rather on the conservative side, but was not opposed to anything that decided the Nazis and the new Reich Chancellor Hitler.

When the Second World War began, he had various responsibilities. In 1943 he was seriously wounded in an attack by low flying - he lost an eye, a hand and two fingers of your other hand. More and more it grows into a desire to make the Nazi regime to an end. Allegedly been since 1941. There are various reasons that are mentioned again and again. Not all were heroic. Stauffenberg was apparently against a parliamentary democracy and probably did not really forward-looking vision.

Nevertheless, he worked with other senior military officers, most of them also noble, a plan, the plan of operation Valkyrie. With this plan, they wanted to fight against internal unrest. That was the official version. But in this plan, put a coup, Hitler should be assassinated, arrested key commanders. Stauffenberg himself was to exercise the assassination, but then make another group to blame.

Twice Stauffenberg tried to kill Hitler - had to cancel both times he his plan. At the third attempt Stauffenberg bomb deposited in the vicinity of Hitler - in the explosion, four people were killed - Hitler and 19 other survived. Operation Valkyrie failed, Stauffenberg and the others were arrested and shot.

Here in Germany there is much discussion about the film with Tom Cruise. On the one criticism is that an actor who is openly Scientologist, plays the Hitler assassin. On the other hand is also praised by well known that this film all over the world, that there were courageous people like Stauffenberg. You know also determines the history of the Scholl siblings (Film: Sophie Scholl - The Final Days) have done a resistance against the Nazis in Munich. If you are interested Graf Stauffenberg and the resistance against Hitler, then I have a tip for you:

There are a good side of the ZDF on the Internet, so the second German television, where you can read more about this subject.

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# 029: The Lives of Others

The Lives of Others I would like to present to you for once a German movie that you should look at you. It's called "The Lives of Others," and won an Oscar. I want to tell you why from him, because he shows an important part of German history.

At the center of the drama is Gerd Wiesler. He is a captain in the Stasi. The Stasi was the Ministry of State Security of the GDR, the German Democratic Republic. 1984 Gerd Wiesler gets the job in East Berlin, a playwright, spy on. He should listen then as a spy. Wiesler then sits in the attic, has headphones on and listen to what happens in the home of writer anything. What this leads to? He is planning activities for the East German system?

The longer Wiesler eavesdrops the writer and his girlfriend, the more it changes. He feels sympathy for these people, he wants to protect her and not hurt them. Thus, he puts himself in danger. As the film ends, I will not tell you. But I can tell you that it is one of the best films I've seen. This is not least because the best German actors play in this film. The main role of Gerd Wiesler, Ulrich is hard to see who unfortunately died shortly after the Academy Awards with cancer. Sebastian Koch and Martina Gedeck are spied on the pair.

The film is narrated exciting and emotional, and behind the story is a guy named Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. He has written the screenplay. The idea he had been at the film school, but then it took to write it back to a monastery, so he had complete rest. Donnersmarck also directed this film, which was released in 2006 in Germany. Although the film only cost 1.8 million euros and thus a low-budget film was, he had enormous international success. More than two million people have seen it in Germany alone in the cinema.

Link to trailer: here
Or: here

Well, now there is music, from brackish water "salt in your eyes." Found in the Podsafe Music Network.

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