History Film / GoodbyeLenin

* WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell: And how it affected some people more than others. TV repairman Alex fairly quickly finds a better job as a satellite dish installer and his sister, finding her pursuit of a degree in Marxist-Leninist economics suddenly obsolete, gets a job at Burger King, but several neighbors in their 50s are unemployed with no prospects - too young to retire but too old to learn new skills, and many of the GDR's state-owned businesses they worked at were overstaffed, inefficient and redundant. Even East German cosmonaut Sigmund Jähn seems to have ended up as a cab driver after the fall of communism. Also Alex's mother, who reveals that her husband was waiting for the family to join him in the West - when the Wall fell, it became a bitter pill for many who had decided to remain and "stick it out", in light of the lost opportunities of a hypothetical Republikflucht, there was a degree of regret that they had wasted the best years of their lives in what was clearly a failed state in 1990.

* TheAlcoholic: Klapprath, the former principal of the school where Christiane taught, is shown as having been driven to drink. Presumably he didn't take the changes (and enforced retirement) too well.

* WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell: And how it affected some people more than others. TV repairman Alex fairly quickly finds a better job as a satellite dish installer and his sister, finding her pursuit of a degree in Marxist-Leninist economics suddenly obsolete, gets a job at Burger King, but several neighbors in their 50s are unemployed with no prospects. Even East German cosmonaut Sigmund Jähn seems to have ended up as a cab driver after the fall of communism.

* AlternateHistory: InUniverse. Alexander, along with his friends and family, sets up an elaborate alternate history where East Germany ends up dominant over West Germany to hide the truth from his mother. He finally shows her a conclusion in which Germany gets reunified, but not through East Germany being reabsorbed by West Germany; instead the Bonn Republic is dissolved so that its people can join the GDR!

* AlternateHistory: InUniverse. Alexander, along with his friends and family, sets up an elaborate alternate history where East Germany ends up dominant over West Germany to hide the truth from his mother.

** Any time Alex notices a sign of West Germany within proximity of his mother's bedroom. The first is when their neighbor is watching ARD's ''Tagesschau'', causing Christiane to wonder why he is watching West German television. And then there's the Coca-Cola banner.

* ExcitedShowTitle: ''Good Bye, Lenin!'' is a title that officially includes an exclamation mark.

** At one point, Denis says "[[Film/Apollo13 Houston, we have a problem.]]" While the Apollo 13 mission did take place twenty years earlier, the phrase was not popularized until the film ''Apollo 13'' was released in 1995.[[note]]In fact, the actual phrase that Jim Lovell used when the accident occurred was "Houston, ''we've had'' a problem." The phrase Creator/TomHanks used in the movie is actually a misquote.[[/note]]

* WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell: And how it affected some people more than others- TV repairman Alex fairly quickly finds a better job as a satellite dish installer and his sister, finding her pursuit of a degree in Marxist-Leninist economics suddenly obsolete, gets a job at Burger King, but several neighbors in their 50s are unemployed with no prospects. Even East German cosmonaut Sigmund Jähn seems to have ended up as a cab driver after the fall of communism.

''Good Bye, Lenin!'' is a German [[{{Dramedy}} bittersweet comedy]] from 2003, directed by Wolfgang Becker and starring Creator/DanielBruhl. Has a lot of subtle humor, playing on the feeling of shell-shock many East Germans felt upon being catapulted into the Capitalist world and the almost overnight disappearance of their country. Many of the visual clues might be easy to miss for people not familiar with the common cliches about the GDR. The film also put actor Creator/DanielBruhl on the map.

* {{Reconstruction}}: Yes, Communism was not a really great thing and most of the GDR former citizens are happy about the change, ''but'', some find themselves without a job and the old organization was providing for everyone, even if very limited. Simply put, going from communism to capitalism is a massive shift that some people aren't really prepared for.

* {{Reconstruction}}: Yes, Communism was not a really great thing and most of the GDR former citizens are happy about the change, ''but'', some find themselves without a job and the old organization was providing for everyone, even if very limitedly.

* RuleOfFunny: Alex's quest to find ''Spreewaldgurken'' (Spreewald pickles) for his mother. In reality, they were one of the few East German products that were available without interruption during and after reunification. You can still buy them today in most German supermarkets. But it helps underline that their supermarket has literally changed overnight.

* JerkassHasAPoint:
** '''Alex:''' Inverted. For someone who claims to be doing the right thing, he comes across as a jerkass about it, and may even be totally misguided.
** '''Ariane:''' As far as she's concerned, she's trying her best to build a new life along with her boyfriend and to do the best for her daughter; and has a point when she's frustrated with Alex's scheme, given how totally unrealistic it proves and how [[spoiler: it's actually the painful memories of separation and how they were treated by the regime that kills their mother in the end, not its surprise downfall; she might have been better off in hospital.]]
** '''Rainer:''' Despite his portrayal (from Alex's viewpoint) as an entitled, unconcerned Wessi, like Ariane his life has basically been turned upside down by Alex's schemes. He has reason to protest things like the fact he's been paying the rent, he genuinely has no reason given his upbringing to see why the East Germans around him are constantly complaining, and in spite of everything he does his best to play along and do the "right thing".
** '''The new doctor:''' It's not his fault that his predecessor moved to the West, and he's only giving his professional opinion, [[spoiler: which by the end would seem to be right.]]
** '''The bank employees:''' It's not the clerk's fault that he can't exchange the family's life savings; he doesn't make the rules, and doesn't personally deserve the harassment from angry East Germans. Likewise, the security guards who throw Alex out are only doing their jobs.

** It's very unlikely that a Soviet nurse or medical student would be in East Berlin, since the Soviet Union was extremely restrictive about its citizens leaving the country even for short-term tourist trips or to visit friendly socialist nations. East Germany was not a Third World country in need of foreign professionals, and the Soviet Union didn't feel any need to send its students for training abroad. Certainly there were Soviet medics working in the GDR, but they were affiliated with the Soviet military or diplomatic missions, and mainly treated other Soviet citizens. Although emigration from the USSR had become more within the realm of possibility by 1989 due to Perestroika, it's also hard to imagine someone using this newly-found opportunity to go to the GDR, which remained a much more dogmatic and repressive communist regime than the Soviet Union under Gorbachev.