The Lives of Others Quiz: Stasi Listening and the Attic Room

This The Lives of Others quiz puts on the headphones of a Stasi officer in 1984 East Berlin. Play 10 interactive questions on Captain Gerd Wiesler, playwright Georg Dreyman, the bugged apartment and attic listening post, typed surveillance reports, the Sonata for a Good Man, a hidden typewriter with red ink, the code name HGW XX/7 and the Oscar win.

Start the Lives of Others Quiz

🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

City
Where is the film set?
Agency
Which secret police does Wiesler serve?
Officer
Who plays Gerd Wiesler?
Target
Whom does Wiesler spy on?
Attic
Where does Wiesler listen from?
Reports
How does Wiesler record what he hears?
Music
Which piano piece moves Wiesler?
Typewriter
What is hidden under a floorboard?
Code
What code name appears in Dreyman's book dedication?
Oscar
Which Oscar did the film win?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Where is the film set?
Answer: East Berlin
The year is 1984.
Q2: Which secret police does Wiesler serve?
Answer: The Stasi
It watched East German citizens.
Q3: Who plays Gerd Wiesler?
Answer: Ulrich Mühe
He grew up in East Germany.
Q4: Whom does Wiesler spy on?
Answer: Playwright Georg Dreyman
Dreyman lives with an actress.
Q5: Where does Wiesler listen from?
Answer: An attic above the apartment
He wears headphones for hours.
Q6: How does Wiesler record what he hears?
Answer: In typed reports
He later writes false reports.
Q7: Which piano piece moves Wiesler?
Answer: Sonata for a Good Man
Dreyman plays it after a death.
Q8: What is hidden under a floorboard?
Answer: A typewriter with red ink ribbon
It types a secret article.
Q9: What code name appears in Dreyman's book dedication?
Answer: HGW XX/7
It refers to Wiesler.
Q10: Which Oscar did the film win?
Answer: Best Foreign Language Film
It won in 2007.

Listening From the Attic

The Lives of Others, written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and released in 2006, is set in East Berlin in 1984. Stasi Captain Gerd Wiesler, played by Ulrich Mühe, is ordered to spy on playwright Georg Dreyman and his partner, an actress.

Wiesler bugs their apartment and listens from an attic above, wearing headphones and writing typed reports. As he hears music, literature and love, he changes. When Dreyman plays the Sonata for a Good Man, Wiesler is moved, and he begins to hide the truth in his reports.

Dreyman secretly writes an article for the West on a typewriter with red ink ribbon hidden under a floorboard. After the Wall falls, he reads his Stasi files and dedicates his new book to HGW XX/7, Wiesler's code name. The film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2007.

What This Quiz Teaches

History and film fans will enjoy these questions.

Where it is set
Who spies on whom
How Wiesler listens
What changes him
How the story ends

Did You Know?

Stasi files opened to citizens after 1990.
Sebastian Koch plays Dreyman.
A minister targets the actress.
Wiesler later delivers mail.
The ending takes place in a bookshop.