Heinz Rein - Berlin Finale

Towards morning the artillery fire swells again to a monstrous volume, the big house rocks and trembles under the massive explosions, the foundations seem to shake, the air is run through with an incessant rage and roar, a flaming sky arches above the city, and still dust, lead and fire rain down upon it, columns of fire burst up amidst showers of sparks when the shells from the rocket launchers explode. Blood-red and overcast with grey, the sun rises over the horizon in the east, and casts its rays over the mown-down city that smokes, smoulders and burns from a thousand wounds, which from all sides is ceaselessly hammered by all calibres, by rocket launchers, field howitzers, anti-aircraft guns, mortars, tank guns and anti-tank guns, on-board weapons, heavy machine guns, mine throwers and bomb shafts.

When the dull light of day pierces the clouds of smoke, the air-raid warden comes to the boiler room. He greets them abruptly and turns to Dr Böttcher. ‘I would like to warn you, gentlemen!’

‘Warn us?’ Dr Böttcher asks, and gets slowly to his feet. ‘What about?’

‘The SS are close by, they are sitting in the Europahaus and the Excelsior,’ the air-raid warden replies, ‘the battle is now concentrated on Saarlandstrasse.’

Dr Böttcher listens to the noise, but the thunder of artillery fire is too great for him to make out fire from handguns.

‘You can believe me,’ the air-raid warden says, ‘I’m telling you the truth.’

‘You just want to get rid of us,’ says Wiegand, joining them, ‘isn’t that right?’

The air-raid warden gives Wiegand an angry look. ‘That too, of course. You’re digging a revolting hole for us with your people. If the SS come they’ll say I’ve helped you, then they’ll wring my neck, and when the Russians come, there will be a battle.’

‘Where is Dr Wiedemann?’ asks Dr Böttcher.

‘Over in the public air-raid cellar,’ the air-raid warden replies, ‘look over there to the right. That seems to be him now.’ Dr Wiedemann comes through the door.

‘Gentlemen,’ he says excitedly, ‘the situation is becoming critical, the SS are crammed together into the tightest space, they are defending every house, every hallway, every courtyard, every cellar…’

‘I told them,’ the air-raid warden interjects, ‘but they wouldn’t believe me!’

Dr Wiedemann explains the situation in short and hasty words. ‘The Russians are on the western side of Saarlandstrasse, the eastern side is still occupied by the SS, but the Russians are also behind them on Wilhelmstrasse. The front line, as it is still called, even though it is also the rear line, runs right through the block. The walls to the courtyard that abut the courtyards on Saarlandstrasse and Wilhelmstrasse, and the firewalls that divide the houses on Saarlandstrasse and Wilhelmstrasse, that is today’s front line. They are fighting bitterly over the walls that connect the courtyards, over the cracks in the cellar walls, with unparalleled ferocity, the SS are ignoring the fact that there are hundreds and thousands of women and children in the cellars.’

‘So we need to act quickly,’ Wiegand says firmly. ‘If I have understood you correctly, Dr Wiedemann, we only need to get over the walls of the courtyard to the back and we will be with the Russians.’

‘Just clear off,’ the air-raid warden says angrily. ‘You can join the Russians or the SS or the Zulus as far as I’m concerned, just get out of my cellar.’

‘We can get through a hole in the wall,’ Lassehn says.

‘Quite right,’ Dr Wiedemann replies, and shrugs slightly, ‘but of course I can’t guarantee it…’

‘Of course not,’ says Wiegand, ‘but your information is very valuable to us.’

‘We could be unlucky and end up in a courtyard that is still occupied by the SS,’ says Private Poppe.

‘You could slip on a pile of sand too,’ Schröter says dismissively. ‘I say we should try to get across to Wilhelmstrasse.’

‘That raises an important question,’ Gregor says. ‘Are we going with or without weapons?’

‘Without, of course,’ Lassehn says quickly.

‘No of course about it,’ Gregor says. ‘If we bump into the SS on the way, I’m not going to be dragged off as I was at Silesian Station and later on Stralauer Strasse.’

‘Quite right,’ says Wiegand, ‘My thoughts exactly. This time we’ll fight on, I say we bring our weapons with us. The important thing will be either to make use of the weapons at the right moment or to get rid of them at the right moment.’

‘So with weapons,’ says Dr Böttcher.

‘And what about you lot?’ Schröter says, turning to the soldiers.

‘I don’t really know,’ replies Private Kebschull.

‘You have a good old think,’ says Schröter, ‘take your time.’

‘How come you’re so wired up?’ says young Private Hellwig, ‘This isn’t a game.’

‘I’m glad you’ve worked that out at last,’ Schröter shoots back.

‘Think very carefully about what you’re doing,’ the air-raid warden says antagonistically. ‘Wenck’s tank armies reached the western edge of the city last night, and are advancing towards the city centre, the Bolsheviks are already in retreat and are even supposed to have been encircled. And you want to…’

‘I’ve always said,’ Private Hinzpeter joins in triumphantly, ‘the battle for Berlin is nothing but a trap set by the Führer for the Bolsheviks, a really big trap like the one Hindenburg set for them at Tannenberg, into the bog and then roaring down on them. Mark my words, in a few days Berlin will be free again.’

Schröter looks him scornfully up and down. ‘Good God,’ he says slowly, ‘you don’t seriously believe that?’

‘He’s dozy enough for a whole company,’ Ruppert says with a broad grin. ‘They shat in your brain and forgot to stir it. I could do a few things to you!’

‘You’re not up to much yourself,’ the air-raid warden says furiously. ‘Your comrade is right, Berlin is just a trap, a huge trap, and we will bury the Bolsheviks under the rubble, and whatever is left will be chased into the sea.’

Dr Wiedemann smiles thinly from the corners of his mouth. ‘You are allowing yourselves to be deceived today as you have been deceived before, but you have learned nothing from it,’ he says. ‘Every great defeat has been turned into a brilliant chess move by the Führer. After we were thrown out of Africa, a representative of the OKW said this to the press:

“The clearance of Africa has been part of our strategic plans for months. Now it is strengthening fortress Europe to an enormous degree. We never wanted to stay in Africa, but to keep the enemy away from European soil until we had made the continent of Europe impregnable.”’

‘But a few months previously,’ says Dr Böttcher, ‘Rommel had grandly announced in the Sportpalast:

“We are at the gates of Alexandria, and hold the key to the Suez Canal in our hands. Wherever the German soldier stands, there he stays.”’

Dr Wiedemann nods to him. ‘And after the defeat of Stalingrad, Dr Dietrich said something along these lines at a press conference:

“Were it not for the genius and the unique brilliance of the Führer, we might be up against something very serious. But Stalingrad is only one of the Führer’s many brilliant chess moves, with which he paves the way for German victory.”

Isn’t that enough?’

The air-raid warden frowns disgruntledly and says nothing.

‘It doesn’t need to be true,’ says Private Hinzpeter.

Dr Wiedemann shrugs. ‘Yes, if you only believe what you want to believe, you’re beyond help.’

‘So think very hard, we’re off in a moment,’ Schröter adds.

Dr Böttcher, Wiegand, Gregor, Lassehn, Schröter and Lucie Wiegand leave the boiler room.