My Father's Country by by Wibke Bruhns
This is a horrifyingly true story, in part a loving tribute to a family, but also a relentlessly honest, warts-and-all account of its disintegration through two World Wars, culminating in the execution of Hans Georg Klamroth, the Author's father, for his part in the plot to assassinate Hitler on July 20th, 1944.
The Klamroths were a haut-bourgoisie Prussian family, prosperous merchants since their business was founded in the late 18th century and very sure of their station in society. Thanks to their wealth they were able to get 'Junkered-up' - joining the aristocracy - by their ability to afford commissions for their sons in prestigious cavalry regiments: in short, their money and social position created a life which was the envy of many, and an easy prosperity which all took for granted.
The author's grandfather, Kurt Klamroth, was a meticulous archivist, and it is thanks to his efforts in keeping every scrap of correspondence, every card and every bill ever received that Wibke Bruhns is able to delve so deeply and entertainingly into her family's early life. Kurt and his wife Gertrud were delighted with the arrival of their two sons, Hans Georg (called HG) and Kurt Junior; they were eager for them to be raised to believe that 'it was an honour and a duty to serve the fatherland', and to follow the rules of Kurt's class, which were fear of God, manly courage and self-control - a heavy burden for little boys to carry, but typical of their society's expectations.
In spite of Kurt and Gertrud's efforts to instil the warrior spirit in their children, when the First World War started Kurt employed all his considerable infuence to keep his sons out of it, especially as he himself has been called back to serve because of his reserve officer status. But HG is on fire: it's fight for the honour of the fatherland or bust! You can't keep an eager boy from a fight, with impunity, 'when he has had to absorb 'three cheers for Kaiser and fatherland' with his mother's milk'. Kurt purchases a commission for HG to train as an officer cadet with a regiment of dragoons, and the die is cast.
HG conducts himself honourably, is wounded on the Russian border and awarded an Iron Cross 2nd class (not good enough - he wanted 1st class, and wanted to keep fighting until it was attained!); he is also disgusted with 'the honourable peace' being negotiated by Germany's leaders, and both father and son are subsequently horrified by the terms of surrender agreed to in the infamous Treaty of Versailles.
What follows is a gripping account of fiercely nationalistic Germany's abject and utter humiliation by the Allies, who starved and bankrupted the entire country in a shameful display of power, thus sowing the seeds of hatred, despair and revolt, a perfect spawning ground for Nazism.
Thanks to Kurt and Gertrud's obsession with paper - and, it must be said, the great good luck that all these records survived the war - the author is able to recount vividly the everyday hardships suffered even in a wealthy household, the decimation of their fortune by rampant inflation and the struggles of HG and his father to keep the business afloat; they are unimpressed by the upstart Hitler and his cronies, and like most others of their class, expect him to eventually crawl back into the woodwork. But as history shows us, that didn't happen: the Nazi party was built on ruined lives and the bitterness that feeds on injustice, and redemption was promised by a radical new political movement led by a man who was saying things everyone wanted to hear: Hitler and his party were on the rise.
In the midst of this chaos, HG married 'the love of his life', Else Podeus, a highly intelligent, vivacious Danish girl from a very wealthy family, and the 20s and 30s are documented through letters and diaries with the arrival of their beloved children, the gradual return to prosperity - and the insidious rise of a nationalism characterised by the amount of one's Aryan blood, which had to be documented and proved to the authorities' satisfaction. The persecution of the Jews had begun in earnest, and the Klamroth diaries and letters start to betray a gradual coercion of the family's principles and ideals to the point of appearing to follow the Party line.
With the advent of war, HG is recalled to serve as an intelligence officer with the Abwehr, the intelligence Department of the General Staff. Else has to keep the home fires burning, which she does admirably for four years - until she accidentally discovers correspondence amongst HG's papers from another woman. Throughout their marriage, HG has strayed many times - looking at his photos it's hard to imagine why he attracted so many women, but this time, the long-suffering Else has had ENOUGH! She doesn't want to remain married to him, but her family responsibilities are such that she is trapped: Germany's victories are fading memories, the enemy bombs are dropping everywhere, food shortages are sapping everyone's strength, and her mother is terminally ill. Where could she go with five children in wartime Germany? She is a desperately unhappy woman.
And destined, with the whole family, to be unhappier still, when a group of officers secretly plot to assassinate Hitler in July, 1944. The attempt fails, and the arrests begin: HG is arrested; he was not part of the plot but knew of its existence through his son-in-law, Bernhard, who was 'in it, up to his neck'. HG's crime is in keeping silent; he is hanged with the many others who had a peripheral knowledge that something was going to be done. Bernhard is hanged on August 15th, some three weeks after the birth of his son, who was born the day after the failed assassination attempt. The family's grief is unimaginable and the repercussions are frightening, but they manage ultimately to survive the great maelstrom that engulfs them as it did everyone else; their suffering is not unique because everyone is a victim of the tragedy and evil that is war.
Wibke Bruhns survived, too, a six year old child with very few memories of her early childhood, which is perhaps, a good thing. But she has, through piecing together the jigsaw puzzle of her family's history through two catastrophic wars, given us an unforgettably vivid account of what it was like to be German, for better or worse one of the Deutschen Volke, a dishonoured and 'battered nation crowding behind one man who was telling the whole world: we are somebody again, and we're going to show you.'
This reader was immeasurably moved by this book, particularly as every word is true, and in spite of its grim theme, Wibke Bruhns infuses her narrative with a wonderful, zany much-needed humour, none of which is lost in the excellent translation from the german by Shaun Whiteside. This authentic account of the most infamous period in modern history reads like a fast-paced suspense novel, and it won't let you go until it's finished. Take the plunge and read it!
Reviewer: Julia Kuttner
22 July 2008
