Maybe I'm pissing in the wind here, but I'm currently writing a screenplay that takes place in Germany in the late 90s, and could use someone with expertise on German history's help. One of my characters is looking for information about a young man who fled from East to West in 1986. I want to have it so it is almost impossible for him to find any information about this young because his records were destroyed around the time that the wall fell, along with many others' records. Essentially what I'm asking is - is it possible that this is a thing that could have happened for any reason? Was any information or public records of any kind destroyed or hidden away in correlation with the wall's tearing down? I know it could be a stretch, but I'm trying to make my script as historically accurate as possible, even if the history is obscure or just rumors. Thanks in advance for any responses :)
Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your screenplay, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions for aspiring novelists/screenplay writers, based on past experience: some aspiring novelists have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.
Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.