The silent death. Gereon Rath's second case

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The silent death is a historical novel by the German author Volker Kutscher , set in 1930 at the time of Horst Wessel's funeral , which was published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch in 2009 . It is the second detective novel in the series about Detective Inspector Gereon Rath. The action begins ten months after The Wet Fish .

In addition to the ostensible criminal act, which is in the tradition of American hardboiled detectives , the book is once again characterized by its vivid moral painting of the Roaring Twenties in Berlin as well as the depiction of the political and economic developments in the late Weimar Republic , including the growing national socialism , which is clearly recognizable for the reader, but cannot yet be grasped in its scope for the persons involved. In addition to fictional ones, there are also people from contemporary history and historical events that are portrayed from the point of view of the main character.

The novel served as a template for the third season of the series Babylon Berlin .

action

Detective Inspector Gereon Rath was called to the set of a sound film in March 1930 after the actress Betty Winter was seriously injured by a falling headlight and died of an electric shock because her husband and colleague Viktor Meisner emptied a bucket of water on her. At first it looks like an accident, but when it turns out that the suspension of the headlight has been tampered with, the investigation focuses on the casual lighting technician Felix Krempin. Only Rath has doubts about his guilt and is also researching in other directions, although he is actually supposed to be watching Horst Wessel's funeral. In his research, Rath also lets his contacts with underworld boss Johann Marlow play.

At the same time, the film producer Manfred Oppenberg, whom Rath knows from an earlier case and who Krempin had smuggled into his competition as a saboteur, asks him to privately investigate the disappearance of his actress and lover Vivian Franck. And at the request of his father, he is supposed to help the Cologne mayor Konrad Adenauer unofficially, because he is being blackmailed for unclean financial transactions with the aim of preventing the Ford works from moving from Berlin to Cologne. Vivian Franck later reappears in a disused cinema as a made-up corpse whose vocal cords have been removed. When Krempin wanted to meet Rath, he fell fatally from the Berlin radio tower in front of Rath , whereby the inspector did not believe in a suicide or accident. A second actress disappears and, thanks to Rath's persistence, is also found murdered under similar circumstances as Vivian Franck, so that it becomes clear that a serial killer is at work.

Meanwhile, Rath finds out that behind Adenauer's blackmail there is a foreman at Ford, whose fiancée works for Deutsche Bank and who fears losing his job. Rath can put him under such pressure that he gives up his endeavor. In the meantime, Rath and Charly Ritter are getting closer to each other again, and Rath threatens disciplinary proceedings because of his arbitrary behavior and a fight with a colleague. From a toupee that the perpetrator lost at the radio tower and information about tensions between the couple, Rath concludes that Viktor Meisner murdered both Krempin and his wife, but he cannot prove it. Rath comes across the film magnate Wolfgang Marquard through the Chinese fruit Yangtao , which appears several times in the course of the investigation. Marquard is an ardent advocate of the silent film and wants to stop the triumphant advance of the sound film through his murders. When Rath visits him, he is incapacitated, but saved by Charly and his colleagues before Marquard can kill him by overdosing on insulin . Marquard is able to escape from police custody, kidnaps Meisner because he knows that he is the murderer of Betty Winter, whom he adored and had chosen himself as a victim, and kills both him and himself.

Historical background

Horst Wessel's murder

Horst Wessels buried in Berlin, 1930

Horst Wessel was visited on January 14, 1930 by Albrecht Höhler , an active member of the KPD , and other members of a substitute organization of the then banned Red Front Fighters League in his apartment at Grosse Frankfurter Straße 62 , with Albrecht Höhler Horst Wessel opening the door in the Head shot. The trial observer for the Vossische Zeitung , Moritz Goldstein , reported that the defendants in the trial alleged that Wessel or his SA comrade Richard Fiedler, who had arrived later, had received first aid from the "rushed" Jewish doctor Dr. Max Selo refused. So it took over an hour before another doctor came and Wessel could be transported to the hospital. This was vigorously denied in the process by his then partner Erna Jaenichen. The historian Daniel Siemens considers the portrayal of the accused “not very likely”. At 10:15 p.m., about 15 minutes after the attack, one of the witnesses called the NSDAP district headquarters. At 10:30 p.m. an ambulance , alerted from there, arrived and took Wessel to the municipal hospital in Friedrichshain , where an emergency operation initially saved his life. Wessel died there on February 23 of blood poisoning . The NSDAP used Wessel's death for propaganda purposes : He was stylized as a “ martyr of the movement ” . After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, the Berlin district of Friedrichshain was renamed "Horst-Wessel-Stadt" (from 1936 "Horst-Wessel") and carried this NS honorary title until 1945. The hospital on the edge of the Friedrichshain park , in which Wessel died was, was named "Horst Wessel Hospital". Bülowplatz (today Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz ) in Berlin-Mitte was renamed “Horst-Wessel-Platz”, which is why the local underground station “Schönhauser Tor” (today underground station Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz ) also received this name . The Volksbühne and today's Karl-Liebknecht-Haus also bore the name Wessels. Many other squares and streets in Germany were named after him, including today's August-Bebel-Straße in his native Bielefeld , where the Pauluskirche, where his father used to work, is located. A division of the Waffen SS , the 18th SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division , was given the nickname "Horst Wessel" and on March 24, 1936, the Luftwaffe's 134th Jagdgeschwader 134 . On September 17, 1934, the Old Town boys' vocational school was opened as the "Horst Wessel School" in Dresden with great propaganda effort. As part of the blood-and-soil policy of the Nazis was a newly embanked Koog on the peninsula Eiderstedt with Horst Wessel Koog (today Norderheverkoog ) named. The second sail training ship of the Kriegsmarine was also named Horst Wessel (today: Eagle , United States Coast Guard ).

From silent film to sound film

Advertising poster in the USA for the film "The Jazz Singer"

The movie was never silent. In the cinemas, musical accompaniment was provided from the start, mostly piano players, also known as tappeurs. In many cinemas, a cinema organ also provided background music. At film premieres or in large cinemas, films were accompanied by entire orchestras with up to 50 or 60 members. The sharpest turning point in film history, however, is likely to be the triumphal procession of the sound film that took place in the 1920s . In sound films, the sound track is applied to the film next to the images. This track is illuminated with a lamp and transmitted to an electric photocell. The different electrical voltages, which cause the different brightness, are converted into audible tones by means of an amplifier and loudspeaker. By coupling sound and picture on the common strip, the synchronization between the two is maintained. The unexpected success of the feature film The Jazz Singer from 1927 triggered a sound film fever, as a result of which the silent film disappeared almost completely from cinemas within a few years. For a while, so-called "hybrid films" still existed, which only featured dialogue passages or sound effects. The studios occasionally re-released established strips that were provided with additional sound effects. As early as the early 1930s, production and demonstration in almost all of the major industrialized countries were completely converted to sound. In the middle of the decade, with a few exceptions, silent films were a thing of the past worldwide. Films were often made in several language versions at the time. An expensive practice with which the large studios tried to circumvent a serious problem of the early sound film era for some productions. Because while silent films were understandable in every language area, which facilitated global marketing, sound films were tied to the production language. Until a satisfactory voice synchronization was possible around 1933, the world market leader Hollywood suffered from unexpected export difficulties. The lack of universality was also a central point of criticism of what is perhaps the most vehement opponent of the sound film: Charlie Chaplin saw the art of pantomime threatened by speaking film . In his eyes the most original art that unites all peoples. The sound film also presented filmmakers with enormous challenges. Above all, the immature sound recording technology and the limited mobility of the cameras, which had to be enclosed in a sound-absorbing jacket, were initially reflected in cumbersome stagings. While in the eyes of later media scholars, cinema only rose to autonomous art through the sound film, Rudolf Arnheim , for example, criticized the early sound film as a filmed theater. The transition to the new medium brought some artists into great difficulties in the USA, especially foreign stars, who sometimes spoke with a heavy accent or spoke no English at all, had problems maintaining their status. Many careers ended slowly, as the switch to sound film also resulted in new preferences in the public's taste. Some actors made their sound film debuts very late. Lon Chaney only made his first and last film in 1930. Lillian Gish also premiered in 1930 in speaking films. Charlie Chaplin even waited until 1940.

Konrad Adenauer and Deutsche Bank

Share of Vereinigen Glanzstoff-Fabriken AG for over 1,000 marks from December 1916

In 1928 Adenauer speculated his fortune by buying Glanzstoff shares, the price of which soon fell. This he threatened the debt he had with the German bank to grow over the head, but he was of a so-called black funds from the CEO of Glanzstoffwerke AG Fritz Blüthgen two shares packages in total nominal value of 1.14 million Reichsmark provide which he used through the mediation of his friend Louis Hagen to balance his account. In February 1931, the local press in Cologne reported on the mayor's financial difficulties, and the German Nationalists and National Socialists put them on the agenda in the city council. Adenauer had obtained a statement from Deutsche Bank beforehand, which denied the circulating "inaccurate rumors and allegations" by stating that his account was "completely balanced". A conflict of interest was that Adenauer was a member of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bank until 1931.

Relocation of the Ford works to Cologne

On August 17, 1925, the import ban on foreign automobiles issued in the German Reich in 1920 was lifted. On August 18, 1925, Ford Motor Company Aktiengesellschaft was entered in the commercial register of Berlin . From January 2, 1926 until 1931 at the Westhafen in Moabit , T-models were initially assembled on the assembly line from supplied parts in a rented former grain hall . In 1929 450 people were already employed in the Berlin assembly factory. Adenauer tried hard to attract foreign investors to Cologne. In 1927 he had already received an approval from Citroën for an automobile factory, but the project came to nothing. After intensive negotiations with the US automaker Ford, he succeeded in convincing the company to build a completely new plant in Cologne instead of expanding the existing smaller plants in Berlin. On October 28, 1929, the Lord Mayor of Cologne , Konrad Adenauer, signed the contract for the construction of the Ford plant on a 170,000 square meter site in Cologne-Niehl , which was originally intended to be designed for an annual production of up to 250,000 vehicles and its construction was 12 million Reichsmarks cost. In 1930 the company's headquarters were relocated from Berlin to Cologne , where Henry Ford arrived on October 2, 1930 to lay the foundation stone . On May 4, 1931, production of the Model A began with 619 employees . However, this plant was only able to stop the economic problems that Cologne, like the entire empire, encountered in the late phase of the Weimar Republic for a short time. Just three weeks after opening, the global economic crisis initially caused the plant to be closed. Shortly thereafter, however, production was resumed; In 1931 more than 6,000 vehicles rolled off the assembly line. In 1932 the Ford Model B (second generation) was introduced in the USA; In the summer of 1932, the first Ford B rolled off the production line in Cologne under the name Ford Rheinland .

main characters

Gereon Rath

Detective superintendent from Cologne , who tended to go it alone, was a successful homicide investigator in his home country until a fatal shot from his service weapon and the resulting press campaign ruined his career there. On the mediation of his influential father, Gereon Rath moved to the Reich capital in March 1929 to the local criminal police, where he was initially assigned to the moral police before he succeeded in switching to the murder inspection (inspection A). His arbitrariness and lack of control bring him back into trouble.

Charlotte Ritter

Shorthand typist at Berlin Inspection A, which she uses to finance her law studies. After that, she would like to work as a detective. In the murder inspection, she gets to know Gereon Rath, to whom she initially feels drawn until he betrays her. She is in her state exams and is getting closer to Gereon Rath again.

Wilhelm Boehm

Chief Inspector at Inspection A, called the "Bulldog" and one of Ernst Gennat's most important employees. He has a very gruff tone, not only when dealing with suspects and witnesses, but also with colleagues and subordinates. Böhm doesn't like Gereon Rath because of his arbitrariness.

Reinhold Graef

Detective Secretary at Inspection A. He is friends with Gereon Rath, to whom he owes his promotion.

Andreas Lange

Detective Assistant at Inspection A. He is assigned to Gereon Rath as an employee.

Berthold Weinert

Freelance journalist and former roommate of Gereon Rath, with whom he is friends. He's trying to help his friend.

Heinrich Bellmann

Shady film producer with anti-Semitic attitudes and advocate of the sound film. His female star Betty Winter is killed while filming and he capitalizes on it.

Manfred Oppenberg

Jewish film producer and competitor of Heinrich Bellmann, whose film works he sabotaged. He asks Gereon Rath, who knows him from previous investigations, to privately investigate the disappearance of his lover and actress Vivian Franck.

Viktor Meisner

Fellow actor and husband of Betty Winter. His attempt to help his severely burned wife with water ends fatally.

Wolfgang Marquard

Influential, wealthy film magnate (producer, cinema owner, owner of a film distributor and copier) and vehement opponent of the sound film.

Ernst Gennat

Kriminalrat and head of Inspection A, called "Buddha" or " serious seriousness " because of his corpulence (historical figure). He set up the murder inspection and introduced modern investigative methods, which made him a legend during his lifetime. He values ​​Gereon Rath's ability as an investigator.

Engelbert Rath

Gereon Rath's father and criminal director of the Cologne police. Duzfriend of the Berlin police chief Karl Friedrich Zörgiebel . His eldest son and darling Anno was killed in the World War, the second eldest, Severin, went to the USA shortly before the outbreak of the war and has since been regarded by Engelbert Rath as a deserter. His relationship with Gereon Rath is strained. He establishes contact with Konrad Adenauer.

Konrad Adenauer

The Lord Mayor of Cologne (historical figure) is a party friend of Gereon Rath's father in the Center Party and asks for unofficial help because he is being blackmailed with the aim of preventing the Ford works from moving from Berlin to Cologne.

Johann Marlow

Businessman and organized crime boss, also “Dr. M. "called. Mastermind of the Berolina ring club , which conducts illegal business of all kinds such as drug trafficking or illegal nightclubs. Berlin police officers are also on his payroll. Gereon Rath is not one of them, but has a special relationship with him and uses his contacts.

Paul Wittkamp

Wine merchant and Gereon Rath's best friend in Cologne. He is visiting Berlin.

reception

The novel received mostly positive reviews. Der Tagesspiegel wrote :

“Two years after“ Der nasse Fisch ”, the furious start of what is probably the most ambitious German hardboiled series, Volker Kutscher is now presenting the sequel: With“ Der stumme Tod ”the Cologne author has once again succeeded in producing a brilliantly researched, technically solid, exciting page turner , despite all the dialogues and some excess lengths in the last third. Above all, one has to say: Kutscher's protagonist is increasing in profile. If his debut was more convincing through the detailed historical background than through the pale, sympathetic young criminalist without qualities, Gereon Rath now turns out to be an over-ambitious and unscrupulous cynic. "

- Oliver Pfohlmann : Fashions and Murders

And the Kölnische Rundschau : “For crime fans who have long been tired of the same borderline depressive investigator types from the cold north, The wet fish was already a pleasure, which The dumb death increases.” The world said: “The book leads to wise ones Wise fiction and historical facts together without constantly showing off the forefinger of erudition. "

Awards

For the novel Der stumme Tod , Volker Kutscher received the Burgdorfer Krimipreis in 2010 and for this book, the predecessor Der nasse Fisch and the follow-up volume Goldstein as part of the Reinickendorfer Kriminacht 2011 the Berliner Krimifuchs , a literary prize for crime novels, for outstanding achievements.

Stylistic peculiarities

While the rest of the plot of the novel is written in the past tense , the chapters that are written from the narrative perspective of the murderer are described in the present tense .

Sequels

In the series around Gereon Rath, five more novels and one novella have been published by October 2018 :

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "We want television at cinema level" - Interview with Elke Walthelm, Executive Vice President Content at Sky Germany, in TV Digital Series Special (publisher supplement ) of November 2, 2018
  2. ^ National Socialist cult figure Horst Wessel "Lift him up, the dead" by Manfred Gailus Der Tagesspiegel September 26, 2013
  3. ↑ Heinz Knobloch: Poor Epstein: How death came to Horst Wessel. Berlin 1996, pp. 9-48.
  4. ↑ Bernd Kleinhans: Horst Wessel (1907–1930) on shoa.de. Daniel Siemens: Horst Wessel. Death and Transfiguration of a National Socialist . Munich 2009.
  5. ↑ Jay W. Baird: To Die for Germany. Heroes in the Nazi Pantheon. Bloomington (Ind.) 1990, pp. 80ff.
  6. ^ Marianne Brentzel: The power woman. Hilde Benjamin 1902–1989. Berlin 1997, p. 38ff.
  7. ↑ Heinz Knobloch: Poor Epstein: How death came to Horst Wessel. Berlin 1996, pp. 49-51
  8. ↑ See Daniel Siemens: Horst Wessel. Death and Transfiguration of a National Socialist . Munich 2009, p. 23, there also references to the time information in the diary of the telephone switchboard of the NSDAP Gauleitung and in the invoice for the rescue operation. For Siemens publication see the review below in H-Soz-u-Kult .
  9. ^ History of the BSZ for Agriculture "Justus von Liebig"
  10. ^ History of the vocational school center for technology "Gustav Anton Zeuner" Dresden
  11. ↑ Jörn Hetebrügge: From silent film to sound film. Retrieved November 9, 2017 .
  12. ^ Henning Koehler: Adenauer. A political biography. Propylaeen, Berlin 1994, pp. 251-264, the citations on p. 262, ISBN 3-549-05444-0 .
  13. ↑ Der Spiegel of February 22nd, 1961: Unbelievably high. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
  14. ↑ Ford press release: 80 years ago, the settlement of the Ford works in Cologne was agreed. In: presseportal.de. Ford-Werke GmbH, October 8, 2009, accessed on August 26, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Ford press release: 80 years of Ford production in Cologne: From A-Model to Ford Fiesta. In: presseportal.de. Ford-Werke GmbH, May 2, 2011, accessed on August 26, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Oliver Pfohlmann: Fashions and Murders. In: Der Tagesspiegel. April 29, 2009. Retrieved August 26, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Detective Inspector Gereon Rath: Die Presse. Retrieved November 8, 2017 .
  18. ↑ Program of the Burgdorf Crime Days 2010: Greed. Retrieved November 8, 2017 .
  19. ↑ Literature Prize Winner. Retrieved December 19, 2017 .