Another DDR joke: honecker and mielke are disgussing hobbies and honecker says: i have a hobby. I collect the jokes people tell about me. Mielke answers: mine is similar i collect the people who tell them.
Something similar was said in Czechoslovakia. Gustav Husák talks to Leonid Brezhnev: "I have a new hobby, I am collecting jokes about myself." And Leonid Brezhnev answers him: "I do the same thing." Gustav Husák curiously asks: "Great! How many jokes do you already have?" Leonid Brezhnev: "Three full prisons." And another: Do you know how to recognize the best political joke? The best political joke is the one that, even after years, makes you laugh so hard that you fall behind the prison bars from laughing." And other: The judge walks out of the courtroom, leans against the wall and lets out a stifled laugh. A colleague asks him what made him laugh so much. "I just heard the best joke!" says the judge. "Then tell me too!" complains the colleague, but the judge replies: "I can't, I just sentenced the guy to ten years for telling it!"
Another joke: Erich Honecker receives a gold watch for his birthday that he is very fond of. He even keeps it under his pillow when he goes to bed. One day, while at the office, Erich realizes that he is missing his watch. In a panic, he calls Erich Mielke and tells him that someone has stolen his watch. Later, he realizes he left it under his pillow, and being relieved, calls Mielke to tell him to cancel the investigation. Mielke responds "Too late, we've arrested three suspects and they've confessed everything!"
Must be a variation of the joke about Stalin's pen, featuring Mielke instead of Beria. In the original, the pen goes missing after Stalin receives a delegation from Georgia.
@@Nico-gt3mg Er sagt ja, dass er ihm nicht sagen muss, was das für seine Karriere bedeutet. Der war 5 Jahre später immer noch dort und wurde nicht befördert.
The guy making the joke actually never manages to climb up in the Stasi hierarchy. When Wiesler is degraded and ends up opening letters, that guy is working in the same department as well (he announces the opening of the Berlin Wall).
Man merkt wirklich, wie Wiesler erkennt, was für einen Menschen er gegenüber hat. Und wie er seine Ideale verraten sieht. Tolle Besetzung, erstklassig!
Axel Stiegler was NOT demoted to opening letters. "When Grubitz is questioning Stigler, Stigler mentions that he works for "Department M." At the end of the movie, while Dreyman is going through his file, he sees a note that Wiesler was likewise relegated to Department M as well. In reality, then, what appears to have happened is that Stigler, as a junior officer, already performed the same low-ranking work, and Wiesler was simply given the same work when he was stripped of his authority." Stiegler was a junior officer in the same department Wiesler got demoted to. Which means that the Lieutenant Colonel DID NOT rat him out.
@mamuburaa Yes, I think the standard interpretation is that Grubitz threatened to demote Stiegler, then said he was just joking, then did it anyway (probably in more a subtle and gradual way than he had originally threatened). That was certainly how I interpreted it when I noticed Stiegler's presence the first time I saw the film. Maybe it is meant to indicate that he never rose from a low level rather than that he was demoted to one, but certainly his presence in that scene was no accident.
German language is so expressive. This movie is a great film. I love a final scene. I do not remember exactly, because I watched the movie in Russian. "Is this book for a gift? NO IT IS FOR ME". Bravo! Bravo, German people!
he says aufhängen, neu wählen. its a play on words. neuwählen can mean vote again(in politics) or dial again(phone) an aufhängen means hang up(lynch or end a call) so it fits for both, the phone and the politican
Could Herr Stiegler be a little more careless? I loved this movie. I was really sad when I found out that Ulrich Mühe died. He was an excellent actor who portrayed an excellent character.
The Joy that Gublitz takes at emotionally torturing Stiegler and the ability at a whim to destroy someone's life for a public thought crime. The deeper irony is that everyone at the table has done the same thing at some point in their life. Then, Gublitz tells a joke publically that an underling would be punished for. It just illustrates the capricious nature of life in the DDR.
In the English subtitle script, in the salutation, there is always missing the "Genosse" / "Comrade", f.e. in 1:42 "Bitte Genosse Oberstleutnant", "Please Comrade Lieutenant Colonel" or "der Genosse Generalsekretär", "the Comrade General Secretary" a.s.o., so much circumstance must be.
@ElBloeTigre: On the surface it appears shallow. But if you understand the German, there are some double meanings. Basically in the second joke, he was saying that the leader should be hanged, and the people should vote again to get a new leader.
Iv'e been in the old stasi headquarters in berlin. On the wall in one of the rooms where the big boss ran the show there was a world map which only showed East germany and nothing else. During the days of the DDR if you had relatives that worked for the state or were in the military you were not allowed to leave the country. I was there in 2004. I also toured the main stasi prison complexses. "The lives of Others" is a great film to watch on this era
When Grubitz erupted in a room-filling laughter, was the moment when decorum went out the window. It was as if to assure the subordinates listening, not just Stiegler "See? We mock them too! You're not the only ones here bored to death!" And the subtle nod and toast with his drink at the end for the candid rapport that probably livened an otherwise drab work day to me looked like a brief glimpse of Grubitz's sympathetic side
I also believe those other 3 guys sitting at the same table eating lunch were put into trouble for not being vigilant enough and report his anti-government attitude to their supervisor. They would have been put into more scrutiny and evaluation with any promotion suspended for 1-2 years.
i think this movie is accurate in so many ways...these kind of people were all a bunch of cynics, narrow minded and vain. a low form of humans. they only knew to provoke, threat and use violence.
I love this movie very much...It touched me really and I found it very tragic but this Honecker Joke is great! My friend and I still quote it sometimes and have to laugh always :D
I was just watching this movie. It surprises me that even the Lieutenants hated it to live in Gdr. He did it only for his job, he also hated authoritarianism
priests or peace activists. Then, later in the movie when Wiesler decides to 'downscale the operation' and have Udo taken off the case Grubitz sighs, thinks for a minute and says 'well there is this church case that I could use him for', thats brilliant, subtle comedy.
@TheCat86 Yeah thats good alright, he ends up 'in a cellar hole opening mail!', :P. As it happens Stiegler is from Department 'M' (as he says in this clip, then, later in the movie when Dreymann is looking through his record and reads the part about Wiesler being demoted and moved to other duties its suggested he's moved to 'Department M'. Another quirky piece was Udo (the agent helping Wiesler) whom said he much preferred monitoring artists as there was more 'dak dak dak'......:P over
RU-vid is showing me the best film I haven't seen yet. I saw on other user that the guy who tells the joke is the one who is on lower jobs as he hears about the fall of the wall. The beatuty of this. I need to see it now. Blockbuster will help me.
Incase you think this comment is completly random and insane, it isn't. It is a response to eldunno73's observation that the joke teller appears again at the end.
@freeuganda aah, so it make sense....but in the Italian version he tells a different joke : "What's the difference between DDR and China? None, both of them have the great Wall"
While it's not part of the clip, the set up before this is that Hauptmann (portrayed by Ulrich Mühe) already concerned about the direction of his service, pressured his superior, Grubitz (portrayed by Ulrich Tukur) - the one cracking on Stiegler - to sit at a table normally used by junior personnel. The fact that such separation exists further highlights the hypocrisy of the system in which Hauptmann - the once true believer, by this point in the film doubting - finds himself in.
If anybody is still interested: the joke is, that the word "(neu) wählen" can have different meanings. In one case it means, to use a number on a teleohone and in another way it means, to vote for someone during a election. So the joke means "hang him and elect the next one"
The dial on old phones are called Wählscheibe. To dial the number means "Die Nummer wählen". So when you dial once again, it means "neu wählen", as he said. "Wählen" has a second meaning in german: To vote. So you hang up, and dial/vote again. It literally only works in german.
Ulrich Mühe is dead?! That's really sad I came here o laugh about this nice joke (and learn a bit, cuz' there's more thing in this joke that I didn't know that make it funnier), but now I'm really sad... :(((
Ich habe es wohl gesehen. Die Szene bringt mir ein slechtes Gefühl. Der Junge was total itimidiert... Aber Das Leben der Anderen ist ein sehr gutes Film!
Das Leben der Anderen in italian? nice =) i don't know why english speaking people always want to read subtitles - i wouldn't - so if the translation of the movie is well done, why not? in germany we usually dub movies either, doesn't matter if they are english or italian. i think in this case that colonel was really only joking.. but it shows the reality of what was possible. and many were imprisoned because of nothingness.. thank god there is no DDR (or GDR) anymore, but one, our, germany
Regarding subtitles, it is very helpful for hearing impaired people. Most of us gradually lose our hearing as we age, while some people were never able to hear from the beginning. Occasionally there are noisy people in the movie theater, and their noise prevents me from understanding some of the conversation. So having subtitles includes more people, allowing them to completely enjoy the film. It also allows us who understand some German to hear the original language, giving an opportunity for us to improve our language skills by seeing and hearing at the same time. This helps our brains learn to recognize and understand more words in the future. Also, some people have auditory processing challenges, and it is very helpful for them to have subtitles, regardless of how good their hearing is. Having two languages as an option in one film makes the film work well for a larger population, and is very good as a tool to help students of either language expand their comprehension. Because of these reasons, I much prefer the ability to hear the original language, and to have the subtitles in my own language; but vice -versa would be ok as well. This way I can choose where to focus. I can stop reading the subtitles if I want to just listen and look at the picture, to see how much I understand. This way, it’s my choice.
Ich versteh den sinn der szene nicht so ganz. wenn der offizier am ende nicht gelacht hätte dann wäre es schockierender und wirkungsvoller gewesen, aber so sagt die szene einfach nur aus, dass auch stasi-leute spaß verstehen oder sowas ähnliches.
Ich glaube, es geht hier um Macht. "Ich kann Deine Laufbahn ruinieren, es mir aber in letzter Minute anders überlegen und dann selbst verbotene Witze erzählen. Und niemand stellt mich dann zur Rede.". Besser kann man absolute Macht nicht zeigen.
Früher sagte man wohl auch zum “Auflegen” des (analogen) Telefonhörers “Aufhängen”, was wohl durch die ersten Telefone entstanden ist, die an der Wand hingen, da hängte am den Hörer dran auf und wenn die Verbindung nicht zustande kam, wählte man eben neu. Der Witz hier soll sein, dass man Honecker “aufhängen” soll und einen neuen Mann wählen sollte. Manche Witze verlieren eben durch den technischen Fortschritt ihre Pointe.
I am not a fan of capitalism. But looking at communist state like DDR or USSR, I think this was even a worst hell. It's not that there was no work or no camaraderie. There certainly was. But what's missing and fearsome is how the communism tries to oppose basic human emotions. Like joking about a superior. Or even valuing ideology rather than competency (leading to terrible individuals being leaders). You had a similar attitude in another totalitarian state, Nazi Germany. But it was not always as such, the Nazis usually valued competition and getting the most efficient person running the show. At the same time, Hitler at the end of the war was only surrounded by sycophants and generals were often preferred if they adhered to Nazism, not their sound advice. I think it goes beyond ideology, any totalitarian state devolves like that.
@@Icemann89germany is slowly on the way to get people in jail, for mocking the left-green party Some firefighter needed to pay a fine in january or february, cause he applaud to the farmers. Our government make the farmers look like they support the right party, and being right is cleary being a n4z1 in their eyes, or something in that direction. It's sad, but thankfully not so bad like in the past (ddr)
