Jenseits der Mauer (4½ Stars)

Three families are connected by one 17-year-old girl, Rebecca Pramann from Leipzig.

In 1974 Ulrich and Heike Molitor attempt to leave East Germany using fake passports. Their children are hidden in a secret compartment in their car. They are arrested and sentenced as enemies of the state, but are allowed to go to West Germany without imprisonment if they agree to leave their two-year-old daughter Miriam in a children's home for adoption.

Frank and Susanne Pramann adopt Miriam and give her the new name Rebecca. Frank is a full time worker for the East German secret police, the Stasi, but keeps his job secret from even his closest friends. They never tell Rebecca that she has been adopted.

Karl-Heinz Schröder is a high-ranking member of the ruling East German Communist party, and his wife Brigitte works at the children's home where Miriam/Rebecca was left for adoption. In 1985 the Molitor family are allowed to have written contact with their daughter in exchange for passing secret plans from Ulrich's aeronautics company to the East. Brigitte answers the letters, pretending to be their daughter.

This is a fictional story, representing cases that were typical between 1961 and 1989. The East German government forced parents to give up their children for adoption before letting them leave the country. This was done under pressure by offering an alternative that would be much worse for both the parents and the children. In most cases it was planned in advance. If a couple who were "good socialist citizens" wanted to adopt a child the government would look for "bad citizens" that they could take a child away from.

Unfortunately, the reunification of Germany in 1990 did not solve the problems. It was part of the reunification contract that cases of forced adoption would not be treated as human rights violations. All adoption cases in former East Germany were classified as state secrets and the documents had to remain sealed for 50 years, starting from the date of the adoption. The facts behind the early adoptions in the 1960's have only recently been revealed, and the truth is horrifying.