Fatherland (novel)

Fictional

• Xavier March. A detective in the Kriminalpolizei with the concurrent honorary rank of Sturmbannführer (Major) in the SS, March (nicknamed "Zavi" by his friends) is a 42-year-old divorcé living in Berlin. He has one son, Pili (Paul), who lives with March's ex-wife, Klara. March's father died in 1929 from wounds sustained while serving in the Imperial German Navy during the Great War and his mother was killed in a Royal Air Force bombing raid in 1942. March commanded a U-Boat in World War II and was decorated for bravery and promoted. He married his nurse after the war, but the marriage steadily deteriorated afterward. His military service helped him rise through the police ranks to detective. By 1964, however, he is secretly under Gestapo surveillance for what they correctly perceive to be an intense dislike of the Nazi regime. For example, March refuses to donate to the 'winter-relief', showed "insufficient enthusiasm" for his son's involvement in the Jungvolk, has rebuffed all incentives to join the Nazi Party, tells "jokes about the Party", and worst of all - has shown some curiosity about what happened to a Jewish family who used to live in his present apartment.
• Charlotte "Charlie" Maguire. A 25-year-old American journalist, Maguire has been assigned to Berlin by the fictional news service World European Features. Midway through the novel, she and March fall in love and begin a relationship. Maguire comes from a prominent Irish-American political family but is something of a renegade. The daughter of a U.S. State Department official and German actress who left with him prior to the war, Maguire speaks fluent German without an accent.^[3]
• Hermann Jost. A 19-year-old cadet in an SS military academy, Jost was out running when he discovered the corpse which triggered March's investigation. March is certain that Jost witnessed more than he is willing to disclose and at first believes him to be covering up a homosexual relationship with a fellow cadet—a death penalty offense. But ultimately, March persuades Jost to admit the truth—he witnessed the dumping of the body and recognised SS General Odilo Globocnik at the scene. Midway through the novel, Globocnik smugly tells March, "It's over. You have no witness". March learns that Jost has been sent to a punishment battalion in occupied Russia, likely resulting in his death.
• Paul "Pili" March. March's ten-year-old son, Pili lives with his mother and her partner in a bungalow in the suburbs of Berlin. Pili is a fully indoctrinated member of the Jungvolk — the junior section of the Hitler Youth for boys between the ages of 10 and 14. Later in the novel, Pili denounces his father to the Gestapo, all the while unaware of what they will really do to him.
• Max Jaeger. March's friend and Kripo partner, Jaeger is 50, lives with his wife Hannelore and four daughters in Berlin, and is disinclined to question 'the system'. At the end of the novel Jaeger drives the getaway car that rescues March, but it is revealed that he was the one who has been informing against March since before the novel began, and that March's "rescue" was arranged by the Gestapo as a ruse to find Charlotte Maguire.
• Walther Fiebes. Fiebes is a detective working in VB3, the Kripo's sexual crimes division, along the corridor from March's office. A man with a deeply prurient nature, Fiebes relishes his work investigating sexual crimes cases including rape, adultery, and interracial relationships between "Aryan" women and their Slavic servants.
• Rudolf "Rudi" Halder. March's friend and a crewman on his U-boat, Rudi is now an historian working at the immense Reich Central Archives, helping to compile an official history of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front.
• Karl Krebs. Krebs is an officer in the Gestapo, and is an example of the younger, university-trained SS-men whom Globocnik hates.

Based on historical figures

Harris, in the book's Author's notes, explains that many characters in the novel are based on the real people with the same names and, indeed, the biographical details are correct up to 1942. After that, the narrative is fictional.^[2] The following descriptions follow what is in the novel.

• Odilo Globocnik. An aging Obergruppenführer in the Gestapo and right-hand man of Reichsführer-SS Reinhard Heydrich, nicknamed "Globus". Globus is a principal antagonist of the book, personally responsible for the assassinations of the Wannsee officials. After March's apprehension by the Gestapo, Globus takes over March's interrogation, administering several brutal beatings.
• Arthur Nebe. The chief of the Kripo, Nebe by 1964 is an old man with a sumptuous office in Berlin.^[4] Initially appearing to support March's investigation for political reasons despite the Gestapo's involvement, Nebe eventually ascertains the threat posed to the Reich's international standing by March's investigations and weaves a ruse to March so that he reveals the whereabouts of the evidence.
• Josef Bühler. A secretary and deputy governor to the Nazi-controlled General Government in Kraków.
• Wilhelm Stuckart. A Nazi Party lawyer, official and a state secretary in the German Interior Ministry.
• Martin Luther. An advisor to Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop,
• Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich is the current head of the SS and is considered a likely successor to Hitler. He is a principal antagonist of the book, although he never features personally. He ordered the assassinations of the Wannsee officials personally to eradicate all first-hand evidence of the Final Solution. In the real world he was assassinated on 4 June 1942 in Prague, but not in the story.

Alternate World War II history

The world in 1964 in the novel Fatherland where the Germans won World War II.

Throughout the novel, Harris gradually explains in a fictional backstory the developments that allowed Germany to prevail in World War II. The author explains in the Author's notes that, except for the backstories of the fictitious characters, the narrative describes reality up to 1942 and is subsequently fictional.^[2] A significant early point of divergence is that Reinhard Heydrich survived the assassination attempt by Czech fighters in May 1942 – which in reality killed him – and later became head of the SS. (Another divergence is the political career of Joseph Kennedy, who was disgraced in 1940 during the Battle of Britain. In this timeline, for an unexplained reason his political fortunes do not suffer - or possibly, recovered after the German victory - and he becomes president.) The Nazi offensives on the Eastern Front ultimately pushed back the Soviet forces, with the Case Blue operation succeeding in capturing the Caucasus and cutting the Red Army off from its petroleum reserves by 1943.^[6] The Nazis also found that the Enigma machine code had been broken. A massive U-Boat campaign against Britain thereafter succeeded in starving the British into surrender by 1944.^[6]

In the novel, King George VI, the British Royal Family and Prime Minister Winston Churchill flee into exile in Canada.^[6] Edward VIII regained the British throne soon afterwards, with Wallis Simpson as his queen.^[9][7][6] The US defeated Japan in 1945 using nuclear weapons.^[6] Germany tested its first atomic bomb in 1946 and fired a non-nuclear "V-3" missile above New York City to demonstrate an ability to attack the continental United States with long-range missiles.^[6] Thus, after a peace treaty in 1946, the US and Germany are the two superpower opponents in the Cold War of this world.^{[note 4][6]} There is a reference to a brutal regime having power in China, but no reference to its ideology and whether it is headed by Mao or somebody else.

Alternate post-war history

The fictional backstory describes how, having achieved victory in Europe, Germany reorganises Europe east of Poland into Reichskommissariats. Following the signing of the Treaty of Rome, Western Europe and Scandinavia are corralled into a pro-German trading bloc, the European Community. By 1964, the United States and the Greater German Reich are involved in a Cold War.^[6] The only exception is Switzerland, which retains its neutral status.

The German invasion of the Soviet Union has died down into an endless guerrilla war in the Ural Mountains and Siberia.^[10] Mounting casualties (at least 100,000 since 1960, according to the novel^[10]) have sapped the German military, despite Hitler's statement (quoted in the novel) about a perpetual war to keep the German people on their toes. Dead German soldiers are returned to Germany in the middle of the night.^[10]

The action of the novel takes place from 14–20 April 1964, as Germany prepares for Hitler's 75th birthday celebrations on the 20th. A visit by the President of the United States, Joseph P. Kennedy, is planned as part of a gradual détente between the United States and the Greater German Reich. The novel suggests that the Nazi hierarchy is eager for peace because its efforts to settle the conquered Eastern lands are failing due to continued resistance from Polish and Soviet partisan movements. Moreover, the Nazis failed to instill their ideology in the younger generation, and many young Germans turn away from it – though active opposition to the regime is limited.^[11]

The Holocaust has been explained away officially as merely the relocation of the Jewish population into areas of Eastern Europe where communications and transport networks are still very poor. Despite this, many Germans suspect the government has eliminated the Jews, but generally do not care or are too afraid of the Nazi authorities to say or do anything with this knowledge. Some surviving Jews escaped to Soviet territory, where they have provided testimony of the extermination efforts - while Nazi authorities decry this as Bolshevik propaganda, the outside world is aware of the Holocaust. The American president, however, remains neutral so as not to further damage relations, and refers only to vague "human rights violations" he wishes to investigate while visiting Berlin.

The end suggests that the plans of both Kennedy and Hitler might be seriously derailed by the documents which the book's protagonists obtained and which Charlie successfully smuggled out of Germany. Their publication, giving concrete hard evidence on the systematic murder of the Jews, might cause the cancellation of the Hitler-Kennedy summit and sabotage the plans for a German-American Détente, on which the Nazis were counting for economic recovery. It might also cause Kennedy to fail in his bid for re-election in November 1964. The book does not mention who the opposing candidate is and what policies does that candidate support, though it might be more of an anti-Nazi Cold Warrior.

The book makes no mention of the President's son John Kennedy, who is evidently completely overshadowed by his father.

Greater German Reich and international politics

Fatherland's 1964 Europe

The first few pages of Fatherland feature two maps: one of the city centre of Berlin and another showing the extent of the massively expanded Greater German Reich, which now stretches from Alsace-Lorraine (Westmark) in the west to the Ural Mountains and lower Caucasus in the east.^[12]

The Reich has retained Austria (now known as the "Ostmark"), Slovenia, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and Luxembourg (now named "Moselland"). In the East, Poland is still ruled as a colony by the General Government while Soviet territory west of the Urals has been divided into five Reichkommissariats: Ostland (Belarus and the Baltic states), Ukraine, Muscovy (from Moscow to the Urals), and Caucasus, along with Generalkommissariat Taurida (Southern Ukraine and the Crimea). There is also mention of a German naval base in Trondheim, Norway where the Reich's nuclear submarines are based.^[7]

Berlin has been remodelled as Hitler's "capital of capitals", designed according to the wishes of Hitler and his top architect, Albert Speer,^{[note 5]} and is the world's largest city, with a population of ten million. The virtually powerless "European Parliament" is based there.^[13]

In the novel, the rest of Western and Northern Europe, excluding Switzerland, has been corralled by Germany into a European Community (made up of Portugal, Spain, France, Ireland, Great Britain, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland). Eastern European countries dominated by the Germany of Fatherland include Croatia, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania, and Serbia. The nations of Fatherland's EC, despite being nominally free under their own governments and leaders, are presumably only just sufficient to police their own territory. European nations are under constant surveillance by Berlin and are subordinate to Germany in all but name – the German flag flying over the Union's headquarters being twice as big as those of the other nations.^[13]

By the time the Reich had turned its eyes to Switzerland, seeking to absorb its German-speaking cantons, the stalemate of the Cold War had settled in and Switzerland had become a convenient neutral spot for diplomacy, and for American and German intelligence agents to spy on each other. Consequently, Switzerland is the last state in Europe with a foreign policy independent of Berlin.

In the backstory, the United States is locked in a Cold War with the Greater German Reich. Since the end of the war in 1946, both the US and Germany have developed nuclear and space technologies. Japan was defeated by the US after the United States detonated one atomic bomb on Japanese territory. The United States is said to have not participated in the Olympic Games since 1936, but is expected to in 1964.^{[note 6]}

A passing remark hints at China being ruled by a harsh government, but its precise nature is not mentioned. A greatly reduced Soviet rump state consisting of Siberia, the Russian Far East and Central Asia still exists with its capital in Omsk, while the United States supplies weapons and funds which are used by the Russians to tie down German forces in the Urals. Although German propaganda plays down the war in the east, the war on the Eastern Front is taking its toll.^[10])^{[note 7]}

Canada, Australia and New Zealand are now allied with the United States. Princess Elizabeth resides in Canada and is recognised by Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States as the rightful queen of the United Kingdom. Winston Churchill also lives in Canada.

The novel describes that since the end of the war, a stalemate has developed between Germany and the United States, which seems to overshadow international relations. New German buildings are constructed with mandatory bomb shelters; the Reichsarchiv (German National Archive) claims to have been built to withstand a direct missile hit.^[14][15]

Nazi society

In the novel, Germany concentrates on the containment of the USSR. Hitler has taken some steps to soften his image over the years, and now wears civilian clothes most of the time instead of Party uniform. Nonetheless, no substantive changes have taken place in the Nazi regime's basic character. The Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933, the legal bases for Hitler's dictatorship, remain in effect. The press, radio and television are tightly controlled. Dissenters are still sent to concentration camps. Conditions in the camps are reputed to be as harsh as they were in the 1930s and 1940s, though the International Red Cross is occasionally given staged inspections.^[16]

In the novel, the bedrock of Nazi ideology is still the policy of blaming subversive and minority groups for Germany's economic and social problems. Jews, Communists, homosexuals, and interracial relationships (particularly between "Aryans" and Slavs) continue being scapegoats for the Nazi Party.^[17] Nazi propaganda has previously depicted America as a land of corruption, degeneracy and poverty. However, as the diplomatic meeting between Hitler and Kennedy nears, German propaganda is forced to change its image of America to a more positive view.

Despite its ideological and moral decline, Germany has a high standard of living, with its citizens living off the produce of their European satellite states and freed from physical labour by thousands of Polish, Czech and Ukrainian workers. The European nations export high quality consumer goods to Germany (noted imports are domestic electronics from Great Britain) while also providing services, such as an SS academy at Oxford University and imported domestic staff. Hitler's personal tastes in art and music remain the norm for German society.

Military service is still compulsory.^[18] Eastern Europe has been colonised by German settlers (although local partisan resistance movements are still active) and the German population has soared as a result of Nazi emphasis on childbirth. As the original generation of Nazi leaders that founded the party and came to power alongside Hitler are now beginning to die off, increasing numbers of Nazi officials are well-educated technocrats in the mould of Albert Speer. The police force is integrated with the SS, with police officers having honorary SS ranks.^{[note 8]}

According to the main characters, however, German society in the early 1960s is becoming more and more rebellious. The young generation have no memory of the instability that paved the way for Hitler's rise to power. Student protests, particularly against the war in the Urals, American and British cultural influence, and growing pacifism are all found in Nazi society. Jazz music is still popular and the German government claims to have come up with a version which is free from "Negroid influence". In spite of the general repressiveness, the Beatles' real-life Hamburg engagements have happened here as well (and have already been denounced in the state-run press).^[7] Germany is under constant attack by terrorist groups, with officials assassinated and civilian airliners bombed in-flight. Christianity is suppressed, and Nazi youth organisations are compulsory for all children. Universities are centres of student dissent, and the White Rose movement is once again active.^[11]

The Nazis continue with their policies for women, encouraging them to remain in the home and bring up many children (still emphasising the first two elements of Kinder, Küche, Kirche), although women are clearly present in the Nazi bureaucracy. Nazi organisations such as Kraft durch Freude still exist and fulfill their original roles such as providing holidays to resort areas under German control. German citizens are still encouraged to contribute to the Winterhilfswerk. A sprawling transport network covers the entire Reich, including vast autobahnen and railways in the manner of the actually proposed Breitspurbahn system, carrying immense trains.

Technology

The level of technology in Fatherland is much the same as in the actual 1960s. The German military uses jet aircraft, nuclear submarines,^[7] and aircraft carriers, while civilian technology has also advanced considerably. Jet airliners,^[19] televisions,^[20] hair-dryers, coffee machines, and photocopiers^[21] are used in Germany.

The United States and Germany appear to have sophisticated space technology. Germany's space program is based at the old rocket-testing facility at Peenemünde on the Baltic coast. The extent of space exploration is not specified, but a conversation between March and Maguire suggests that German boasts about being ahead of the Americans in the Space Race are justified.^[10]

Film

A TV film of the book was made in 1994 by HBO, starring Rutger Hauer as March and Miranda Richardson as Maguire for which she received a Golden Globe Award in 1995 for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV. Rutger Hauer's performance was also nominated, as well as the film itself. The film also received an Emmy nomination in 1995 for Special Visual Effects.^[23]

Radio

The novel was serialised on BBC radio, starring Anton Lesser as March and Angeline Ball as Charlie Maguire. It was dramatised, produced and directed by John Dryden and first broadcast on 9 July 1997. The ending is changed slightly to allow for the limitations of the medium: the entire Auschwitz camp is discovered in an abandoned state, and Charlie Maguire's passage into Switzerland is confirmed to have occurred.

Audiobook

The unabridged audiobook version of the novel was released by Random House Audio in 1993, read by Werner Klemperer, best remembered for his two-time Emmy Award-winning role of bumbling Colonel Klink on the 1960s TV series Hogan's Heroes.

Citations

Works cited

• Harris, Robert (2000). Archangel; Fatherland. Cresset Editions. ISBN 0-09187-209-X. Although this cited edition is an omnibus volume of two novels, the page numbering is apparently the same as in the earlier single editions. The 2012 edition is numbered differently.