A small town in Germany

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A Small Town in Germany (English original title: A Small Town in Germany ) is the German-language edition of the fifth novel by John le Carré , published in 1968 . The German translation by Dietrich Schlegel and Walther Puchwein also appeared in 1968.

A small town in Germany is a spy novel about the search for a missing employee of the British embassy in Bonn . The political background is, on the one hand, the renewed British efforts to be accepted into the EEC and, on the other hand, a resurgence of the right wing in Germany feared around the mid-1960s . The eponymous small town is the former federal German seat of government Bonn.

The novel consists of 17 chapters as well as a prologue and an epilogue. The protagonists are Rawley Bradfield, Head of Political Affairs at the British Embassy; his wife Hazel; Alan Turner, Secretary of State for the UK Foreign Office ; Ludwig Siebkron, employee of the Federal German Interior Ministry ; Klaus Karfeld, leader of the new political right in the FRG; and Leo Harting, missing employee of the British embassy in Bonn.

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The novel begins with insights into the everyday business of the embassy , which is, however, interspersed with a certain concern about developing unrest and demonstrations both on the part of the new political right around the Essen industrialist Klaus Karfeld and on the part of the students. One fears anti-British and anti-European tendencies in West German politics. On the part of the German interior ministry, the British embassy staff is requested not to leave the Bonn area “out of concern for security”. At the same time, word of the strange disappearance of the second secretary Leo Harting and a whole series of files began to spread in the house.

The London Foreign Office sent Alan Turner to investigate the matter, but he was reluctant to go to Germany. Turner questions the embassy staff and finds out that Harting was a popular man. However, it is now feared that he has "betrayed the most closely guarded secrets to the Russians". Since he worked in the 'Compensation Claims' department, he had access to secret NATO material. He also edited the internal embassy calendar on “prominent public figures in Germany”, which gave him access to all areas of the house. Turner soon discovers, however, that Harting was a protégé of Rawley Bradfield, who had held his hand over him for years and extended his contract several times.

Harting's life story slowly comes together during Turner's interviews: he emigrated from Germany to England during the war with his friend Praschko, now an up-and-coming politician with the Free Democrats , where he went to an agricultural school and finally came back to West Berlin first , then to work in the embassy. Several employees emphasize the “obsession” with which Harting worked on a “large project”: “He had found a lead”, “something had taken possession of him”, but shortly before his disappearance he seemed to have discovered something “when he would have shaken off what had been bothering him all along. The hunt was over ”. Turner begins to suspect that “his whole theory is wrong from beginning to end”, because after all the questioning, Harting no longer gives the impression of a political convict or blackmail, but that of a hunter, a persecutor.

At a party at Bradfield, Turner met Ludwig Siebkron, a sluggish but slippery, opaque senior official in the German interior ministry who is responsible for the security of diplomats and who also shows a strangely great interest in Harting. When Turner searches Harting's apartment in Koenigswinter , there is a surprise police operation, which is unpleasant for the embassy, ​​so that Bradfield pulls Turner off his job. Then Harting is suddenly spotted in town, and when Turner lays in wait for regular Thursday meetings at Hartings' location, Hazel Bradfield turns up - she had a long and violent affair with Harting.

Finally, Turner discovers a forgotten basement room in the embassy, ​​the so-called lumber room, which turns out to be Harting's secret office. Here he worked on his 'project', namely the exposure of Karfeld as a former SS man who had carried out human experiments with poison gases in a camp and had even incorporated the results into his dissertation , which was written long after the war . Shortly before his disappearance, Harting had found the final proof, which would hardly have changed anything due to the statute of limitations , so that he had already attempted an assassination attempt on Karfeld, who is covered and protected by Siebkron, in Hanover. Another attack is now expected in Bonn, where Karfeld will give a major public speech. However, Harting is found dead shortly after the speech.

Themes and motifs

John le Carré was second counselor in Bonn from 1961 to 1963, until he was subsequently transferred to Hamburg as consul (from where he left the Foreign Office in February 1964 ). His knowledge of what was then the German capital is therefore first-hand, as is his knowledge of processes and processes within an embassy. Le Carré describes Bonn and the atmosphere of the city here in the darkest colors: “The choice of Bonn as the waiting room for Berlin was always an inconsistency, now it is an abuse. Probably no other people than the Germans would have managed to elect a chancellor and then bring the capital to their door. [...] The British embassy is inextricably linked to this unnatural main village, this island state, which lacks political identity as well as a social hinterland and which has committed itself to temporary arrangements. […] You know what people say about Bonn: Either it's raining or the railroad gates are down. In fact, of course, both happen at the same time. An island cut off from the world by the fog, that's what it looks like here. It is quite a metaphysical stain: the dreams have completely supplanted reality. We live somewhere between the recent future and the not so distant past. "

Similar to how he described the work of a marginalized authority in Krieg im Spiegel , le Carré describes the social conditions of an embassy that is rather marginal compared to Paris , Washington, DC or Rome . Characterized by British class relations and the characteristics of the school system and training, the diplomats and employees fit into the embassy hierarchy and behave accordingly, although a targeted nonchalance is shown at social events such as the embassy choir, sporting events or parties.

Using Rawley Bradfield, le Carré exemplifies the dilemma and the cynicism of the diplomat who is obliged to be neutral: In view of the honorable background of Harting's self-imposed task - to uncover a cruel crime from the Nazi era, perpetrated by an active German politician - Bradfield keeps a political distance and cultivates a well-calculated cynicism. “Crises can be controlled, scandals are not. Haven't you understood yet that only appearance counts? ”He says to Turner, who takes Harting's side at the end of the story. “I firmly believe in hypocrisy. Nothing else brings us closer to virtue. It is the proclamation of what we should be. [...] I serve the appearance. […] Power always spoils, but the loss of power spoils even more. [...] Harting broke the law of moderation. "

expenditure

as well as licensed editions from the Gutenberg Book Guild and the German Book Association

literature

  • Jost Hindersmann: John le Carre. The spy turned writer . Nordpark, Wuppertal 2002, ISBN 3-935421-12-5 .
  • YOU . Journal, Zurich, March 1998 issue.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ All quotations from: A small town in Germany. Zsolnay, Vienna / Hamburg 1968.