Stasi Stats

100,000
Collaborators were part of the Stasi, East Germany's secret police force, in 1984, according to the introduction to The Lives of Others. The movie won the 2007 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

200,000
East Germans were informants for the Stasi by 1984, when "The Lives of Others" takes place.

2
Gold medals won by East German figure skater Katarina Witt, the first in Sarajevo in 1984, the second in Calgary in 1988.

41
Years East Germany (GDR) existed, from 1949 to 1990.

3
Years after the Stasi was dissolved in 1989, the newly declassified Stasi files were published. After German reunification in "The Lives of Others," playwright Georg Dreyman goes to view the files that were kept on him nearly a decade earlier. He is stunned when a woman presents him with a giant cartload of files, and says, "I ordered them chronologically. Old ones at the top."

10
My 10-scale rating for "The Lives of Others." This is an incredible movie. Knowing that the Berlin Wall will come down 5 years later makes it all the more amazing to see how the Stasi haunts the characters -- both the artists they're spying on, as well as the Stasi's own agents. Another great line: After Stasi agents conduct a furniture-slashing raid of Georg Dreyman's house looking for subversive writing, an agent tells Dreyman, “In the unlikely event that damage has occurred, you may claim compensation.”
The final line of the movie is incredible, but there's no need for a spoiler here. See this movie.