Goldstein. Gereon Rath's third case
Goldstein is the summer of 1931 at the time of the Great Depression playing historical novel by German author Volker Kutscher , who in the year 2010 in the publishing & Kiepenheuer Witsch appeared. It is the third detective novel in the series about Detective Inspector Gereon Rath. The action begins fourteen months after The silent death .
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 painting of morals in Berlin in the early thirties with violent confrontations between the SA and the Red Front as well as the depiction of the political and economic developments in the late Weimar Republic , including the growing National Socialism , which is also recognizable for the people involved, but cannot yet be grasped in its scope with regard to the dissolving republic. 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.
action
In Berlin's worsening economic crisis, the clashes between the SA and the Red Front became violent, in the underworld a power struggle was raging between rival ring clubs, and Gereon Rath was given the task of shadowing US gangster Abraham “Abe” Goldstein as a favor for the FBI . At the same time, Alexandra, called Alex, and Benny, two homeless casual thieves, let themselves be locked in the KaDeWe to steal jewelry and watches. What was child's play in previous raids at Tietz and Karstadt is now going terribly wrong, because they are caught by the police. Alex narrowly escapes arrest, but has to watch Benny being brutally thrown to his death by a police officer from the roof of the department store. From then on she will be hunted. The fence who has so far taken their prey is murdered.
Rath, on the other hand, is bored at his observation post in the Hotel Excelsior, where Goldstein has taken up quarters. Little does he suspect that the gangster has long since moved freely in the city and got hold of a weapon there. Meanwhile, underworld boss Johann Marlow compels Rath to undertake a private investigation: The "Red Hugo", boss of the Berolina ring club and Marlow's business partner, has disappeared. When Charly Ritter, with whom Rath would like to get engaged and who has started her legal preparatory service in the Lichtenberg district court, lets a young dodger (Alex) escape during the interrogation, she is given a forced leave. In her distress, she searches for Alex on her own and gets into an argument with Rath about it. The police investigations show that Benny's death was not an accident, but was helped. The police officer Jochen Kuschke quickly becomes the target of internal investigations. In order not to cause a stir, Reinhold Gräf instructs Charly to observe him, and in return she is offered a job at the criminal investigation department.
Goldstein is falsely suspected of having killed an SA man with whom he had a clash when he was helping an Orthodox Jew oppressed by the Nazis. Goldstein then moves out of the hotel unnoticed. The Jewish old man later testifies to the innocence of his savior in Rath's office, but disappears without giving his name. Charly finds Alex and gives her shelter in her apartment, but the girl later goes into hiding again. Goldstein plays a cat-and-mouse game with Rath and can repeatedly evade access, most recently by using church asylum . During his research, Rath comes across Goldstein's Jewish relatives in Berlin, but they cover him. When Goldstein visited his terminally ill grandfather in the Jewish hospital and assisted him to die , he narrowly escaped being arrested by Rath.
Ultimately, it turns out that a secret organization made up of vigilante police officers is responsible for the murders and has also killed the "Red Hugo", with attempts being made to attach the crime to Goldstein. This organization includes Kuschke and trainee commissioner Sebastian Tornow, whose sister was the victim of a violent crime as a child, from the consequences of which she never recovered. Tornow also tries to recruit Rath, with whom he has befriended, but he refuses in disgust. Rath can persuade Goldstein to cooperate with him by promising him safe conduct. Thereupon the American apparently allows himself to be arrested in order to lull the conspirators into safety. With the help of Charly and Goldstein, Rath can uncover the plot and put Tornow on the roof of a gasometer , with Tornow losing a forearm in the fight. In the end, Charly accepts an offer from her former law professor to go to Paris for a research project and leaves by train, while Goldstein is exonerated and returns to America.
Historical background
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.
Alliance of Red Front Fighters
The Red American Legion (RFB) - also Rotfrontkämpferbund - was a paramilitary task force led by the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during the Weimar Republic. The tensions in everyday life in Germany after the First World War resulted from the defeat, the behavior of the victorious powers as well as the political turmoil and radicalization, as well as the large number - a good five million - of mostly demobilized soldiers. A specific combatant culture developed in their ranks, which, regardless of the political direction of the respective group or formation, had the same rituals and a partially identical self-image. Their more or less forced classification ultimately took place to a large extent in familiar terrain, which often differed only in a different political concept: in the predominantly large central combatant groups that developed after 1924. Around three million men were organized in the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, loyal to the republic, and around 400,000 in the right-wing traditionalist union Stahlhelm . In addition there was the Young German Order , many small regional combat and steward groups, black Reichswehr associations, the SA, which had been broken up and banned many times, and 50 to 100,000 Red Front Warriors. On May 3, 1929, the Minister of the Interior (II 1420v; Berlin) ordered the prohibition of the RFB, the Red Young Front (RJ) and the Red Navy with effect from May 6, 1929 “in accordance with the law for the protection of the republic, the law of 22 March 1921 (Reichsgebl. P. 235) and the Reich Association Act for the Free State of Prussia ”. A tough, not very large core of the Red Front Fighters continued to work illegally and took demonstrative actions to bring the RFB to the fore (e.g. Altonaer or Geesthacht “Bloody Sunday”). A larger number of the frontline fighters participated in mostly regional attempts to establish a new one. In addition, individual and sometimes entire bands switched to the National Socialist SA. In addition to the unemployed initiatives that had also emerged, which apparently were also recruited from former Red Front fighters (the HVZ of February 13, 1930 even reported the establishment of an unemployment defense in Charlottenburg), music bands with innocent-sounding names suddenly appeared - at least from 1929 , possibly also from 1930 - should represent continuations of comparable RFB formations. For many they are still considered to be the most important keepers of the RFB tradition.
Ring clubs
The first ring association , the Reich Association of Former Prisoners , was founded in Berlin in 1890 and was an association to support former prisoners in solidarity . Soon there were other such associations in Berlin, which merged in 1898 under the umbrella organization Ring Berlin . The ring clubs had their own assembly rules and statutes. The members, the so-called “ring brothers”, usually wore a signet ring by which they could recognize one another. Over time, the ring clubs changed and took on the characteristics of organized crime . They organized robberies, prostitution, and moving goods and alcohol . Its members were obliged to maintain secrecy from others, especially the police , if punished. Benefits of membership included a. the procurement of alibis , the financial support of brothers in the event of illness and imprisonment, the procurement of lawyers and the care of the families of the members. Women of prisoners who were checked by "Ringbrothers" and found to be loyal, for example, received food and rent. The association was financed by the donation of loot from the gang-like raids and burglaries carried out by the members . Because of the fake alibis, the secrecy and the guarantee of mutual protection in connection with the intimidation of witnesses, it was not possible to get at the ring clubs for a long time. After several attempts at containment by the authorities and numerous setbacks, they were finally banned as registered associations by the National Socialists in 1934. Other well-known ring clubs were, among others, Immertreu , Libelle , Apachenblut , the Berliner Ring or the Sparverein . The ring club Berolina from the Gereon Rath novels is fictional.
Anti-Semitism in the Weimar Republic
Since the founding of the republic in 1919, Jews were able to rise to the highest state offices for the first time. Although conservative Jews were also skeptical of the left-wing parties, they were widely seen as profiting from the coup and defeat in the war. Anti-Semites, who had previously hoped for the state to implement their goals, almost always rejected revolution and democracy at the same time; their opponents usually defended both. Newly founded right-wing groups such as the Deutschvölkische Schutz- und Trutzbund and the Thulegesellschaft propagated the stab in the back legend . In it anti-Semitic, anti-socialist and anti-democratic motives were combined in such a way that the entire national humiliation - own war guilt, defeat, revolution and misery of the post-war period - was again projected onto the Jewish minority as their alleged mastermind . Jews and Social Democrats, who had been marked as "internal enemies" almost since the establishment of the Reich, were now also identified with the " Bolsheviks ": They allegedly stabbed the army "undefeated in the field" in order to surrender Germany to foreign powers and to destroy all cultural values of the nation. Reference was made to Jewish names among leading Russian and German revolutionaries. The forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion - published in German in 1920 - seemed to confirm this conspiracy theory from the Russian side. Anti-Semitic students and academics and former DVP members found their new political home in one of the right-wing extremist and bourgeois-conservative parties, especially the DNVP , which excluded Jews and people with one Jewish parent from the party in 1921. During the Hitler-Ludendorff putsch on November 9, 1923 in Munich, the Bund Oberland, which had emerged from the Freikorps Oberland , arbitrarily took “Jewish-looking” citizens as “hostages” in order to blackmail political changes. Now there was right-wing street violence, u. a. by SA gangs, against Jews and political opponents everyday. She was hardly followed by the police or the judiciary. Despite all these events, anti-Semitism remained marginal until at least 1929. The openly anti-Semitic NSDAP frightened the bourgeoisie and received only 2.6 percent of the votes in the Reichstag election on May 20, 1928 . With the onset of street terror by the SA, violent attacks became more frequent. On the occasion of the opening of the Reichstag on October 13, 1930 , supporters of the NSDAP attacked the Wertheim department store.
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 restraint get him into trouble again and have ruined his promotion to high commissioner. He is supposed to shadow Abe Goldstein so that he does not cause any harm, and gets between the fronts of a gang war.
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, after passing the exam, started her legal preparatory service at the Lichtenberg District Court. After that, she would like to work as a detective. She lets a dodger escape during the interrogation and therefore asks Rath for help.
Wilhelm Boehm
Chief Inspector at Inspection A, known as "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. He is investigating two deaths that overlap with Rath's investigation.
Reinhold Graef
Detective Secretary at Inspection A. He is friends with Gereon Rath, to whom he owes his promotion, and is working on the case of the department store burglar who fell to his death.
Andreas Lange
Detective assistant at Inspection A. He is assigned to Gereon Rath as an employee.
Sebastian Tornow
Former security policeman, now a candidate for a commissioner in Inspection J (wanted). After he meets Gereon Rath in his investigation, he is also used in Inspection A. His sister was the victim of a gruesome crime.
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.
Doctor Bernhard Weiss
Since 1925 chief of the Berlin criminal police and since 1927 also vice-president, derogatory called "ViPoPrä" ( historical figure ). He hires Gereon Rath to monitor Abraham Goldstein.
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 and is compelled by him to investigate the disappearance of the boss of the Berolina.
Abraham Goldstein
Nickname "Handsome Abe". The Jewish US gangster is in Berlin because he got on the hit list of his boss Moses "Fat Moe" Berkowicz and some of his relatives live there. After an unhappy childhood, he made a name for himself and gained respect on the streets of New York through unscrupulous killing. He is said to be shadowed by Gereon Rath, but is able to withdraw and secretly get a gun.
Alexandra Reinhold
18 year old homeless casual thief named Alex. Her father kicked her out because she stole out of need. After a series of department store break-ins with her also homeless younger friend Benny, who taught her how to survive on the street, she gets into big problems.
Jochen Kuschke
Uniformed officer of the Berlin protection police. He is involved in a break-in at the KaDeWe and provides Alex Reinhold's friend Benny.
reception
The novel received mostly positive reviews. The Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung wrote : “Despite the length of the novel, Kutscher maintains the tension through all 119 chapters. The complex network of corruption, crime and the rise of National Socialism is cleverly illuminated from many angles. We can look forward to more thrillers in this series that will take us into the world of the declining Weimar Republic. ”And the Kölner Stadtanzeiger :“ With Rath's third case, Kutscher has entered the top league of German suspense authors. ” Echo assessed:“ Goldstein is the third novel in the Gereon-Rath series, with which the German author Volker Kutscher not only produces excellent crime fiction, but also a grandiose moral picture of Berlin in the early 1930s [...] - overwhelming. "
Awards
For the novel Goldstein and its two predecessors, The Wet Fish and The Dumb Death , Volker Kutscher received the Berlin Krimifuchs , a literary prize for crime novels, for outstanding achievements at the Reinickendorfer Kriminacht in 2011 .
Sequels
In the series around Gereon Rath, four more novels and one novella have been published by October 2018 :
- The Fatherland Files. Gereon Rath's fourth case . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2012.
- 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. Pieper, Munich 2018.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ The year 1931 - The Weimar Republic at the crossroads. Retrieved December 22, 2017 .
- ↑ LAS 301-4548 / A1, LAS 301-4549 / 21, complaint against Karl Rokohl v. October 24, 1929.
- ^ Red Front Fighter League, 1924-1929. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on August 16, 2016 ; accessed on December 22, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Podcast: Ringverein, Berlin, 1920s, crime - January 7th, 2008. Retrieved December 19, 2017 .
- ↑ Dirk Walter: Anti-Semitic crime and violence. Anti-Semitism in the Weimar Republic . JHW Dietz Nachf. Bonn 1999
- ↑ Andreas Wirsching , From World War to Civil War? Political extremism in Germany and France 1918–1933 / 39. Berlin and Paris in comparison , Oldenbourg, Munich 1999, p. 463.
- ↑ Detective Inspector Gereon Rath: Die Presse. Retrieved November 8, 2017 .
- ↑ Literature Prize Winner. Retrieved December 19, 2017 .
