The Fatherland Files. Gereon Rath's fourth case
The file fatherland is a predominantly of July 1932, the time of the Great Depression playing historical novel by German author Volker Kutscher , who in the year 2012 in the publishing & Kiepenheuer Witsch appeared. It is the fourth detective novel in the series about Detective Inspector Gereon Rath. The action begins ten months after Goldstein and takes place next to the German capital in Masuria .
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 portrayal of the early thirties in Germany with violent confrontations between the SA and the Red Front as well as the depiction of political and economic developments, including the Prussian strike of Chancellor Franz von Papen in the late Weimar Republic and the resulting increase in National Socialism , which is also recognizable for the people involved, but is only partially taken seriously in its scope with regard to the dissolving republic. In addition to fictional ones, there are also people from contemporary history and historical events such as the Reichstag election on July 31, 1932, which are portrayed from the point of view of the main character.
action
In July 1932, the Berlin criminal police were faced with a riddle: the spirits dealer Herbert Lamkau was found dead by a security guard in the freight elevator from Haus Vaterland , the legendary amusement temple on Potsdamer Platz. The marks suggest that he drowned there. Commissioner Gereon Rath is not happy about the new case, because he already has enough trouble. His investigations against the mysterious contract killer called the “phantom”, who keeps the city in suspense, have been on the spot for weeks, his great love Charly Ritter returns from a year of study in Paris and starts as a candidate for the female criminal police on Alex and is assigned to his homicide squad, of all things, which doesn't make things any easier. It turns out that the dead man from Haus Vaterland seems to be part of a Germany-wide series of murders, the trail of which leads far to the east, because Rath's investigations bring to light two more deaths that occurred under similar circumstances and, like this one, came from East Prussia. All victims were paralyzed with the Indian poison tubocurarine . The leadership of the investigation group "Phantom" is withdrawn from Rath and handed over to Commissioner Herbert Dettmann, with whom Rath has an argument after he insulted Charly.
While Charly is smuggled into the Vaterland as a kitchen helper and accidentally uncovered a case of blackmail, Rath investigates shortly after his engagement to Charly in the Masurian town of Treuburg near the Polish border and finds himself in a world that is strange to him. There he met the landowner Gustav Wengler, the German national-minded owner of the Luisenbrand distillery , whose sales partner was in Berlin Lamkau. All murder victims are former employees of the distillery and were used by Wengler as a group of thugs against Poles. Meanwhile, another murder takes place on the traffic tower at Potsdamer Platz , this time of a traffic policeman who is also from Masuria and who turns out to be Wengler's brother. At first it seems that all victims were involved in a blackburn scandal in 1924, as a result of which Artur Radlewski's mother died. Since he killed his father, he has lived like an Indian as a hermit in the moor and is under urgent suspicion. But there is another connection. Wengler's fiancée Anna von Mathée was brutally raped and drowned on the day of the referendum on whether East Prussia belonged to the German Reich or Poland in 1920 , and Radlewski observed the crime in secret, without intervening, for which he blamed himself. The resident doctor Jakub Polakowski, who had a secret love affair with the woman, was arrested at the scene of Wengler and his brother and allegedly died in a prison break in 1930, was convicted for the crime. Wengler uses this crime to create a political mood against the Poles.
Resistance to the investigator from Berlin grows when he threatens to uncover a long-kept secret. The librarian Maria Cofalka, who is in secret contact with Radlewski, gives Rath letters from which it emerges that Wengler is Anna's murderer and dies shortly afterwards. The letters are stolen from Rath. When Rath tries to track down Radlewski, he is intentionally left behind in the moor and only survives because Radlewski saves him, but is out of action for a week before he can return to Treuburg. He suspects that the local SA murdered Maria Cofalka on behalf of Wengler. However, he lacks the evidence to convict Wengler. While the politically motivated street battles between Nazis and communists shortly before the Reichstag elections claim more and more deaths, the reactionary Chancellor von Papen in Berlin is driving the democratic government of Prussia out of office and with it the head of the Berlin police, led by democrats. This aggravates the situation for Gereon Rath, who in far East Prussia has so far been able to be sure of the protection of the Berlin Police Vice President Bernhard Weiss . Investigations in the prison in which Jakub Polakowski was imprisoned reveal that the latter was only faking his death. Rath returns to Berlin after recognizing Polakowski in a photo as the security guard who allegedly discovered Lamkau's body.
He is arrested there because a stranger pretended to be Gereon Rath and killed Wengler's manager, who was in custody for alcohol smuggling, in his cell before he could incriminate Wengler. Herbert Dettmann comes under suspicion. After talking to Johann Marlow, Rath concludes that he must also be the “phantom” and that he committed the murders for the Ringverein Piraten on members of the rival organization Concordia , with whom Wengler also has illegal business relationships. Ernst Gennat reveals to Rath that Dettmann has been the focus of the investigation for a long time, but so far nothing has been proven. In the meantime, Polakowski is able to evade arrest. Since Rath suspects that Wengler will be the last victim of Polakowski's campaign of revenge, he travels to Treuburg again. He can put the man on the day of the Reichstag election when Wengler tries to drown. It turns out, however, that Wengler planned everything and approved the murder of his accomplices in order to get rid of unpleasant witnesses, and now plans to also kill Polakowski, apparently in self-defense, with the help of the Treuburg police chief Erich Grigat To eliminate Rath. Before he can implement his plan, however, Artur Radlewski kills him with a bow and arrow. Rath hushed up this act to protect Radlewski, who saved his life twice, and also allowed Polakowski to escape. With the help of Johann Marlow, Rath and Gennat manage to convince the Concordia leader, who has gone into hiding, to help with a plan to convict Dettmann.
Historical background
House of Fatherland
The Kempinski Haus Vaterland was from 1928 to 1943, a large restaurant operations and pleasure palace at the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin with around one million visitors a year, which can be regarded as a forerunner of today's gastronomic experience. In the guest rooms at Potsdamer Platz there were a number of different themed restaurants, which were served by a central kitchen: Rheinterrasse , Löwenbräu ( Bavarian beer restaurant), Grinzing ( Viennese café and wine tavern), Turkish café , Spanish bodega , Czardas , Japanese tea room , Bremer Galley , Wild West Bar ( Arizona bar ; later called Kolonialstube ), Osteria (Italian specialties), Teltower Rübchen and the Palmensaal (dance hall, design: Ernst Stern and Josef Thorak ). In addition to traditional food and drinks, there were also various musical and artistic events, demonstrations and variety programs . The weather simulations in the Rhine terrace were famous . Under the motto "In Haus Vaterland you eat thoroughly, here every hour of thunderstorms", the hall lighting was dimmed every hour and thunder, lightning and cloudbursts were simulated in a replica of the Rhine valley landscape near St. Goar (with a view of Rheinfels Castle and the Loreley rock) . To protect the guests from the downpours, the rows of tables were separated from the backdrop by glass panes. Model railways ran in the replicated Rhine Valley, and model ships also moved on the watercourse. In cooperation with Lufthansa, aircraft models were even moved on thin threads through the scenery. After a major fire caused by the war in 1943, limited restaurant operations were continued in parts of the building with several interruptions and finally closed in June 1953.
Prussian strike
With the blow to Prussia (also called coup in Prussia called) was a first decree of the President on July 20, 1932 Paul von Hindenburg , the executive, but not by a parliamentary majority of backed government Free State of Prussia by the Reich Chancellor Franz von Papen as Reich Commissioner replaced . A second ordinance of the same day gave the Reichswehr Minister executive power in Prussia and restricted basic rights. So that went public authority in the Prussian coalition under Social Democrat Otto Braun led the largest country in the German Reich to the Reich government of Franz von Papen on. With this, von Papen also transferred the leadership of the Berlin police. Vice President Dr. Weiß and the commander of the Heimannsberg police force were arrested during the Prussian strike. All civil society as well as state possibilities of protest or resistance were declared illegal by the Reich President Paul von Hindenburg. The consequences of the Prussian strike were the weakening of the federal constitution of the Weimar Republic and the facilitation of the later centralization of the Reich under Adolf Hitler . The main result, however, was the elimination of the last possible resistance of the largest German state to Papen's policy of establishing a "New State". This made Hitler's path to power much easier.
Great Depression
The economic crisis of the late 1920s and in the course of the 1930s began with the New York stock market crash in October 1929. The most important features of the crisis were a sharp decline in industrial production, world trade, international financial flows, a deflationary spiral , debt deflation , banking crises , the Insolvency of many companies and massive unemployment that caused social misery and political crises. The global economic crisis led to a sharp decline in total economic output worldwide, which began differently depending on the time and intensity, depending on the specific economic conditions of the individual states. The length of the global economic crisis varied in the individual countries and at the beginning of the Second World War it had not yet been overcome in all. National Socialist Germany had overcome the world economic crisis in 1936 in important points and was one of the first countries to regain full employment . However, developments in Germany were also shaped by job creation measures with poor working conditions and generally low wages, which were frozen at the 1932 level. In addition, full employment was offset by a massive misallocation of resources and ultimately the catastrophe of World War II, which Germany triggered in 1939. In the United States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the nation new hope with the economic and social reforms of the New Deal . Unlike in the German Reich and in many other countries, democracy in the United States was preserved even during the global economic crisis. The desperate state of the economy was overcome, but full employment was only achieved in 1941 with the arms boom after the USA entered the Second World War.
Bayume Mohamed Husen
Bayume Mohamed Husen ( maiden name Mahjub bin Adam Mohamed ; born February 22, 1904 in Dar es Salaam , German East Africa , today Tanzania ; † November 24, 1944 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp ) was an African-German askari (soldier) and actor. Husen was deployed as a child soldier in the " Schutztruppe " of German East Africa during the First World War and came to Berlin in 1929 to claim his outstanding pay. Here he started a family and worked as a waiter, language lecturer and actor, among others at the side of Hans Albers . Between 1934 and 1941 Bayume Mohamed Husen played in at least 23 German film productions. On January 27, 1933, three days before Hitler was appointed Chancellor , Husen married the Sudeten German Maria Schwandner. Their son, Ahmed Adam Mohamed Husen, was born on March 2, 1933. On January 10, 1933, the son Heinz Bodo Husen, who emerged from a simultaneous relationship with Lotta Holzkamp, was born, who was later recognized by Husen as his son and accepted into the couple's household. Another daughter, Annemarie Husen, was born in September 1936. Ahmed Adam died in 1938 at the age of five, Annemarie in 1939 at the age of two, Heinz Bodo was killed in an air raid on March 9, 1945. At the same time, the former mercenary in German service found a home in the neo-colonial movement in the German Empire , which advocated the recovery of the former colonies. At conferences and marches of the German Colonial Warrior Association, he embodied the "loyal Askari". The African participants were supposed to symbolize the success of the German colonization. At one event there was a meeting with General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck , who was revered as a hero by the neo-colonial movement. In 1936 Husen, whose family was in a difficult economic situation, accepted an engagement in the " German Africa Show ". Blacks living in Germany were presented as "natives" - at the same time the superiority of the German "masters" was to be demonstrated and the claim to German colonies in Africa underlined. Despite Husen's commitment to the neo-colonial movement, he did not want to accept his subordination to the National Socialist racial state. As early as October 1934, he applied to be awarded the Cross of Honor for front-line soldiers . He did not want to accept a refusal with reference to his gunshot wound. The German authorities decided not to give this award to “colored people”, and Lettow-Vorbeck also rejected Husen's award in a letter to the Ministry of the Interior. He saw wearing the badge as his "right", which is why he obtained the medal in the militaria trade. In several photos Husen can be seen in Askari uniform with the front fighter badge. After Great Britain declared war on the German Reich on September 3, 1939, Husen asked unsuccessfully to join the Wehrmacht . In August 1941 he was arrested by the Gestapo for a relationship with an “ Aryan woman ” and in September was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on charges of “ racial disgrace ”, where he died after three years in prison.
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 in March 1929 to the local criminal police in the capital, 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 self-control have so far undone an overdue promotion to high commissioner. He proposes marriage to his long-term friend Charly Ritter. His investigations lead him to East Prussia .
Charlotte Ritter
Called Charly. Former shorthand typist at Berlin Inspection A, which she used to finance her law studies. She is in a relationship with Gereon Rath and is returning to Berlin later than originally planned after studying in Paris , where she finds a job as a commissioner candidate for the female criminal police (Inspection G) and is employed on the homicide squad. She becomes engaged to Gereon Rath and works as an undercover agent in the Fatherland house.
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. Together with his colleague Andreas Lange, he is the first to arrive at the crime scene in the Vaterland house.
Andreas Lange
Commissioner candidate for inspection A. He is assigned to Gereon Rath as an employee.
Ernst Gennat
Kriminalrat and head of Inspection A, called "Buddah" or " the whole serious " 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 skills as an investigator and sends him to East Prussia.
Doctor Bernhard Weiss
Since 1925 head of the Berlin criminal police and since 1927 also vice-president, derogatory "ViPoPrä" and - because of his Jewish origin - also called "Isidor" (historical figure). He is the protector of Gereon Rath, is considered one of the best criminologists in the Berlin police headquarters, but loses his office after the Prussian strike.
Johann Marlow
Businessman and organized crime boss, also “Dr. M. "called. Mastermind of the (fictional) ring club Berolina , 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. He helps Rath convict the "phantom".
Herbert Dettmann
Detective inspector at Inspection A, who is responsible for the investigation of the "phantom" in place of Geron Rath. He's got a secret.
Bayume Mohamed Husen
Waiter in the "Wild West Bar" in the home country, Kiswahili -Sprachlehrer and actor (historical figure). Through his work as a waiter, he met Charlotte Ritter.
Anton Kowalski
Criminal assistant at the Koenigsberg criminal police , capital of the Prussian province of East Prussia. He is assigned to Gereon Rath to support his investigations in Masuria.
Erich Grigat
Police master and thus the highest-ranking official of the municipal police in Treuburg , East Prussia, who collaborates with Gustav Wengler.
Karl Rammoser
Second generation village teacher in Wielitzken, Masuria, and a passionate black man . He helps Gereon Rath in a precarious situation and informs him about the political and social characteristics of East Prussia.
Maria Cofalka
Librarian and head of the Treuburg district library and former student of the old teacher Rammoser. She is still in contact with Artur Radlewski.
Gustav Wengler
Landowner and seedy businessman with a German national spirit. His fiancée Anna von Mathée was brutally raped and murdered in 1920. Owner of the Luisenbrennerei. His brother Siegbert, a traffic policeman in Berlin, becomes one of the murder victims.
Artur Radlewski
Hermit who, as a youth, let his father bleed to death by scalping in order to protect his mother from violence. His mother then succumbs to alcohol and dies from the effects of methanol poisoning . He is a witness to a brutal crime and is suspected of murder.
Jakub Polakowski
The Masurian intern was jailed for a crime he did not commit and allegedly died trying to escape.
reception
The novel received mostly positive reviews. The verdict of NDR 1 Lower Saxony : “Great research and gripping to the end”, the Funkhaus Europa : “ The Fatherland files are fun, in parts really lead you through space and time in the middle of the 1930s” and the broadcaster SWR 3 : “That is a good and exciting story - and the whole atmosphere, the historical view of Berlin in the early 30s, makes the book something special. Just like the others, the first three books in this series by Volker Kutscher about Gereon Rath, about Berlin, about crime and contemporary history ”. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote in its review: “Volker Kutscher's Berlin crime thriller Die Vaterland is different from all other examples of this genre. Because he knows how to combine contemporary history with exciting dramaturgy. [...] Like all previous episodes of the Rath series, this novel [has] the seductive power of an addictive substance: You can't put it down until you've read it. " The Tagesspiegel noted:" It's over especially the characterful heroes of novels, with whom [...] Kutscher brings readers to a long blown time as close as if it were the recent past ”. Jochen Vogt wrote in the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung : "Kutscher's strengths are the historical details, which are precisely researched and classified: there is a specialist at work!"
Awards
In 2012, the Vaterland files were awarded the Krimi-Blitz , the audience award of the online magazine Krimi-Couch .
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 and Artur Radlewski are described in the present tense .
Sequels
In the series around Gereon Rath, three further novels and one novella have been published by October 2018 :
- March fallen. Gereon Rath's fifth case . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2014.
- Lunapark. Gereon Rath's sixth case. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2016.
- Moabit . Galiani Berlin, Cologne 2017, ( prequel ; illustrations by Kat Menschik ).
- Marlow. The seventh Rath novel. Piper, Munich 2018.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ House of Fatherland. Retrieved October 30, 2018 .
- ^ Ludwig Biewer : Der Preußenschlag 1932. Causes, events, consequences and evaluation. In: sheets for German national history . Vol. 119, 1983, pp. 159-172, here p. 169.
- ^ The year 1931 - The Weimar Republic at the crossroads. Retrieved October 30, 2018 .
- ↑ Bechhaus-Gerst (2007), pp. 70, 152.
- ↑ Bechhaus-Gerst (2007), p. 82 ff.
- ↑ Bechhaus-Gerst (2007), p. 102
- ↑ Bechhaus-Gerst (2007), p. 96 ff.
- ↑ Bechhaus-Gerst (2007), p. 136
- ↑ Bechhaus-Gerst (2007), pp. 141–150
- ↑ Detective Inspector Gereon Rath: Die Presse. Retrieved October 30, 2018 .
- ^ The Fatherland File: Reviews. Retrieved October 30, 2018 .
- ↑ Krimi-Blitz 2012 national. Retrieved October 30, 2018 .