A king for Germany

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A King for Germany is a novel by Andreas Eschbach that was published by Bastei Lübbe in September 2009 . The main topic is the manipulation of voting computers . As with Eschbach's thriller A Trillion Dollar and Burned Out , the fictional plot of the novel is based on carefully researched facts; numerous sources are included in footnotes. The novel is divided into four parts ( The Program , The Game , The Choice and The King ) and a total of 52 chapters. Unlike in Burned Out , the story is told in a linear fashion, with changing locations and main characters.

action

The young American programmer Vincent Wayne Merrit begins to work for a small IT company in Florida after a week's custody for a computer crime. One of the company's clients, a Republican local politician, hires Vincent as a "feasibility study" to manipulate a voting computer in such a way that the victory of a certain candidate can be faked. Despite speculating that his program might have been used in George W. Bush's first election for president, Vincent eventually forgets the matter. In 2008, however, he was blackmailed by the Italian magician Benito Zantini, the former partner of his boss, to write such a program again - this time for the Nedap voting computers used in Europe . For demonstration purposes, Zantini plans to manipulate the 2008 state elections in the German state of Hesse in such a way that the election will lead to an unlikely stalemate. He wants to convince unknown donors to use his services for the federal elections.

After completing the software, Vincent escapes in a stolen car and sends a CD-ROM with a copy of the program to his father, the German high school teacher Simon König. Almost thirty years ago, while on a study trip, he had a brief affair with an American tour guide - Vincent's mother. After Vincent wrote a letter to his father when he was ten, the latter confessed to his wife about the affair, whereupon she left him. In order to avoid the three strikes rule and a possible life imprisonment, Vincent turns himself in for the theft of the car and is sentenced to 22 months in prison.

Simon receives the CD and hides it. On the same day, he is approached by some young people with whom Vincent was in contact before - in particular by Alexander Leicht, a commercial organizer of online role-playing games and LARPs, and the very opaque system administrator Sirona. Before they can convince Simon to give them the CD, however, Zantini, who has meanwhile traveled to Germany, breaks into Simon's apartment, waits for him and uses tricky manipulation ("mind reading") to get him to reveal the CD's hiding place.

But Simon doubts that it should be possible to manipulate so many voting computers. Only the outcome of the state elections in Hesse convinced him that the program was apparently in use.

Vincent also informed his father that he has built a trapdoor into the program: If a party with his initials, VWM , takes part, it automatically receives 95% of the votes - regardless of the manipulation chosen in the program. In order to prove the manipulation, Simon, Alex and his friends want to participate in the 2009 federal election with a party called VWM . Together they consider what the abbreviation could stand for and finally agree on the seemingly absurd popular movement to reintroduce the monarchy : Simon König, they demand in an election commercial, should, if they win the election, Simon I should become King Simon I of Germany. Alex succeeds in placing the founding of the party as part of an alternate reality game in the community and thus obtaining the necessary number of members and signatures to participate in the general election.

After an initial interview in a women's magazine, the editor-in-chief of which Simons is separated from him, the media overflows with reports and interview requests, especially since Simon makes clever and well-thought-out political statements as well as a statesmanlike appearance. The "party" is planning to go public with the truth after the election in order to prove that the voting machines can be manipulated.

In the elections, the VWM won over 66% of the votes, as voting computers were not used in all federal states and constituencies. The Bundestag and an electoral review commission declare the elections invalid, but as they cannot prove any manipulation, the Federal Constitutional Court declares the election valid. With his son still threatened with another cybercrime trial, Simon cannot go public with the truth until Vincent is released from prison and left the United States. The role players mobilized by Alex move into the Bundestag and elect Alex as Federal Chancellor . Since the role-players are causing quite a mess (among other things, they are calling for the reintroduction of the death penalty and the ban on bras as part of the ban on masking ), Alex and Simon now want to expose the manipulation, but a new government investigation of the voting computers provides no evidence.

Vincent has now been released from prison and goes in search of Zantini, whom he only finds dying in Italy because he was fatally injured by his "betrayed" clients a short time before. It turns out that besides Zantini there have been two other independent attempts to manipulate the voting computers on behalf of other groups. Zantini dies and takes the secret of how it was manipulated to the grave.

Since the “party friends” in the VWM are no longer interested in uncovering the fraud, Simon is actually supposed to be crowned king. However , he breaks off the coronation ceremony in Aachen Cathedral and suggests that a referendum should first clarify whether the population agrees to the amendment to the constitution to introduce the monarchy. For security reasons, this vote takes place on traditional ballot papers, and since only a good 12% of those eligible to vote are in favor of the monarchy, new elections for the Bundestag take place in which the VWM no longer takes part.

Vincent returns to the USA and is forced into the service of an American secret organization that has the technology to read and change the content of digital memory chips remotely.

The story ends when Simon König hears the news that new, “tamper-proof” voting computers are to be built in Germany for the next federal election, whereupon he goes back to work to prevent this.

background

In the actual federal election in 2009 , unlike in previous elections in the Federal Republic, no voting computers were used. The Federal Constitutional Court had already ruled in March 2009 that these devices in their previous form did not offer any transparency or adequate protection against manipulation.

expenditure

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article at golem.de