Plan D (novel)

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Plan D is the title of a novel by the writer Simon Urban from 2011. It tells a fictional version of the turning point in Germany in the form of a political and espionage thriller , after which the GDR existed until 2011, and thus belongs to the narrative form of alternative world history . Numerous allusions to true historical events and the naming of prominent politicians and other people of the time in surprising new political and social contexts are just as characteristic of the book as the ironic references to the past everyday culture of the GDR.

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The book is dedicated: “For my parents. In memory of Günter Schabowski ”. In its first edition, it has 40 chapters on 551 pages, and the plot spans the period from October 19 to 29, 2011.

The GDR survived the political changes in 1989/1990 because a coup against the head of state Erich Honecker , Erich Mielke and other members of the SED's political bureau was successful. This putsch was ideologically supported by Albert Hoffmann, a West German politics professor who went to the GDR in the 1980s, became a close advisor to Egon Krenz and is now working and conspiring with Gregor Gysi . Hoffmann advocates a doctrine of so-called "posteritatism", according to which the degenerate political systems of the GDR and the FRG, real socialism and capitalism, can merge in a democratic way and produce a unified Germany. Through this putsch, Egon Krenz replaced Honecker as chairman of the State Council, but without being elected by the people, which should be a means of pressure for him. Erich Mielke's successor was the Westimport Otto Schily , who was supposed to reform the Stasi in line with the rule of law. In West Germany, Oskar Lafontaine is Federal Chancellor of a red-green coalition with Vice Chancellor Claudia Roth , which aims to bring the two states closer together through economic promotion. But the reforms in the GDR are stagnating. The so-called “revival of the GDR” did not lead to a success of the real existing socialism . As a result of the brief opening of the Wall in 1989/90, the GDR lost millions of citizens and is now facing national bankruptcy if German-Russian negotiations cannot be successfully concluded with the result of acceptable contracts for gas deliveries and the associated transit fees for the pipelines running through the GDR. Krenz was unable to reform the GDR, has proven to be incapable and is therefore to be ousted from power again. Lafontaine, on the other hand, only wants to negotiate if the GDR is no longer guilty of any further human rights violations. But Schily, as Minister of State for Stasi, had obviously not succeeded in reorganizing the MfS either , because Albert Hoffmann was found hanged on one of the gas pipes from Siberia that ran through the GDR. The ritual design of this execution points to a legendary old tradition according to which the Stasi used to dispose of their traitors. But the West German Federal Intelligence Service , which partly works with the Stasi in this story, is partly involved in the entanglements, as is usually to be expected in classic espionage literature.

The hero of the story is a captain of the GDR People's Police , Martin Wegener, who finally manages to solve the complicated and complex case, but also other murders in the context, under adventurous circumstances. After his love affair broke up and the former boss and forensics teacher Josef Früchtl, whom he admired, probably disappeared in one of the secret Stasi prisons, probably for political reasons, Wegener has major personal problems that repeatedly drag him into irrational actions and pronounced self-pity .

Scenario and language

In his novel, Urban describes a dystopian East Berlin that suffers from massive environmental pollution, is completely decayed, shows a ruinous cityscape and suffers from terrorist bomb attacks by a terrorist group financed from abroad. This group initially only carried out attacks on the Palace of the Republic and the Kino International in order to disrupt the world premiere of the new action thriller "Red Revenche" with Sahra Wagenknecht in the lead role, but then murders were also committed.

In this novel, Simon Urban uses an ironic language that plays with the politically brash joke and sarcasm of the GDR population, which is permanently monitored by the Stasi. Countless allusions to everyday GDR culture and the cynicism typical of the genre that is common in spy thrillers run through the plot. The main character's sexual obsessions and male fantasies occupy a large area. Urban uses strongly sexist language here, which in several places also turns into pure pornography .

Reception (selection)

The book aroused great, mostly benevolent, media interest. Die Zeit wrote : “It's true: Simon Urban tends to exaggerate a bit”, but Ursula März also stated: “ Plan D surprises [...], also with its thrust of literary imagination, with an ingenious ingenuity that everyone Readers must delight who, with all their love for grandfathers and grandmothers, now feels sufficiently informed about their ability to be a novel ”.

In the FAZ Hannes Hintermeier wrote : “The novel culminates in a preaching settlement with all GDRs in the world , who only promise what reason can never offer: mortal enemies and the service to the big cause, which must be constantly praised as big so that no one notices their wretchedness ”.

Juli Zeh said on the buecher-magazin.de website : "You read the first page of Simon Urban's novel Plan D and you know: this is a text with muscles."

On Deutschlandradio Kultur, Marten Hahn said: "[...] here you can see that Plan D, despite the science-fiction GDR backdrop, primarily reflects our reality in Germany."

Expenses (selection)

  • Plan D. Schöffling, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-89561-195-7 .
  • Plan D. Translated into English by Katy Derbyshire. Harvill Secker, London 2011, ISBN 978-1-84655-693-7 .
  • Plan D crime thriller, reading. Read by Götz Schubert, Wolf-Dietrich Fruck, Joachim Hoell. Random House Audio, Cologne 2011, ISBN 978-3-8371-0945-0 . (6 CDs)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula März: Novel “Plan D”: Sahra Wagenknecht becomes a film star. In: The time
  2. ^ Hannes Hintermeier: FAZ novels of the week Revived states live longer. In: FAZ . August 7, 2011. ISSN  0174-4909 .
  3. ↑ July Zeh: Book review: Plan D. In the magazine books .
  4. ^ Marten Hahn: The GDR is alive. on Deutschlandradio Kultur .