The Valley of Unknowing (35 page)

Authors: Philip Sington

BOOK: The Valley of Unknowing

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You arrived the next day. You were afraid, I suppose, that a rival would get to me first. As a journalist, as a dealer in discovery, it must be hard, when you have a secret, to know how long it will remain one; when to keep it as a means to uncover still more secrets and when to cash in. Still, you surprised me with your courtesy and your eagerness to listen. Maybe you were wearing a disguise, but I didn’t sense that you had plans to judge me. Even when you talked about
The Orphans of Neustadt
, it was with nostalgia and regret at time gone by, which is much how I think of it myself. Perhaps, in different circumstances, we could have become friends.

Eventually, sitting at the kitchen table, you shared with me what your sources at Zirndorf had shared with you. Among the scraps of intelligence, of briefings and action plans, there was, after all, no reference to Herr Anders or Herr Zoch, or any of my conversations with them. Your interest was in an informer whose name was ‘Nachtigall’. It was his or her file that had been partially reassembled, not mine. It was reports made by ‘Nachtigall’ that told the authorities about the smuggled book, and of my plans to cross the inner German border.

Could I shed any light on the identity of ‘Nachtigall’, you asked me? His or her cooperation had been secured following the arrest of a son on narcotics charges. I was not sure if I fully believed you until you showed me that sheaf of photocopies, the fuzzy, reassembled type, enlarged beyond its original size. The son, it seemed, had been a heroin addict. He had stolen a gun and attempted to rob a pharmacy. The authorities had promised ‘Nachtigall’ a reduced sentence for his son, and treatment with methadone, in return for regular intelligence on the cultural community. Then, on one of the copied pages I saw the report of a conversation between the informer and me. It concerned a forged passport, my need for a photograph and the authorship of a book published in the Federal Republic under the title
Survivors
.

At the end of this report was a note from the handler, one Lieutenant Ulrich. In it Ulrich wrote that he had rebuked ‘Nachtigall’ for not coming forward with his information right away, given the imminent possibility of
Republikflucht
, instead of waiting for the scheduled monthly meeting. ‘Nachtigall’ had expressed regret and requested permission to visit his son in prison at Christmas. In the light of his recent lapse, permission was refused.

I am sorry, Miss Connolly, if the rest of our interview did not go as well as you’d hoped. I didn’t mean to be uncooperative, but forty years of circumspection has lasting effects. The consequences must always be considered, even if they cannot be foreseen. The habit is hard to break. Besides, I was in a state of shock. I know you went back to Dublin disappointed that so many questions remained unanswered. A more ruthless soul might have pressed me harder on the meaning of ‘Nachtigall’s’ reports, with all their details so tantalising to the investigative mind. I wonder, in fact, if your sensitivity makes you ill-suited to your trade – if you had not better been a doctor, a teacher or, better yet, a musician. But these professional shortcomings do not discourage me from sending you this manuscript, which I have finally finished. Far from it. There is no one better to receive it, no one better to decide its fate – if only because in some small way you remind me of her, of my Theresa, and because in visiting me, Miss Connolly, here in my valley of unknowing, you have brought structure and form to my story, and made clear to me at last how it should end.

Afterword

Liebermann & Klaus AG

Heliostrasse 32

8032 Zürich

Switzerland

6 July

Dear Miss Connolly,

Thank you for the proofs which you were kind enough to send me, and for this opportunity to comment on their contents. While the speculations regarding myself contained in the work may not be technically libellous, there is a danger that some readers will be left with a wholly inaccurate impression of my conduct and that of my firm. As you will understand, this could prove very damaging.

I should like to state at the outset that at no point did I knowingly make any communication with the East German security services regarding a possible escape attempt by the late Bruno Krug, or any other matter. Until now, I was only dimly aware that Herr Krug had ever planned to defect from the then German Democratic Republic (even assuming the claim is credible). I would suggest, since Herr Krug failed to suggest it himself, that the idea of my involvement, and of Theresa Aden’s complicity, was deliberately planted in his mind by the security services themselves. Their intention, I feel sure, was to undermine his reasons for leaving the country and thereby retain his loyalty. It seems to me that Krug’s description of his interrogation in Berlin reveals, perhaps unintentionally, how this manipulation took place – manipulation which the information from ‘Nachtigall’ made possible. I can see no other rational explanation.

I was also completely unaware, until many years after publication, that the novel
Überlebende
(‘
Survivors
’) had not in fact been written by my client, Theresa Aden. It was more than ten years later, by which time Theresa was gravely ill, that she confided in me that the real author was, as she thought, Bruno Krug. This she did in the strictest confidence – confidence I breach now only with great reluctance.

By this time Theresa had ceased to be an active client, having turned back to music. I had given up hope of seeing another novel, but we had remained friends. In our final encounters she described to me her time in the GDR and her affair with Herr Krug. She told me that she had seriously contemplated moving to the East permanently so as to be with him (a move to the West, she was convinced, would snuff out Krug’s resurgent creativity, of which he openly and repeatedly boasted). She also told me that she had become pregnant with Krug’s child, but miscarried while in the West. I believe she must have kept this from Krug himself, since he makes no mention of it, but she told me the incident triggered a period of depression and doubt, which she found difficult to hide – and which I myself recall. From what she told me, I estimate that Theresa’s miscarriage took place a few weeks before her final visit to Krug in Dresden.

I would like to add that in my opinion Theresa Aden kept the secret surrounding the authorship of
Überlebende
not out of greed or fear of censure, but out of loyalty. I believe her love for Bruno Krug was genuine, and that his resolute and inexplicable absence following the collapse of the GDR may have contributed to the illness that eventually killed her. Though medical opinion might dismiss such an idea, I believe it is an idea Bruno Krug came to share and that his death can best be understood in that light. The coroner may have recorded an open verdict, but I firmly believe Krug took out his dinghy that day with the firm intention of never returning to land. The fact that you were sent his last work immediately beforehand provides further supporting evidence.

There remains one awkward matter, to which I plan to attend. If the claims in this book are true, the estate (if such exists) of Wolfgang Richter are due, morally if not legally, whatever royalties can be recovered from the past and present sales of his novel. I have already begun preliminary enquiries in Dresden and while I have not yet identified the next of kin – Richter is not an uncommon name – I have made one surprising discovery: that of a public swimming pool in the district of Blasewitz that was reportedly reopened a matter of weeks before German reunification. It is known officially as ‘The Wolfgang Richter Hallenbad’. Whether or not the late Herr Krug was responsible for this unusual name is not something I have been able to establish. Either way, only time will tell if the facility will prove a more lasting memorial to the young writer than any work of fiction he may or may not have written.

Yours very sincerely,

Martin Klaus

Acknowledgments

My wife Uta grew up in the former German Democratic Republic, and without her recollections, inspiration and support, this book would not have been possible. I would also like to thank other members of the Bergner family for sharing with me their memories of life in the GDR, most especially my father-in-law, Jürgen Bergner, whose extensive Stasi file provided an indispensable insight into the workings of the Stasi informer network.

I should also like to acknowledge the generous assistance of Christopher Zach, whose constructive and imaginative critique of the first draft was absolutely invaluable; and of Claudia Geithner, another former East German citizen, who not only lent me her excellent PhD thesis on East German novelists, but who carefully checked the manuscript for cultural and historical accuracy. Finally, I should like to mention Liz Foley at Harvill Secker and Alison Hennessey at Vintage for their astute and sensitive input into the final draft.

Copyright

First American Edition 2012

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