German Studies Association "Truer than the Real Thing": "Real" and "Hyperreal" Representations of the Past in "Das Leben der Anderen" Author(s): Wendy Westphal Source: German Studies Review, Vol. 35, No. 1 (February 2012), pp. 97-111 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the German Studies Association Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23269610 Accessed: 09-12-2018 02:08 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms German Studies Association, The Johns Hopkins University Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to German Studies Review This content downloaded from 95.183.180.42 on Sun, 09 Dec 2018 02:08:00 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms "Truer than the Real Thing": "Real" and "Hyperreal" Representations of the Past in Das Leben der Anderen Wendy Westphal ABSTRACT With his 2006 film Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), writer and direc tor Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck asserted that he had "created a GDR that is truer than the real thing, that is realer than the actual GDR." In this article, I show that while Das Leben der Anderen strives to be an authentic representation of the past through its incorporation of real props and on-site filming, it in fact shows a reality that is "hyperreal." Despite the film's various claims to authen ticity, its plot serves as a subtext that exposes the very concepts of "truth" and "reality" as, at best, elusive ideals.