The 2006 movie The Lives of Others claims that in 1977, the GDR stopped counting suicides when East Germany had the second-highest suicide rate in Europe, second only to Hungary.
My question is: How true is this claim? Is there any evidence that the GDR actually stopped counting suicides in 1977? Did they have a secret count but simply ban the publication of any statistics?
I've been trying to Google around for answers but nothing is forthcoming, and the only source I've found that might directly addresses the subject is a) behind a paywall and b) in German (which I do not read).
The film is roughly accurate with regards to suicide in the GDR. The suicide rate for young males was quite high in comparison to the FRG. The state had stopped publishing statistics on suicide since the 1960s and suppressed reports on its suicide rate. This does not mean that they stopped counting, as the film asserts, but rather it was a state secret. It was only after reunification that the rates on suicide became public knowledge and even then it's difficult to parse out the exact suicide rate because they cover only deaths that were declared suicides.
Sources
Fulbrook, Mary. The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.
Kibele, Eva U. B. Regional Mortality Differences in Germany. Dordrecht: Springer, 2012.