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Georg Dreyman: The state office for statistics on Hans-Beimler street counts everything; knows everything: how many pairs of shoes I buy a year: 2.3, how many books I read a year: 3.2 and how many students graduate with perfect marks: 6,347. But there's one statistic that isn't collected there, perhaps because such numbers cause even paper-pushers pain: and that is the suicide rate.
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Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler: Madam?
Christa-Maria Sieland: Go away. I want to be alone.
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler: Madam Sieland?
Christa-Maria Sieland: Do we know each other?
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler: You don't know me, but I know you. Many people love you for who you are.
Christa-Maria Sieland: Actors are never "who they are."
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler: You are. I've seen you on stage. You were more who you are than you are now.
Christa-Maria Sieland: So you know what I'm like.
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler: I'm your audience.
Christa-Maria Sieland: I have to go.
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler: Where to?
Christa-Maria Sieland: I'm meeting an old classmate. I...
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler: You see? Just now, you weren't being yourself.
Christa-Maria Sieland: No?
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler: No.
Christa-Maria Sieland: So you know her well, this Christa-Maria Sieland. What do you think - would she hurt someone who loves her above all else? Would she sell herself for art?
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler: For art? You already have art. That'd be a bad deal. You are a great artist. Don't you know that?
Christa-Maria Sieland: And you are a good man.
Paul Faßnacht
Extended Reading
