The Adlon conspiracy

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The novel The Adlon Conspiracy is a historical thriller by the British writer Philip Kerr .

The original British edition, If the Dead Rise Not , was published in 2009 by Quercus, London . The German first edition was published by Wunderlich Verlag in a translation by Axel Merz in 2010 . The novel tells the fictional story of the German police officer and later private detective Bernhard (Bernie) Gunther . The novel is the sixth part of the so-called Berlin cycle . The novel takes place in two different periods, the first part of the book in Berlin in 1934, the second part in Havana in February 1954.

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First part, Berlin 1934

Berlin 1934: National Socialist Germany excludes its Jewish fellow citizens from public life through high-profile measures such as the boycott of Jews . But this policy becomes a problem for those in power, because Germany is in the middle of preparations for the 1936 Olympic Games . Critical voices in the USA call for a boycott of the games. Avery Brundage , the President of the American Olympic Association , travels to Germany to get an idea of ​​the situation of Jews in Germany. Brundage convinced the AOA that there would be no reprisals against Jews in Germany and was able to convince them that the USA would participate in the Olympic Games.

The former detective inspector Bernhard Gunther has quit his job with the Berlin police due to the incompatibility of his conscience with the National Socialist ideology and now earns his money as a house detective at the Hotel Adlon . When a wealthy businessman is found dead in his bed, he begins an investigation. The dead person is Heinrich Rubusch, the managing director of a Würzburg quarry company that mines Jura natural stone lime that is to be used for the new Berlin Olympic Stadium . He is also asked by the American businessman Max Reles to find a valuable Chinese box that was stolen from him in the hotel. At the same time, a man's body is found in the Landwehr Canal. It is noteworthy that sea ​​water was found in the lungs of the dead . Bernie Gunther inspects the body and finds out that it is a Jewish boxer . The police are not investigating further into the case.

Gunther is commissioned by his boss Hedda Adlon to accompany Mrs. Noreen Charalambides - her long-time school friend from America. Mrs. Charalambides works as a journalist for the Herald Tribune . She and Ms. Adlon believe that the American Olympic Association's decision to participate in the Games is politically motivated, despite the abundant evidence of Jewish oppression. Noreen Charalambides wants to write a newspaper article about it in order to provide new arguments for the boycott movement in the USA.

During investigations in various sports associations, Bernie and Noreen find out that the murdered boxer, because he was excluded from the boxing association as a Jew, could no longer pursue his profession and had to earn his living on the construction site of the Olympic Stadium. But since Jews are not allowed to work on this construction site, a criminal employment agency circumvents this regulation through corruption and employs Jewish workers there for starvation wages and under life-threatening working conditions. Gunther finds out that due to the time pressure under which the construction work is under, well-founded geological investigations were not carried out. As a result, drilling a salt water chamber that was fed from the former Zechsteinmeer led to an accident in which the boxer drowned.

In the course of the investigation, Bernie Gunther succeeds in returning the Chinese box that was stolen from Max Reles. In the box, however, he finds a letter with an offer for limestone for the construction of the Olympic Stadium, which comes from the deceased quarry owner. Shortly afterwards, Gunther is arrested by the Gestapo and taken to Potsdam for interrogation . The police chief of Potsdam, Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff , gives Gunther to understand that the National Socialist government does not approve of his investigations into the disagreements that occurred during the construction of the Olympic Stadium and the awarding of the Games and that he is with a concentration camp Stay to be expected if he continues to investigate the case. He is also threatened with the arrest of Noreen Charalambides if her critical article were published. After a few days Gunther is released and learns from Ms. Adlon that Noreen has left for America and that her article on the Olympics will not be published. This was a condition for Gunther's release. Mrs. Adlon hands Gunther a letter from Noreen, in which she confesses her love for him and wishes him all the best for the future, so that they may meet again in a world without Nazis. Gunther continues to investigate and learns through his contacts with the Berlin police that the FBI is investigating Max Reles in the USA because of contacts with the American mafia .

Gunther decides to go to Würzburg and visit the widow of the late quarry owner Heinrich Rubusch and find out whether his death had a natural cause. When questioning the widow, Gunther finds out that Rubusch was not awarded the contract for the delivery of building materials because of a fake offer. The evidence is growing that Max Reles must be behind it. Reles owns a rival company and made the widow an offer to buy the quarry of her late husband. This would give him a monopoly . It is true that Gunther finds out about Reles' connections to the Mafia - but the Gestapo refuses to carry out further investigations because he has "... a number of influential friends in Berlin ..." .

Gunther drives back to Berlin and searches Reles' hotel suite for evidence of his guilt. He is caught and learns that Rubusch was actually murdered because of the quarry. A henchman from Reles forces Gunther to get drunk on schnapps in order to be able to get him out of the Adlon unobtrusively. Gunther is brought to Reles' ship to murder him there in peace. But Gunther blackmailed Max Reles with his established evidence in relation to the Mafia membership, his committed murders and Jewish origin. He claims that he entrusted a letter to an Adlon page , which he should forward to the Gestapo after his death. This would mean that the Nazis would give up the business relationship with Reles and him for murder before court would make. Reles no longer sees any possibility of murdering Gunthers without having far-reaching consequences for his business. He shoots his lover and his henchman to eliminate possible witnesses . In return for Gunther's silence, he promises not to harm Noreen Charalambides and flees. “A stalemate, so to speak. What political scientists call a horror balance ”.

Second part, Havana 1954

The second part of the book takes place in Cuba in 1954 and is chronologically located within the Berlin cycle behind the novel The Last Experiment .

Bernie Gunther lives in Havana under the name Carlos Hausner. He made his money from the export of cigars . In a bookstore he unexpectedly meets Noreen Charalambides again, who lives as a writer with her nineteen-year-old daughter Dinah in Ernest Hemingway's house .

At a soirée organized by Noreen , Gunther meets a good friend of Noreen's, the politically enthusiastic lawyer Alfredo Lopez. He is a staunch critic of the regime of Fulgencio Batista and actively supports the rebel leader Fidel Castro . On the way back from the evening party, Gunther is stopped and checked by the military police . He then phoned Noreen and asked her to warn Lopez about the roadblock , as he had political pamphlets in his car. Since Gunther does not want to drive through the roadblock again on the way back to Noreen, he takes a stealth route and by chance discovers a weapons depot owned by Cuban rebels .

Gunther witnesses Noreen as Dinah's friend brings this home. It's Max Reles. Reles has since made it to the director of a hotel and casino in which Batista and the Mafia also own shares. Reles offers Gunther the post of general manager - he accepts. He and Noreen then get into an argument, as Noreen is of the opinion that Reles is a bad company for Dinah.

A short time later, Reles is found shot dead. Gunther offers Captain Sanchez of the Cuban Police to help them with the investigation. The suspicion falls on a rival mafia clan who wants to change the balance of power in Cuba in its favor. However, Gunther proves that the murder was the revenge of a former croupier , whom Reles wanted to fire because of his homosexual tendencies.

Gunther learns from Noreen that Alfredo Lopez has been arrested by the Cuban secret police . Gunther negotiates with Police Chief Quevedo and offers to lead the police to the rebels' weapons hiding place if Lopez is released in return. Quevedo agrees and Gunther shows him the hiding place. Quevedo surprises Gunther with the knowledge that Carlos Hauser is not his real name. He blackmailed Gunther with his past as suspected, sought-murderer of two Austrian women and threatened to extradite Gunther, if it is not for him as an undercover agent working would observe to Reles successor in the casino. Gunther reluctantly accepts the offer to save Lopez.

Gunther takes Lopez to a hospital and learns from him that Dinah is their daughter with Noreen. He confesses to Noreen that he himself is the murderer of Reles. In doing so, he wanted to save Dinah from Reles' bad influence. But he rejects all responsibility as a father because he is of the opinion that he would also be a bad company for his daughter. Noreen asks him about his motivation to save Lopez. Gunther replies: "... I suddenly had hope again that my whole life was not wasted." Gunther separates from Noreen and tries again to numb his loneliness "... and spent the night with two willing whores. I didn't feel with them Little less alone. They only helped me pass the time. The little time we have in life. "

Awards and criticism

In 2009 the novel received the Ellis Peters Award for best historical detective novel for the English original .

Michael Drewniok wrote about the German edition on krimi-couch.de : “The sometimes embarrassing and, in the long run, annoying clichés fall under the heading of 'poetic freedom': Kerr exaggerates where he has to shorten reality in order to make it clearer and more generate legible emotions. Penetrance takes precedence over suggestion. The Adlon Conspiracy would probably only be half as big as a book if Kerr did not constantly force his Bernie Gunther to take a stand. Where this stands & goes, Nazi brutality has to be observed and commented on. "

Bernhardt D'Alemagne wrote on literaturkurse.eu : “Philip Kerr has researched the historical framework well and does not get lost in perhaps dubious details. The drawing of people and milieu seems more important to him, which he also does very well. "

German publications

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.krimi-couch.de ( accessed on December 2, 2011)
  2. ↑ www.literatur Zirkel.eu  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Accessed December 2, 2011)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.literaturkurse.eu