the office, inspiring his co-workers to do the same. Two years later, Hempf and Dreyman meet while attending a performance of Dreyman's play. Dreyman asks the former minister why he was never monitored. Hempf tells him that he had been under full surveillance in 1984: "We knew everything." Surprised, Dreyman searches his apartment, finds the now-abandoned listening devices and rips them off the walls. At the Stasi Records Agency, Dreyman reviews the files kept while he was under surveillance. He reads that Sieland was released just before the second search and could not have removed the typewriter. As he goes through the files, he is confused by the large amount of contradictory information, but as he reaches the final report and sees a fingerprint in red ink, he realises that the officer in charge of his surveillanceStasi officer HGW XX/7had concealed his activities, including his authorship of the suicide article, and also removed the typewriter from his apartment. Dreyman tracks down Wiesler, who now works as a deliverer of advertisement brochures, but is unsure how to thank him and decides not to approach him. Two years later, Wiesler passes a bookstore window display promoting Dreyman's new novel, Sonate vom Guten Menschen. He enters the bookstore and opens a copy of the book, discovering that it is dedicated "To HGW XX/7, in gratitude". Wiesler buys the book. When asked if he would like the book giftwrapped, Wiesler replies: "No, it's for me." Cast Ulrich Mühe as Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler Sebastian Koch as Georg Dreyman Martina Gedeck as Christa-Maria Sieland Ulrich Tukur as Oberstleutnant Anton Grubitz Thomas Thieme as Minister Bruno Hempf Hans-Uwe Bauer as Paul Hauser Volkmar Kleinert as Albert Jerska Matthias Brenner as Karl Wallner Herbert Knaup as Gregor Hessenstein, Der Spiegel-journalist Charly Hübner as Udo Leveh, Wiesler's night shift Bastian Trost as Häftling 227, prisoner Marie Gruber as Frau Meineke, neighbour as typewriter expert Werner Daehn as Stasi officer-in-charge at house search Hinnerk Schönemann as Axel Stiegler, joketeller at Stasi Gabi Fleming as the prostitute "Ute" Ludwig Blochberger as Benedikt Lehmann, Wiesler's student Production Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's parents were both from East Germany (originally they were from further east; the von Donnersmarcks belonged to Silesian nobility but the region was transferred to Poland from Germany after World War II). He has said that, on visits there as a child before the Berlin Wall fell, he could sense the