During the research he talked to a number of former Stasi officers and their victims. Did he ever meet a Stasi officer disillusioned with the system, as the main character Gerd Wiesler in his film?
"No!" he exclaims, his hands flying expansively. "Such people were killed. The only reason Wiesler is not executed (in the film) is because they could not prove anything against him."
Though listening to Beethoven during his spying mission had a strong impact on Wiesler, there were surely other factors that changed him. "When people change, there is never just one cause, and that is why in the film it is a gradual process. Among many things that cause his disillusionment is his discovery that a Communist Central Party member wants the surveillance carried out so that he could blackmail and seduce the writer's girlfriend. This is the first direct encounter Wiesler has of absolute political authority and its corrupt intentions. After a while he starts thinking whether the people he is spying on are really the enemy of the state, and whether he has been doing the right thing."
Wiesler does not change into a white knight overnight, drawing his sword and starting to fight to save the maiden, Donnersmarck smiles. "At first he is unwilling to do anything to help the couple but as his disillusionment grows, he begins falsifying reports. Still there is the temptation to betray the writer, when he (Wiesler) makes a startling discovery. But he thinks the better of it."
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During the research he talked to a number of former Stasi officers and their victims. Did he ever meet a Stasi officer disillusioned with the system, as the main character Gerd Wiesler in his film?