Secretary Hempf's car is a 1980s stretch version of a Volvo 264. But
all the interior scenes are shot using a Mercedes Benz S-Class Pullmann from the time of the film production. In a short clip the Mercedes is also used for an exterior shot, when Grubitz enters the car outside the ministry building.
When Dreyman is playing the sonata that Jerska gave him, he looks only at his fingers, and never at the music that's on the stand, even though he's playing it for the first time.
In the final interrogation of Sieland by Wiesler, he sketches the floor plan in about 5 seconds, and definitely doesn't have time to make the double thickness lines, markers for windows, and door swing arcs. It in fact looks like at least two different pencils were used in the final sketch. His final stroke before showing her the sketch is circular in motion, with no circles to be found in the final.
When Dreymann is putting on his tie before his birthday party with the assistance of his neighbor, Frau Meineke, he finishes the job by folding down and adjusting his shirt collar. In the next shot, his shirt collar is "up" once again and needs to be folded back down.
When Grubitz is talking to Wiesler in his office, he takes a fresh cigar out of a Humidor. After the next cut, only three seconds later, he is smoking and the cigar looks like it has been smoked for a longer time.
After publication of Dreyman's article in "Der Spiegel", Stasi Oberstleutnant Grubitz is on the phone with an army general. He says they were able to procure a "Lichtpause" (diazocopy) of the original article. When talking with the typography expert, the typographic examples shown are in red ink, like the original, and the expert says he could be even more sure about his analysis if the examples were in black ink. However, a diazocopy is not a color copy and has a bluish color.
When asked by Grubitz, the typewriter expert tells him that Georg Dreyman's typewriter is a Wanderer Torpedo. Wanderer Werke produced a typewriter called Continental, but Torpedo is a different brand from a different factory, owned by Remington Rand, who took over the typewriter arm of Torpedo in 1931. A Wanderer Torpedo does not exist.
The typewriter expert explaining the origin of the red text coming from the Kolibri typewriter used by Dreyman is asked by Grubitz what typewriter Paul Hauser uses and the expert tells him it's an Olivetti Valentino. An expert would know that model is named Valentine, not Valentino.
The literal translation of "Das Leben der Anderen" into English would be "The Life of the Others." However, the pluralization rules for collective nouns are different in German than in English, so "The Lives of Others" more accurately conveys the sense of the German title and is thus the better translation.
In the first scene in the theater, a program clearly states the birthdate of Georg as 1939, but just a few scenes later he says he is preparing for his 40th birthday. As the action is said to take place in 1984, there is a five-year discrepancy. [Possibility: Georg says that he is 40 in an attempt to shake off the impression that he might be 50. Hence, he could very well be 45. That age would also be the same as that of the actor who plays him]
When the Der Spiegel suicide article cover is revealed, it states DDR rather than GDR. This is because Der Spiegel is a German publication, hence its name.
When Dreyman looks through the files in the Stasi archives, near the end of the film, he wants to find out what "HGW XX/7"'s real name is. The clerk flips through the card box to find Wiesler's card. Before he pulls it out, four cards by the same name of "Olga Wildenhain" can be seen, two of them even with a man's photo.
At the end of the film, when Georg sits in his cab watching Wiesler delivering mail, right before the end of the scene two people with reflective vests are visible in the background. Presumably they are keeping bystanders from entering the shot.
When Wiesler goes to the observatory post in the uppermost floor of Dreyman's house he comes from the far right. His assistant leaves through the main door, which is probably the only entrance to the uppermost floor. In the other scenes Wiesler enters through the main door.
In the attic listening post, Udo once addresses Wiesler as "Hauptmann" which the subtitles translate as "Comerade"; however, hauptmann is Wiesler's rank: captain. The spoken line was like a formal "yes, Captain" rather than "yes, comrade".
When Dreyman finds Wiesler in the end, the cars in the background are current, not from 1991.
When Oberstleutnant Anton Grubitz meets with Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler in his office, he is wearing a ribbon bar for medals on his uniform. One of the ribbons is for the "Ehrenmedaille 30 Jahre Nationale Volksarmee" (30th Anniversary of National People's Army). The scene is set in 1984 but this medal wasn't issued until 1986.
The roundabout that is shown repeatedly when Wiesler returns home from his observation shows bicycle lanes painted in red. These didn't exist in the GDR.
All the street scenes features rather modern looking white lights. East Berlin used sodium street lights which had an orange hue. There are many satellite photos which note the difference in the white light of West Berlin and the orange hue of the East. This existed even at the time this film was made and afterwards.
When Dreymann is looking through his own Stasi observation files, the typeface used in the layouts of the forms is "Avenir". This typeface was introduced in 1988, whereas the forms were supposedly written in 1984.
Christa-Maria and Georg's apartment is in Wedekind street in Friedrichshain, as confirmed in the DVD commentary. The buildings in the entire quarter surrounding Wedekindstr were part of a massive rebuilding project in the GDR, and were completed in the early 1950s. All of the balconies that can be seen while Georg is playing football with the children on the street, along with the ceramic work illustrate the particular Soviet style really clearly. However, the interior of the apartment and most of what we see of the building interior is what would be called 'alt bau', effectively 'old style' - the apartment has high ceilings, the stairwells have carved wooden balustrades and doors which clearly predate the 50s. When the Stasi men come through the front doors for the first time, you can see the interior of these buildings as they really look, in the next shot the style has gone back at least 40 years.
In one of the last scenes, set in 1991, the viewer can see a wall tagged with all sorts of graffiti, mostly made by crews that weren't existing until the late 90s or early 2000s.
Throughout the film, Wiesler is addressed as "Hauptmann" - Captain. However, when Lt.-Col. Grubitz is looking for him after Christa's interrogation, Grubitz asks if "Colonel" Wiesler has left.