THIS IS A TRUE STORY.
NONE OF THIS REALLY HAPPENED.
EAST BERLIN 1987
Always ready.
Hi there, Comrade Lenin.
Look here.
A little farewell gift.
Extraordinary, extraordinary.
Yeah, right.
What's that then?
Oh, nothing.
- It's cough medicine. - Mmm.
For a cough.
What cough's that?
You're so disgusting, you know that?
Why you getting so worked up about it if I don't have a cough?
- You can have other illnesses. - Illnesses? Like what?
No idea. Tuberculosis?
- Tuberculosis is a cough. - You don't have a cough.
Why else would I take cough medicine, Andi?
- Well, because of your jitters. - Stop going on at me please, all right?
Where is she then?
She'd better not have * up.
The Wall will come down before she screws up.
Roll the window down, please.
So, parking is absolutely forbidden here, my friends...
- You haven't got a clue, idiot! - Excuse me?
This is a State Security operation, officer.
So get lost now, or I'll rip your head off and shit in your eyes!
Uwe, that's enough! Excuse me, officer.
- Have a nice evening, comrades. - ***.
What? What is it?
Uwe, that's enough, that's enough. Leave it, leave it.
- Shut the door! - Okay, there you go.
I'm so fed up, Uwe.
There she is.
Comrade Wolf,
the person has been eliminated.
The Firm is much obliged.
Fresh from the West.
Wow. Wow, that's so cool.
MINISTRY FOR STATE SECURITY EAST BERLIN
Bye.
Come in.
Colonel?
Informant "Granddaughter" has returned from a successful operation.
Well, I'm very happy to hear that.
The girl is a good agent, yeah?
- One of the best. - That good, is she?
Yeah. That she is.
And very attractive, right?
Nothing to worry about, colonel.
My private relationship with Kleo Straub
is only for the effective management of the agent.
If there's anything amorous in it, Wolf,
I'll cut your * off and fire you both.
- It's clear? - Absolutely, sir.
Good, you can go home now.
NO DUMPING!
Am I seriously supposed to think you've had a stroke or just dropped dead?
Nah, a stroke. I pretended to have a stroke...
God, Sven. What goes on in your head?
You tell me two days ago you're going out for a beer,
you only come home now, without calling, without letting me know in any way.
- Hey, I've been worried. - Yeah.
Well, in my version, I'd have made you breakfast
with coffee and rolls and eggs and all that shit.
Hadn't we agreed to call?
We had.
I'm really sorry.
Really.
But something completely crazy happened.
You won't believe it.
A murder in the Big Eden. And who witnessed it? I did.
Hi, Dad.
What? What is it?
- Dad, you stink. - You stink.
This is great.
Do you know what's great? Sleep is great.
Sven, come to bed now.
POLICE
- Morning. - Morning, Petzold.
Got to be time for that.
Soon you can tell your girly stories to someone else.
- How's that, then? - Last night I went to Eden.
Eden? Where the murder happened?
Exactly. And I got to see the suspect.
Here. This sketch was drawn from my description.
What the hell's that? She looks like a ten-year-old kid.
You're talking a load of shite. Do you know what this all means?
What's that?
I am gonna solve this case.
You're gonna solve this case? What's wrong with you?
- I'm telling you... - Wait a sec.
Sven. Svenny?
Hello, Mr. Böttger. Any news in the Eden case? The girl?
Just to hear what the status is.
Oh yeah, right, your work of art.
Michalzik told me about it.
I'm afraid not, despite a major search for them.
She must have vanished into thin air.
Well, when your colleagues need any assistance,
any time, I'm here.
Huh?
Before you go offering assistance,
first you ought to do your own job properly, Petzold!
Come in.
This was intercepted by our resident
with the West Berlin law enforcement authorities.
- I thought that... - Thank you, Heinrich.
Oh damn it.
- Comrade? Yes, it's... it's me here, Ludger. - We have a problem.
The suitcase is safe, right?
♪ For he's a jolly good fellow ♪
♪ Which nobody can deny ♪
To Comrade Straub, the best agent commander in our ranks.
Comrade Mielke.
- Yes. A very great honour. - Hmm.
He came specially to congratulate me.
Ah. Look at all this!
A portable radio. Thank you very much.
Grandpa, I know you already have one, but this one is stereo, and it's got bass.
And you enjoy listening to music so much, so I thought you'd like it.
Turn the thing on then. I've no idea how it works.
Watch.
- It is absolutely perfect. - Good.
- Thank you. - I'm glad.
Otto? The minister is leaving now.
Thanks, Klaus. I'm coming.
Good, Grandpa. I'll go. See you soon.
- Ah. - Off to the night shift!
See you next week then.
- Uh-huh. - Have fun on your birthday.
Bye.
BERLIN-MARZAHN FOOTBRIDGE TO MÄRKISCHE - ALLEE
- Watch where you're going there, miss. - Yeah. I'm sorry.
Yes, and then I went to the disco by myself, you know?
Yeah.
I thought I'd just take a look, and then, uh, I... Marco came up to me.
- Marco? - Yeah, Marco from Fangschleuse.
And then we danced for a bit,
we had another drink, and it was really cool.
And then he said he works at the WBD, the Wilthen brandy distillery.
So I said, "Hey, watch out that you don't become an alcoholic
if you've got the stuff on tap all day long." You see?
And then he says quite seriously...
..."I've drunk this for years. If I was an alcoholic, I'd know it."
Oh wonderful! I mean, can you believe it?
- Ms. Straub? - Yeah?
We have to ask you to come along with us.
And you are?
What's all this?
You've been reported.
It must be a misunderstanding. My name is Kleo Straub.
Come with us, please.
Come on.
Kleo, what should I tell them? Should I say you've been arrested?
- It'll be cleared up soon. - Come on.
Ms. Straub, you're accused of betraying state secrets.
You handed over the blueprints of the Sternradio cassette recorder
SKR 800 Mir to a representative of the class enemy.
That's... that's ridiculous.
You currently work for Sternradio Entertainment Electronics.
That's right. In production.
Will you explain this then?
I just bumped accidentally into this man.
This man is an enemy agent from West Germany.
He was detained at the border shortly after this.
Why don't you call Reconnaissance, Division 18. They'll clear this all up.
It was your grandfather who looked after you?
That's right.
And my grandfather works for Reconnaissance, Division One. Ask him.
Well, there is no mention of anyone in
the Ministry of State Security's records with the name Kleo Straub.
Are you lying for your own personal gain?
- No! - Hmm.
I'm an unofficial agent of the state! Reconnaissance, Division 18.
I took part in 12 successful operations.
There are records of all of them. Call my commanding officer.
Don't worry, we will do that.
The verdict is as follows.
In accordance with paragraphs 96 and 97
of the Penal Code of the German Democratic Republic...
...the accused, Kleo Jennifer Straub, born on September the 2nd, 1964,
is sentenced to life imprisonment for high treason and espionage
due to the particular severity of this case.
I demand that my witnesses be heard here.
They've all been questioned already, Ms. Straub.
And they told you exactly who I work for.
All the witnesses testified against you.
Your colleagues at Sternradio,
Comrade Uwe Mittig, Colonel Wieczorek, even your grandfather.
That cannot have happened!
I want to see the records.
I demand access to the files!
I... I... I...
I'm having a child.
Well, you really should have thought about that before, Ms. Straub.
Take the prisoner away, please.
This is a joke.
This... This is a joke.
My dear Kleo,
I've had many decisions to make in my life.
Letting you go to prison was the hardest.
You did nothing wrong.
Should you ever read these words...
...let it lie.
Otherwise, you'll never find any peace for yourself.
Your loving grandpa.
Comrade, Agent "Granddaughter"
has been deactivated.
Do you understand?
Yes, sir.
My God, what a cool movie.
- It's real, the way he... - Hi.
- Oh shit, what shall we have? - Um, yeah, curry and rice.
Yeah.
Over here, mmm, Petzold. Mmm.
Yeah?
- The, um, Eden file. - Yeah?
- You remember? - Of course.
The, erm... The case has been dropped.
What? How so?
Well, the guy died of an overdose, so, not murder.
Ah, but the woman had a knife, here on her leg.
Who takes a knife with them to a * disco, huh?
That would be a clue if the guy'd been stabbed.
But was he stabbed? I don't think so.
Right, right, but there is a victim. Who... Who's the victim?
Hasn't been identified.
And the woman?
Have they questioned the woman?
Yeah, yeah, um... um... No, um...
Homicide says she doesn't exist. Hmm.
And, um... try the curry.
She doesn't exist? Are they taking the piss?
Of course this woman exists! Are you listening?
I witnessed it. I was right there.
But you were also wasted. You said so yourself, hmm?
What's that got to do with anything? The woman was still there.
Hmm, Petzold... ...listen, you're Fraud, not Homicide.
- But Mr. Böttger, this is a... - Uh, uh, uh, one moment. Okay?
What are the con artists thinking?
Hmm?
What was that about?
The Eden case. Er...
He's saying he died of an overdose. Case closed.
I'm telling you this guy didn't die of a * overdose, seriously.
The woman killed him. A hundred percent, a thousand percent.
Yeah, okay, okay. Erm... Do you want some fries with this, or erm...
Get off me!
No!
We don't do that.
Everything's in order. I just wanted to help.
Is that enough, or do you want more, sweetie?
We have come here to tell you
- ...that today... - That's impossible.
- ...your departure... - I don't believe it. Turn it up.
Yes, turn it up.
The GDR's new travel regulations
with the opening of the border led to crowds of East Berliners
flooding into the western part of the city yesterday evening
and throughout the night.
The winds of change,
which have been sweeping across Europe for some time,
could not pass Germany by.
Berlin will live, and the Wall will fall.
In order to alleviate the situation in the GDR's prisons,
today the Communist Party leadership announced a complete amnesty
and decided to release all political prisoners.
GATE 2
MAY 1990
Well, you afraid of going to the West?
- Can I go there? - Yes.
And come back again?
That depends.
The border will close?
As they say, anything is possible.
What do you want here?
My archives.
I want to know what really happened then and who was behind it.
Quite a lot is happening in this country, hmm?
And not only for the better.
It's the Wild West here now, or rather, the Wild East.
We've got a thriving black market here.
Consumer electronics, car parts, carpets, jeans.
Jeans. Just imagine it, huh?
Our colleagues in the East German Police
are not taken seriously anymore.
Not even by themselves.
For us, that means tackling it.
A new special task force.
And cigarettes.
The Vietnamese...
The Vietnamese are coming, erm,
en masse from the East and selling cigarettes
on the streets... ...illegally in a really big way.
It's gonna be a massive market.
The Vietnamese, huh?
Yeah.
Once again, you're on to something really big there, Petzold, huh?
That's good for today. Thanks. Get back to work.
- But the Vietnamese. - I know, Svenny.
Right, Petzold, please take these files to the archives, yeah?
What files are they?
Political prisoners they've released from prison over there.
Well, what do we do with them?
Petzold, man, we'll wallpaper our summer huts with them.
Funny.
Okay, archives.
Yeah...
REG. NO. XVIII INFORMANT "GRANDDAUGHTER" 2477/82- MINISTRY FOR STATE SECURITY
Where did I put it? Where did I put it?
I knew it. I knew all along.
BERLIN DAILY CHARLOTTENBURG NEWS
Kleo Straub, agent, Sternradio, Pralina.
VERDICT
AN AGENT MUST BE CLEANER AND MORE HONEST THAN ANYONE.
ARREST WARRANT
VERDICT
TESTIMONY - OTTO STRAUB
Comrade Colonel-General Straub,
Reconnaissance, Division One,
has come forward to give testimony.
Comrade, you have your granddaughter Kleo's statement
in front of you?
Yes, I do. It's a total mystery to me what Kleo is saying here.
At no point was my granddaughter working for the Ministry of State Security.
No, neither officially nor unofficially.
I was unaware of any contacts in West Germany.
But I can't rule it out either.
It was quite possible, yes, but I didn't know anything about that.
Is she capable of collaborating with the West?
I'm not aware of any spying activities for the West, but...
Yes, within the realms of possibility, yes, absolutely.
- You know... - Yes?
Kleo, she is, er...
She has mental health problems.
In that respect, she's like her mother, Brigitte.
She was also mentally, er... Well, yes.
She hung around with negative enemy elements.
It wasn't a good influence on the girl.
Kleo.
Was your granddaughter getting treatment for this?
I'm so happy to see you here again.
What are you doing here?
Yeah, what am I doing here?
I have moss cake.
You like it so much.
Or a schnapps first?
I'll get us a schnapps.
Want one?
Why, Grandpa?
What for?
Kleo.
There wasn't any other option available.
You must understand that.
I was following orders. You know how it worked.
You were unofficial, and you knew what that meant.
I couldn't admit that you were working for the Firm all along.
- Hmm. - That would have been treason.
There was no other way.
No other way?
Do you know what they did to me?
Do you know?
I lost my baby.
I can't ever have children.
I'm the one with no option.
Yeah.
I would like you to read this.
What?
Lenin?
- Yes. - Are you being serious?
Good.
You think I'm guilty...
and if the man who betrayed you
wasn't your beloved grandpa,
then you would now kill him.
Yes. Good. Do it.
Grandpa?
Go on, do it!
Yes, but that requires courage. Do you think I'll let you go now?
No.
I'm not doing you this favour.
I only wanted to be good enough for you,
Grandpa.
- You were everything to me. - That's enough.
REPUBLIC OF CHILE
- Hi. - How's it going?
This suitcase belongs to the comrades from Berlin.
- Kleo's out causing trouble. - Mmm.
Make sure she doesn't get her hands on it.