Uwe Tellkamp - The Tower

‘He knew I was going to the Friends of Music, Dr Hoffmann, and that I’d be away for several hours; the neighbours above us were also away and the noise wouldn’t have been very audible on the floor above them,’ she said, pumping up the blood-pressure sleeve again

‘the letter,’ she said,

‘Dear Dr Hoffmann, The ampoules of regular insulin come from the stock of the Surgical Clinics, please sort that out with Administration and with Senior Nurse Henrike.

Dearest Edeltraut, I thought they shouldn’t have the apartment. Please don’t go to any unnecessary trouble as far as the funeral’s concerned. I’ve made the necessary arrangements with Herr Pliehwe of Earthly Journey, the undertaker’s in the Service Combine. For your widow’s pension apply to Administration, Herr Scheffler will help you. I have done forty-one years of good work. As a communist and as a doctor. This isn’t the socialism we dreamt of.’

turned the membrane of the stethoscope, pulled out the earpieces with one hand, making them collide, pumped up the sleeve, made the column of mercury in the pressure gauge contract, but had forgotten to put the earpieces back in, pumped again, the hooks holding the sleeve had loosened so that it swelled asymmetrically,

‘And,’ Niklas said, his eyes fixed on the broken display cases, the smashed glass flowers, the hammer with which Müller had reduced the crystal pendants on the chandeliers to fragments,

‘Thirty-nine ampoules,’ Edeltraut Müller said, ‘he drew them up into a urology syringe, look’,

certainly with a raspberry-coloured pout of his lips, certainly his eyes concentrating as he scored the ampoules, broke off the necks with the compress between glass and fingers, certainly with his owl-like eyebrows knitted, his fingers lifting, cool, professional actions, regular insulin worked quickly,

‘They waited until he retired,’ Edeltraut Müller said,

Police stomped over broken glass, the duty forensic doctor nodded to Richard, who caught Edeltraut Müller before she fell onto the splinters of glass beside her husband’s corpse.

Should I ever / break this my solemn oath of allegiance / may I suffer the harsh punishment of the laws / of our Republic and the contempt / of the working people

Oath of Allegiance of the National People’s Army

‘At the double!’ Nip gave a sharp nod; Christian and Pancake followed him along the empty, polished company corridor. Their footsteps echoed. Musca was on duty, saluted, his blue eyes wide. Far away, Christian thought, for him we’re already untouchable. He hummed quietly to himself. ‘Shut it, Hoffmann,’ Nip ordered. The battalion building was deserted, the companies were out on a training exercise. Outside the light was so bright it made Christian sneeze.

‘At the double!’ Nip pushed him forward like something at which he felt revulsion, which filled him with unutterable disgust. He didn’t need to tell Pancake. He had gone quiet, his lopsided grin had vanished. He too had said something. He had taken the axe out of Christian’s hand and said, ‘But he’s right.’ Among other things. There were grinning faces at the windows of the medical centre. There was a smell of spring; the fresh green on the trees did his eyes good. On the parade ground it was ‘Left about turn! Right about turn! Right wheel — march!’ with the new recruits, the sound of engines came from the technical depot, containers of food were being loaded outside the kitchens.

Inquiry . Handed over to a duty officer in headquarters. On the first floor they waited at a barred door. Christian and Pancake were interrogated separately by a man in civilian clothes.

‘You have not yet found your place in society, Hoffmann. You’re still young.’

‘The problem is not what you did, but what you said. You have betrayed the trust put in you. It is not the death of Comrade Lance Corporal Burre that we are dealing with here. That is regrettable. We will investigate it, of course. But that is not at issue here. That is a completely different case. We will investigate that separately. No, Hoffmann, you and your crony Kretzschmar, with whom we are already acquainted, very well acquainted, made remarks. You defamed us. Openly attacked our state! But we know all about that … harmful pests. Both of you. You have betrayed our trust, made subversive comments. To defame our state! That is the worst.’

‘You made disparaging remarks about us in public, Hoffmann. That will have serious consequences.’

‘We know you as well, oh yes, you and your fine family. — Oh, you don’t know? Well, you have a sister. Your fine father cheats on his wife in his free time. You don’t know that. But we do. He’s screwing your girlfriend, Fräulein Kossmann. But your sister isn’t hers. Half-sister, to be precise. Thunderstruck, eh? Have a look here.’

‘You think we don’t know you? Came to our notice through a particular incident at the pre-military training camp. Got out of it through the legal tricks of your lawyer. Already called attention to yourself at high school. Said the following at senior high school … But that’s clear. Morally degenerate. And we allow something like you to go to university, something like you that betrays our trust! I can’t even bring myself to repeat what you said. There, read it out yourself. Come on, don’t be shy. Coming the prissy little middle-class mummy’s boy, are we? And then one incident after another … We’ve got it all down in writing, confirmed by witnesses. Go on, read it out.’

‘Something like that’s only possible in this shitty state,’ Christian read out falteringly.

‘So, found our tongue again, have we? — But you’re still young. There’s still hope. At the senior high school you and a certain Heike Fieber made a great portrait of Karl Marx, in the Karl Marx Year. That shows that there is some good in you, deep down inside. That’s the influence of your mother, who comes from an illustrious family. That’s the legacy of your revolutionary grandmother, who fought and suffered for the just cause. There’s goodwill there, your blood has not yet been entirely corrupted.’

Penal Code, section 220

PUBLIC DISPARAGEMENT

1. Anyone who in public disparages the state’s system of government or state bodies, institutions or social organizations or their activities and measures taken is liable to a sentence of up to three years’ imprisonment or a suspended sentence, a prison sentence, a fine or a public reprimand.

The guard led Christian towards a checkpoint. He didn’t go out of the barracks, he was taken to the guardroom. One of the detention cells was unlocked. Christian saw: a rectangle, the rear left corner of which was cut off by sunlight, a tightly made up bunk bed, a stool. Christian turned round to the guard but he shook his head: Don’t speak. The guard locked the door behind Christian, taking care not to make too much noise. Christian sat down. The walls had been painted with mud-grey gloss paint. UNDER CONSTRUCTION, he thought. What will they do? What will happen? They’re not saying anything. He could hear the voices of the instructors coming from outside: ‘Right turn! — Left turn! At the double — march!’ The thud of boots, now and then a bellowed command: ‘Regiment atten-shun!’ The regimental commander had come and the duty officer made his report. The rumble of engines. From outside, from the guardhouse, the usual rhubarb, rhubarb before and after the changing of the guard, the clunk of metal as they took off their machine pistols, belts and mess kit. In the evening drunken soldiers bawled at him from the neighbouring cells, ‘Hey, pal, why’d they lock you up?’