Unknown (I) (2011)

Bruno Ganz: Ernst Jürgen

Photos 

Quotes 

• Ernst Jürgen : In the Stasi, we had a basic principle: ask enough questions and a man who is lying will eventually change his story. But the man who tells the truth cannot change his, however unlikely his story sounds.

• Rodney Cole : You had time after I called you. Why didn't you run?

  Ernst Jürgen : Where should I run from Section 15, Mr. Cole? I can hardly walk. Before we could get Chesterfields, I smoked 60 Machorkas a day. Filthy Soviet things. Killed more Russians than Stalin. My doctors assure me I'll soon be joining their list of casualties.

• Ernst Jürgen : [Coughing as he drinks liquor]  I cannot drink any longer but I like to forget that. We Germans are experts at forgetting. We forgot we were Nazis. Now we have forgotten 40 years of Communism - all gone.

• Ernst Jürgen : These people may be good, but they are not God. Although a little confirmation would be nice.

• Rodney Cole : Oh look at that.

  [holding up picture] 

  Rodney Cole : What kind of car is that?

  Ernst Jürgen : That's a Volga GAZ-24. Suspension of a donkey cart and smelled like a tannery. Vanished as quickly as the wall.

• Ernst Jürgen : [with dying breath]  What if he remembers everything. What then?