Look Who's Back (38 page)

A number of leading military figures are cited throughout the book. Chief amongst these is
Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz (1891–1980),
commander-in-chief of the German navy from 1943. Hitler nominated Dönitz head of state after his death; there was little left for him to do but authorise Germany’s unconditional surrender on 7 May, 1945. Sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment at Nuremberg, Dönitz lived almost another twenty-five years following his release in 1956.
Wilhelm Keitel (1882–1946),
supreme commander of the armed forces, and his deputy
Alfred Jodl (1890–1946),
likewise played leading roles in the surrender. Both were tried and hanged as war criminals at Nuremberg.
Heinz Guderian (1888–1954)
and
Walther Wenck (1900–1982)
were both army generals during the war, as was
Felix Steiner (1896–1966),
whose failure to launch an offensive from Berlin in April 1945 was the trigger for Hitler’s fit in the famous scene from
Downfall
, endlessly parodied on YouTube.
Friedrich Paulus (1890–1957)
commanded the German forces in the Battle of Stalingrad, after which he spent ten years in Soviet captivity.
Walter von Brauchitsch (1881–1948)
was commander-in-chief of the German army at the beginning of the war and one of the key players in the Blitzkrieg against France. When the army failed to take Moscow, however, Brauchitsch fell from favour.

Of the other historical figures referred to in the novel, the best known may be
Wernher von Braun (1912–77),
the “father of rocket science”, who took the decision to surrender to the Americans rather than Russians in 1945, and whose work was
partially responsible for the moon landings in 1969.
Konrad Zuse (1910–95)
was another German engineer, who is often credited with being the inventor of the computer. The wily
Franz von Papen (1879–1969)
was surprised to find himself on trial with Göring et al. at Nuremberg, as he was a representative of Germany’s old conservative elite rather than a Nazi, one of the faction which believed it could manipulate Hitler and use the mass appeal of National Socialism to further its own ends. A key player in smoothing the way for Anschluss in 1938, von Papen then spent most of the war as ambassador to Turkey. Acquitted at Nuremberg, von Papen did a short spell in prison after being convicted by a German court.
Hjalmar Schacht (1877–1970)
was likewise acquitted at Nuremberg, having been ousted as minister of economics in 1937. A decade earlier, Schacht’s efforts had helped put an end to the hyperinflation in Germany.
Erich Kempka (1910–75)
was the Führer’s chauffeur from 1934 to 1945, and one of those tasked with burning Hitler’s and Eva Braun’s bodies after they committed suicide.
Adam Müller (1884–1945)
was a publisher and also ran a printing firm, which was responsible for both
Mein Kampf
and the official Nazi paper, the
Völkischer Beobachter
. He hanged himself in his cell after being arrested by the Americans.
Josef Stolzing-Cerny (1869–1942)
was a journalist who wrote for the
Völkischer Beobachter
and who read a draft of
Mein Kampf
.
Fritz Todt (1891–1942),
who died in a plane crash during the war, was an engineer involved in the building of the German Autobahnen (motorways) after 1933. Later, his Todt Organisation, whose staff included
Friedrich Tamms (1904–80),
built the defensive line in the West, as well as Hitler’s military H.Q.
on the Eastern Front, the Wolf’s Lair. The Jewish
Tietz
family introduced the department store to Germany and established the Kaufhof chain, which is still going strong.
Theodor Morrell (1886–1948)
was Hitler’s personal physician, known for his unconventional treatments. Morbidly obese, he died from a stroke.
Leni Riefenstahl (1902–2003)
has been called the greatest female filmmaker of the twentieth century. She became mesmerised with Hitler in the early 1930s and produced a number of impressive propaganda films for the Nazis, most famously
Triumph of the Will
. Also a photographer, dancer and actress, she went on to have a long and successful career after the war, although to many her legacy is tainted by her association with the Nazi regime.
Heinrich Hoffmann (1885–1957)
met Hitler in 1919 and soon became the Nazi Party’s official photographer. Eva Braun worked in his studio, which is how she came to know Adolf.
Geli Raubal (1908–31)
was Hitler’s half-niece with whom he lived from 1929 until her suicide two years later. Hitler adored Geli and was a domineering presence in her life, keeping a close watch on her every move.
Traudl Junge (1920–2002)
was the Führer’s secretary from December 1942 until his death. The film
Downfall
was based on her recollections of the last days of the Reich.

The conversation between the teenage boys in the dry cleaner’s will probably leave the non-German reader as much at a loss as it does Hitler, and some clarification here may be helpful. “Stromberg” is a popular German comedy which has so far run to five series. Inspired by the B.B.C. hit “The Office”, it stars Christoph Maria Herbst, who for his performance as Bernd Stromberg won the same Adolf Grimme Prize
that Hitler is awarded in the novel. Coincidentally, Herbst also narrated the German audiobook of
Look Who’s Back
. The “
other Stromberg
” refers to a send-up that was a regular feature on “Switch reloaded”, a parody show on German television. In it, the Stromberg character becomes a rather ineffectual Hitler figure, trying to solve the problems of the Third Reich from his “office” on the Obersalzberg in the Bavarian Alps.
Stefan Raab, Harald Schmidt
and
Hape Kerkeling
are mentioned in the same breath early in the novel. All three are well-known figures of television comedy and recipients of the Adolf Grimme Prize. Amongst other things, Raab has hosted a German talent show; he also composed and performed the forgettable “Wadde hadde dude da” at the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest, somehow finishing fifth. Schmidt hosted a late-night chat show on German television where he would occasionally do Hitler impersonations. Kerkeling has appeared in many comedy shows and once almost succeeded in gaining entrance to the official residence of the German president when he dressed up as Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
Mario Barth
and
Ingo Appelt
are both veterans of the German comedy scene, while
Atze Schröder
is a fictitious character whose performer refuses to reveal his true identity and has successfully defended his right to remain anonymous in court.

Finally, a guide to the acronyms dotted liberally throughout the book. The full name of the Nazi Party was the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers’ Party) or
N.S.D.A.P.
Readers may well be familiar with the Nazi organisations of the
S.A.
(Sturmabteilung) and particularly the
S.S.
(Schutzstaffel). The former,
under Ernst Röhm, was the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi party, its thuggish stormtroopers in their trademark brown shirts regularly beating up political opponents on the left. After the 1934 purge, however, the organisation was eclipsed by Himmler’s S.S., which became one of the most powerful entities in Nazi Germany and was in great measure responsible for the worst humanitarian crimes committed in the Third Reich. The
D.N.V.P.
(Deutschnationale Volkspartei) was another nationalist party in inter-war Germany with a more conservative and thus smaller following than the Nazis. Believing it could piggy-back on the mass appeal of National Socialism, the D.N.V.P. was one of the factions responsible for helping Hitler to power in 1933.
I.G. Farben
was a vast pharmaceutical conglomerate, which notoriously produced the Zyklon B used to gas millions in the Holocaust.

Modern German political parties love acronyms too. The
C.D.U.
(Christian Democratic Union) is the centre-right party of Angela Merkel; in Bavaria, the same movement is represented by its more conservative sister party, the
C.S.U.
(Christian Social Union). On the left is the
S.P.D.
(Social Democratic Party of Germany), while the
F.D.P.
(Free Democratic Party) is the German liberal party which has frequently been a coalition partner in government. The
N.P.D.
(National Democratic Party) is the home of the far right in Germany, while
B.I.G.
(Alliance for Innovation and Justice) is a minority party representing Muslims and their integration in Germany.

JAMIE BULLOCH

TIMUR VERMES
was born in Nuremberg in 1967, the son of a German mother and a Hungarian father who fled the country in 1956. He studied history and politics and went on to become a journalist. He has written for the
Abendzeitung
and the
Cologne Express
and worked for various magazines. He has ghostwritten several books since 2007. This is his first novel.

JAMIE BULLOCH
is the translator of novels by Daniel Glattauer, Katharina Hagena, Paulus Hochgatterer, Birgit Vanderbeke, Daniela Krien and Alissa Walser.