A Small Town in Germany
Encyclopedia
A Small Town In Germany is an espionage thriller by John le Carré
, set against a background of concern that former Nazis were returning to positions of power in West Germany.
who has gone missing with secret files.
capital after World War II
mainly due to the advocacy of Konrad Adenauer
, Chancellor of West Germany after World War II, who came from the area.
; the latter is close to industrialist Klaus Karfeld, who is successfully building his new political party.
Initially, Turner suspects Leo Harting is a spy, but comes to grasp that Harting was secretly investigating Karfeld's Nazi career — as the war-time administrator of a laboratory that poisoned thirty-one half-Jews. In fact, Harting is hiding from Siebkron, and might assassinate Karfeld. To Turner's chagrin, Bradfield is unsympathetic to Harting's circumstance and uninterested in protecting him, because he considers him a criminal and a political embarrassment.
John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell , who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré"...
, set against a background of concern that former Nazis were returning to positions of power in West Germany.
Plot introduction
The novel concerns the search for an official at the British Embassy in BonnBonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
who has gone missing with secret files.
Explanation of the novel's title
Bonn is the eponymous small town, chosen as West Germany'sWest Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
capital after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
mainly due to the advocacy of Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman. He was the chancellor of the West Germany from 1949 to 1963. He is widely recognised as a person who led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that had forged close relations with old enemies France,...
, Chancellor of West Germany after World War II, who came from the area.
Plot summary
A Small Town in Germany occurs in the late 1960s, in Bonn, the capital of West Germany. From London, Alan Turner, of the British Foreign Office, arrives to investigate the disappearance of Leo Harting, a minor British Embassy officer; moreover, secret files have disappeared with him. The embassy's security chief, Rawley Bradfield, is hostile to Turner's investigation. Despite that, he is dinner party host to Turner and Ludwig Siebkron, head of the German Interior MinistryFederal Ministry of the Interior (Germany)
The Federal Ministry of the Interior is a ministry of the German federal government. Its main office is in Berlin, with a secondary seat in Bonn. The current minister of the interior is Dr...
; the latter is close to industrialist Klaus Karfeld, who is successfully building his new political party.
Initially, Turner suspects Leo Harting is a spy, but comes to grasp that Harting was secretly investigating Karfeld's Nazi career — as the war-time administrator of a laboratory that poisoned thirty-one half-Jews. In fact, Harting is hiding from Siebkron, and might assassinate Karfeld. To Turner's chagrin, Bradfield is unsympathetic to Harting's circumstance and uninterested in protecting him, because he considers him a criminal and a political embarrassment.
Characters in "A Small Town In Germany"
- Leo Harting – official at the British Embassy in Bonn
- Alan Turner – British Foreign Office Official
- Ludwig Siebkron – German Interior Ministry official
- Klaus Karfeld – German Industrialist and Neo-Nazi Politician
Allusions/references to actual history, geography and science
- At the time of publication there were worries that the extreme right was rebuilding in West Germany. However, these fears later proved to be unfounded, as the extreme right to this day remains a marginal factor in German politics, with no representation in the BundestagBundestagThe Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
. - The West German Chancellor, Kurt Georg KiesingerKurt Georg KiesingerKurt Georg Kiesinger was a German politician affiliated with the CDU and Chancellor of West Germany from 1 December 1966 until 21 October 1969.-Early career and wartime activities:...
, was, like Karfeld, a former committed Nazi, who had joined the NSDAP in 1933. Although Kiesinger was cleared of war crimes by the denazificationDenazificationDenazification was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the National Socialist ideology. It was carried out specifically by removing those involved from positions of influence and by disbanding or rendering...
courts, radical groups such as the Red Army FactionRed Army FactionThe radicalized were, like many in the New Left, influenced by:* Sociological developments, pressure within the educational system in and outside Europe and the U.S...
argued that an informal but powerful network of ex-NazisEx-NazisThe list of notable people who were at some point members of the Nazi Party, before it was declared illegal and disbanded upon the victory of the Allies. After 1945 many former party members had to go through a process of denazification and some were indicted and convicted at the Nuremberg Trials,...
, including Kiesinger, controlled the country. - Real locations in Bonn such as the British Embassy feature prominently.
Trivia
- John le Carré had previously worked in the Bonn embassy.
- The Economics Minister at the Bonn embassy was James MarjoribanksJames MarjoribanksSir James Alexander Milne Marjoribanks KCMG was a career diplomat in the British Foreign Service and became British ambassador to the European Economic Community...
. One of the characters in Le Carré's book is also called Marjoribanks. - A Small Town In Germany does not feature John le Carré's most famous character George SmileyGeorge SmileyGeorge Smiley is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Smiley is an intelligence officer working for MI6 , the British overseas intelligence agency...
.
Release details
- 1968, UK, William Heinemann, ISBN 0-434-10930-4, October 1968, Hardback
- 1970, UK, Pan, ISBN 0-330-02306-3, 3 July 1970, Paperback