Stasiland

Funder meets with Frau Paul on the recommendation of the tour guide she met at the Stasi HQ. Frau Paul tells Funder her story.

Frau Paul is a dental technician who gave birth to her first child in 1961, a difficult birth that required an emergency caesarean. Her son suffers a ruptured diaphragm during delivery and has to be operated on. He recovers, but Frau Paul and her husband have to collect special formula and medicines from the hospital in West Berlin. After the Wall is built, they are refused permission to cross to collect medicine for their son. They take him to an Eastern hospital, which manages to have him sent to the Westend Hospital to save him. But he is now on the other side of the Wall.

They meet a Dr. Hinze, who understands their plight. His son, Michael, is studying in West Berlin and with a few other students has a scheme to get people out, including Frau Pau, her husband, and a chemical engineer named Werner Coch. It involves having East Germans pose as West Germans and riding the train that passes through East Germany to Denmark.

On the day of the escape, they receive a signal that it’s no longer safe to proceed because the group of escapees ahead of them were arrested.