The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (novel)
The spy who came in from the Cold (Original title: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold ) is the German-language edition of the third novel - and second spy fiction - of the British writer John le Carré . With him, le Carré achieved its international breakthrough in 1963. He wrote the novel in five weeks, at a time when, as he wrote in a 1989 foreword to a new edition, he was "profoundly unhappy in his professional and personal life."
The book won the British Gold Dagger (1963) and the American Edgar Award (1965) for best detective novel of the year and received the Somerset Maugham Award in 1964 and the Dagger of Daggers in 2005 .
The German translation by Christian Wessels and Manfred von Conta was first published in 1964 by Zsolnay Verlag (Vienna and Hamburg). Since then, the novel has remained a bestseller , with dozens of editions - also as a licensed edition by various publishers. But the Rowohlt publishing house (Reinbek) sold the book to 1983 236,000 copies. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the first edition, Ullstein-Verlag published a new translation by Sabine Roth.
action
The novel takes place shortly after the Berlin Wall was built . Alec Leamas is the head of the Berlin office of the British Secret Service . From West Berlin , he set up an espionage network in the GDR . However, all of his agents are killed by his adversary Mundt, most recently a leading politician in the GDR. Leamas has to watch on the border from West Berlin how Mundt has the last remaining British agent, Karl Riemeck, shot.
Leamas is ordered back to London from West Berlin . His boss wants to use him again to take out that Mundt. For this purpose, Leamas is supposed to sell himself as a traitor to the GDR. First of all, the sudden decline begins for him. He is officially "put on hold" and has to carry out boring office work in the banking department of the London headquarters of the British secret service. When he was released early, it was rumored that he had embezzled money. While working in the banking department, he starts to drink and becomes increasingly neglected.
After working for the British secret service, he took several jobs, including in a library, where he met the young attractive Elisabeth Gold, called Liz, who is a member of the Communist Party. A love story develops between them. Leamas says goodbye to her before knocking down a shopkeeper the next day. He is then sentenced and sent to prison. After his release he appears to be completely penniless, an ideal victim for recruitment by the opposing secret service.
The East German secret service first brought him to Holland, where the first questioning took place. Leamas learns that he is being searched for in England and that his picture is in all the daily newspapers - a reaction he did not expect because it does not correspond to the appointments with his boss. Here at the latest it becomes clear that Leamas' decline is part of the secret service's game.
Leamas reached the GDR via West Berlin. He is first interrogated there by Fiedler, the man under Mundt, who hates the latter. Leama's assignment is to deliver the weapon against Mundt to Fiedler. At first Mundt seems to win the internal battle, but then it comes to trial against him. The process turns when Liz appears as a witness. Mundt lured her to the GDR and knows, completely confused, not at all what to say in order not to endanger Leamas. Her testimony entangles Leamas in contradictions, who thereupon - in order to protect her and Fiedler - testifies that the whole thing is a British plot against Mundt. At the end of the process, he suddenly sees through "the whole gruesome trick". After the trial, Liz learns from an overseer (“Comrade Commissioner”) that Leamas and “the Jew - Fiedler” are to be shot.
Mundt frees Liz and Leamas. On the drive in the car to Berlin, where they are supposed to flee over the wall, Leamas explains to Liz that Mundt is actually an English spy and should be protected by the whole action. While trying to escape, Liz was shot dead on the Berlin Wall . On the other hand, George Smiley , who planned the whole thing, calls for Leamas. Instead of jumping to the west, he climbs back from the wall to the dead Liz, whereupon he too is shot.
interpretation
John le Carré's detective novel about espionage in the time of the Cold War from 1963 gets along without simplistic black and white thinking: Leamas is sacrificed by his boss, Mundt is portrayed as a terrible person and Fiedler is portrayed in a sympathetic manner. Leamas tries to explain to Liz why Mundt can go on living while Fiedler has to die: For the secret services only the result counts. Fiedler also comes to the conclusion that the differences between the two regimes are not very great when it comes to the work and motivation of the secret services. John le Carré paints a dark, cruel picture of secret services that seem to shrink from no means to achieve their goal.
George Smiley
In contrast to le Carre's first two novels, Shadow of Yesterday and A Murder First Class , George Smiley is not the protagonist here, but merely a marginal figure who takes on planning and preparatory work in the service of the Secret Service. Every now and then, reference is made to his achievements in the so-called "Fennan case" - the plot of shadows from yesterday - the secret service chief claims to Leamas that Smiley is no longer at the service, writes something about 17th century Germany and lives in Chelsea, on Sloane Square on Bywater Street. "He doesn't like it ... He finds it disgusting. He sees the need, but doesn't want anything to do with it ... His fever is noticeably decreasing ... He's like a surgeon who doesn't want to see any more blood. "
And yet Smiley appears again and again, he is the one who visits Liz Gold and asks about her relationship with Leamas (“... small and quite fat, he wore glasses and was strangely, but certainly expensive - a friendly, worried-looking little one Man …"). He's finally standing on the western side of the wall, Leamas hears his voice shortly before he is shot.
filming
In 1965 the novel was made into a film , adapted by Paul Dehn and Guy Trosper and directed by Martin Ritt . The actors were u. a. Richard Burton , Oskar Werner and Claire Bloom involved. The film was nominated for an Oscar in the categories Best Actor in a Leading Role (Richard Burton) and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration .
literature
- Myron J. Aronoff: The Spy Novels of John Le Carré. Balancing Ethics and Politics. St. Martin's Press, New York NY 1999, ISBN 0-312-21482-0 .
- Jost Hindersmann: The British espionage novel. From imperialism to the end of the cold war. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1995, ISBN 3-534-12763-3 (At the same time: Osnabrück, University, dissertation, 1994: British spy novel and contemporary history. ).
- Jost Hindersmann: John le Carré. The Spy Who Became a Writer Portrait and Bibliography (= KrimiKritik 2). Nordpark-Verlag, Wuppertal 2002, ISBN 3-935421-12-5 .
- Eva Horn : The secret war. Treason, espionage and modern fiction (= Fischer 17707). Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-17707-3 .
- Rudi Kost : About George Smiley. (Biographical sketches). Poller, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-87959-227-6 .
- Hans-Peter Schwarz : Fantastic Reality. The 20th century as reflected in the political thriller. DVA, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-421-05875-X .
References
- ^ All quotations from: The Spy Who Came Out of the Cold. German by Christian Wessels and Manfred von Conta. Zsolnay, Vienna, Hamburg 1964.