The Deltchev case
The case Deltschev (English original title Judgment on Delchev ) is a novel by Eric Ambler from 1951. The work belongs to the second creative period of the author and is his first novel after the Second World War . The story, told as a political thriller , is a settlement with Stalinism and its show trials in an unspecified post-war Balkan state of the Eastern Bloc . The book was first published in hardcover by Hodder & Stroughton, London. A translation into German by Mary Brand and Walter Hertenstein was published in 1975 by Diogenes , Zurich.
Historical background
In his novel, Ambler deals with Stalinism and the related show trials of the post-war period, using the example of an unspecified Balkan state in the Soviet sphere of influence in Europe. The background is the renewed so-called purges of 1950/1951, in which supposed political opponents of non-Russian peoples were also persecuted. These trials resulted from the conflict between Stalin and Tito . They served to prevent the non-Yugoslav states from deviating from the Soviet Union and mostly led to death sentences or years of imprisonment in labor camps.
Ambler's novel also describes a slightly naive hero, named Foster, who gets caught up in an adventure through his curiosity and carelessness. The characters of the story pursue their own political interests and conspiracies in this extremely complexly interwoven story, so that Foster sees himself in a network of power-political intrigues of a totalitarian state.
Ambler writes in his autobiography Here lies that he became aware of the subject through acquaintances who worked as diplomats in the French embassy in Sofia after the war . In Bulgaria at that time, by order of Stalin, such trials with humiliated accused were not uncommon, as the case of the Bulgarian politician Nikola Petkov showed. For Ambler himself, the story represented an opportunity to find his way back to writing thrillers.
content
Jordan Deltschev, a popular politician, former head of government and chairman of the not yet dissolved "Agrarian Socialist Party", which is in opposition to the ruling communist "People's Party", is committed to treason and the preparation of a terrorist conspiracy to assassinate the head of state and other crimes, accused. The goal is the dissolution of the party and the death sentence because Deltschev seems to have become too powerful for the communist rulers. It is alleged that he is also said to be a member of a mafia- structured "Brotherhood of Officers Corps", which was founded after a coup in Macedonia in 1925 and which has committed numerous political murders and assassinations. Now he will be brought to trial, but the judgment has already been made.
The British playwright Foster is commissioned by an American newspaper publisher to follow up the trial against Deltschev and to report on it. After his entry, approved by the country's Propaganda Ministry, he had to work with the unsympathetic press representative Georghi Paschik, who informed him about the country's censorship and advised him not to publish his report until after he left, which Foster initially did not like. Foster learns that he is being monitored by the government.
The fact that Deltchev and his family are only innocent victims of arbitrary justice arises at the moment when the prosecution can produce credible evidence that he is a member of the brotherhood. After visiting Deltchev's wife, whom Foster wants to interview and who, as it turns out, had the actual political power and only led her husband as a puppet, he is embroiled in a related political murder plot, which puts him in great danger. He realizes that a conspiracy to assassinate head of state Vukashin from the People's Party really exists, that his persistent curiosity has apparently given him too much information about it and that he can now only barely escape an assassination attempt. But Jordan Deltschev is not the actual conspirator, but his son Philip. The brotherhood also included Georghi Paschik, the representative of the western foreign press, who had denounced the group unrecognized years ago, which led to its almost complete breakdown, but is now working with it again on behalf of the anti-communist opposition. In the end it turns out that the conspiracy was long since taken over by a group of the ruling communist party around Propaganda Minister Brankovich, who wanted to use it to liquidate their leader Vukashin at the celebrations for the anniversary of the republic during a military parade and as a scapegoat for Deltchev, his family and the brotherhood has provided. In order to carry out the assassination, Aleko, the professional killer, was smuggled into the brotherhood by Brankovich, who, however, after weighing the risks and the advantages for him, actually also works for Vukashin, who knows about the conspiracy and wants to get his minister Brankovich out of the way .
reception
The book was initially received negatively. Ambler, who at the beginning of the 1930s was also very keen on left-wing political views, reports offensive letters from English readers who said he was a traitor to the class struggle , a Titoist lackey or a stooge of the American imperialists . The tip came from the USA that Ambler should seek treatment from a psychoanalyst who was well known at the time, a specialist in writer's block.
The Deltchev case later became a success after all. Thus wrote Hans-Christoph Blumenberg in the time that the book is a terrific told rejection of moral pathos and cult leader the example of a Schauprozeses in an unnamed Balkan country was (Blurb the Diogenes paperback edition). In the FAZ , the Austrian journalist Karl-Peter Schwarz said on May 5, 2015: “The 'New Europe' was created in a gloomy atmosphere of intrigue and violence, as described by Eric Ambler in his masterful thriller 'Der Fall Deltschev' in 1952. Ambler was [...] inspired by the elimination of the political opposition in the two Balkan countries that were occupied by the Red Army in the summer of 1944. In Romania and Bulgaria, Stalin tried out the strategy for the first time, which he explained to Yugoslav communists in April 1945: [...] Whoever occupies an area also imposes his own social system on it. "
literature
- Eric Ambler, Matthias Fienbork: Ambler by Ambler. An autobiography. Diogenes-Verlag, Zurich 1986, ISBN 3-257-01706-5 .
Editions of the novel
- Eric Ambler: Judgment on Deltchev. Walter J. Black, New York 1951, OCLC 3291918 .
- Eric Ambler, Mary Brand: '' The Deltschev case. '' Nest-Verlag, Nuremberg 1953.
- Eric Ambler, Mary Brand, Walter Hertenstein: The Deltschev case. Diogenes, Zurich 1975, ISBN 3-257-20178-8 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eric Ambler's Judgment on Deltchev. on Vintage Pop Fiction , with a description of the novel.
- ↑ Eric Ambler: Ambler by Ambler - an autobiography. Zurich 1986, p. 365 f.
- ↑ Matthias Matussek: Thriller - Our man in the danger zone . In: Der Spiegel . No. 26 , 2009 ( online ).
- ↑ Eric Ambler: Ambler by Ambler - an autobiography. Zurich 1986, p. 366.
- ↑ Karl-Peter Schwarz: World War One in Romania - No reason to be happy. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. May 5, 2015 ( online )