A Small Town in Germany

by John le Carré

‘Protection?’ His lips barely parted as he spoke; it was as if he would prefer not to have known that he had spoken at all. ‘You might as well protect a –’ The moisture had risen suddenly on his brow. It seemed to come from outside, and to settle on him like steam. ‘Go away,’ he said to the girl. Without a word she stood up, smiled distractedly at them all and sauntered out of the restaurant, while Turner, for a moment of irrelevant, light-headed joy, followed the provocative rotation of her departing hips; but Bradfield was already talking again.

  ‘We haven’t much time.’ He was leaning forward and speaking very quickly. ‘You were with him in Hamburg and Berlin. There are certain matters known perhaps only to the two of you. Do you follow me?’

  Praschko waited.

  ‘If you can help us to find him without fuss; if you know where he is and can reason with him; if there’s anything you can do for the sake of an old friendship, I will undertake to be very gentle with him, and very discreet. I will keep your name out of it, and anyone else’s as well.’

  It was Turner’s turn to wait now, as he stared from one to the other. Only the sweat betrayed Praschko; only the fountain pen betrayed Bradfield. He clenched it in his closed fist as he leaned across the table. Outside the window, Turner saw the grey columns waiting; in the corner, the moon men watched dully, eating rolls and butter.

  ‘I’ll send him to England; I’ll get him out of Germany altogether if necessary. He has put himself in the wrong already; there is no question of re-employing him. He has done things – he has behaved in a way which puts him beyond our consideration; do you understand what I mean? Whatever knowledge he may have is the property of the Crown …’ He sat back. ‘We must find him before they do,’ he said, and still Praschko watched him with his small hard eyes, saying nothing.

  ‘I also appreciate,’ Bradfield continued, ‘that you have special interests which must be served.’

  Praschko stirred a little. ‘Go careful,’ he said.

  ‘Nothing is further from my mind than to interfere in the internal affairs of the Federal Republic. Your political ambitions, the future of your own party in relation to the Movement, these are matters far outside our sphere of interest. I am here to protect the alliance, not to sit in judgment over an ally.’

  Quite suddenly, Praschko smiled.

  ‘That’s fine,’ he said.

  ‘Your own involvement with Harting twenty years ago, your association with certain British Government agencies –’

  ‘Nobody knows about that,’ Praschko said quickly. ‘You go damn carefully about that.’

  ‘I was going to make the very same point,’ said Bradfield with a reciprocal smile of relief. ‘I would not for a moment wish to have it said of the Embassy that we harbour resentments, persecute prominent German politicians, rake up old matters long dead; that we side with countries unsympathetic to the German cause in order to smear the Federal Republic. I am quite certain that in your own sphere, you would not like to have the same things said about yourself. I am pointing to an identity of interest.’

  ‘Sure,’ said Praschko. ‘Sure.’ His harrowed face remained inscrutable.

  ‘We all have our villains. We must not let them come between us.’

  ‘Jesus,’ said Praschko with a sideways glance at the marks on Turner’s face. ‘We got some damn funny friends as well. Did Leo do that to you?’

  ‘They’re sitting in the corner,’ Turner said. ‘They did it. They’re waiting to do it to him if they get a chance.’

  ‘Okay,’ said Praschko at last. ‘I’ll go along with you. We had lunch together. I haven’t seen him since. What does that ape want?’

  ‘Bradfield,’ Saab called across the room. ‘How soon?’

  ‘I told you, Karl-Heinz. We have no statement to make.’

  ‘We just talked, that’s all. I don’t see him so often. He called me up: how about lunch some time? I said make it tomorrow.’ He opened his palms to show there was nothing up his sleeve.

  ‘What did you talk about?’ Turner asked.

  He shrugged to both of them. ‘You know how it is with old friends. Leo’s a nice guy, but – well, people change. Or maybe we don’t like to be reminded that they don’t change. We talked about old times. Had a drink. You know the kind of thing.’

  ‘Which old times?’ Turner persisted, and Praschko flared at him, very angry.

  ‘Sure: England times. Shit times. You know why we went to England, me and Leo? We were kids. Know how we got there? His name began with an H, my name began with P. So I changed it to a B. Harting Leo, Braschko Harry. Those times. Lucky we weren’t Weiss or Zachary, see: they were too low down. The English didn’t like the second half of the alphabet. That’s what we talked about: sent to Dover, free on board. Those damn times. The damn Farm School in Shepton Mallet, you know that shit place? Maybe they painted it by now. Maybe that old guy’s dead who knocked the hell out of us for being German and said we got to thank the English we’re alive. You know what we learnt in Shepton Mallet? Italian. From the prisoners of war. They were the only bastards we ever got to talk to!’ He turned to Bradfield. ‘Who is this Nazi anyway?’ he demanded, and burst out laughing. ‘Hey, am I crazy or something? I was having lunch with Leo.’

  ‘And he talked about his difficulties, whatever they may be?’ Bradfield asked.

  ‘He wanted to know about the Statute,’ Praschko replied, still smiling.

  ‘The Statute of Limitations?’

  ‘Sure. He wanted to know the law.’

  ‘Applied to a particular case?’

  ‘Should it have been?’

  ‘I was asking you.’

  ‘I thought maybe you had a particular case in mind.’

  ‘As a general matter of legal principle?’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘What policy would be served by that, I wonder? It is not in the interests of any of us that the past be resurrected.’

  ‘That’s true, huh?’

  ‘It’s common sense,’ Bradfield said shortly. ‘Which I imagine carries more weight with you than any assurances I could give. What did he want to know?’

  Praschko went very slowly now: ‘He wanted to know the reason. He wanted to know the philosophy. So I told him: “It’s not a new law, it’s an old one. It’s to make an end of things. Every country has a final court, a point you can’t go beyond, okay? In Germany there has to be a final day as well.” I spoke to him like he was a child – he’s so damned innocent, do you know that? A monk. I said, “Look, you ride a bicycle without lights, okay? If nobody’s found out after four months, you’re in the clear. If it’s manslaughter, then it’s not four months but fifteen years; if it’s murder, twenty years. If it’s Nazi murder, longer still, because they gave it extra time. They waited a few years before they began to count to twenty. If they don’t open a case, the offence lapses.” I said to him: “Listen, they’ve fooled around with this thing till it damn near died. They amended it to please the Queen and they amended it to please themselves; first they dated it from forty-five, then from forty-nine and now already they’ve changed it again.” ’ Praschko opened his hands – ‘So then he shouts at me, “What’s so damn holy about twenty years?” “There’s nothing holy about twenty years; there’s nothing holy about any number of damn years. We grow old. We grow tired. We die.” I told him that. I said to him: “I don’t know what you’ve got in your fool head, but it’s all crap. Everything’s got to have an end. The moralists say it’s a moral law, the apologists say it’s expedient. Listen, I’m your friend and I’m telling you; Praschko says: it’s a fact of life, so don’t fool about with it.” Then he got angry. You ever seen him angry?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘After lunch I brought him back here. We were still arguing, see. All the way in the car. Then we sat at this table. Right here where we are now. “Maybe I’ll find new information,” he said. I told him: “If you find new information, forget it, because there won’t be a darn thing you can do: don’t waste your time. You’re too
late. That’s the law.” ’

  ‘He didn’t suggest by any chance that he already had that information?’

  ‘Has he?’ Praschko asked, very quickly indeed.

  ‘I cannot imagine it exists.’

  Praschko nodded slowly, his eyes on Bradfield all the time.

  ‘So then what happened?’ said Turner.

  ‘That’s all. I said to him: “OK, so you prove manslaughter: you’re too late by years already. So you prove murder: you’re too late since last December. So get screwed.” That’s what I told him. So then he gets hold of my arm and he whispers to me, like a crazy priest: “No law will ever take account of what they did. You and I know that. They teach it in the churches: Christ was born of a virgin and went to Heaven in a cloud of light. Millions believe it. Listen, I play the music every Sunday, I hear them.” Is that true?’

  ‘He played the organ in Chapel,’ said Bradfield.

  ‘Jesus,’ said Praschko, lost in wonder. ‘Leo did that?’

  ‘He’s done it for years.’

  ‘So then he goes on: “But you and I, Praschko, in our own lifetime, we have seen the living witness of evil.” That’s what he says. “Not on a mountain top, not at night, but there, in the field where we all stood. We’re privileged people. And now it’s all happening again.” ’

  Turner wanted to interrupt, but Bradfield restrained him.

  ‘So then I got damned angry. I said to him, see: “Don’t come playing God to me. Don’t come screaming to me about the thousand year justice of Nuremberg that lasted four years. At least the Statute gave us twenty. And who imposed the Statute anyway? You British could have made us change it. When you handed over, you could have said to us: here, you bloody Germans, take over these cases, hear them in your own courts, pass sentence according to your penal code but first abolish the Statute. You were party to it then; be party to it now. It’s finished. It’s damn well, damn well finished.” That’s what I said to him. And he just went on looking at me, saying my name. “Praschko, Praschko.” ’

  Taking a handkerchief from his pocket, he dabbed his brow and wiped his mouth.

  ‘Don’t pay any attention to me,’ he said. ‘I get excited. You know what politicians are. I said to him, while he stared at me, I said, “This is my home: look. If I’ve got a heart left, it’s here, in this bordello. I used to wonder why. Why not Buckingham Palace? Why not the Coca-Cola Culture? But this is my country. And that’s what you should have found: a country. Not just a bloody Embassy.” He went on looking at me; I tell you I was going crazy myself. I said to him: “So suppose you do find that proof, tell me what it’s all about: to commit a crime at thirty, to be punished at sixty? What does that mean? We’re old men,” I said to him, “you and I. You know what Goethe told us: no man can watch a sunset for more than quarter of an hour.” He said to me: “It’s happening again. Look at the faces, Praschko, listen to the speeches. Somebody has to stop that bastard or you and me will be wearing the labels again.” ’

  Bradfield spoke first. ‘If he had found the proof, which we know he has not, what would he have done? If instead of still searching for it, he had already found it, what then?’

  ‘Oh Jesus; I tell you: he’d have gone crazy.’

  ‘Who’s Aickman?’ Turner said, ending the long silence.

  ‘What’s that, boy?’

  ‘Aickman. Who is she? Miss Aickman, Miss Etling and Miss Brandt … He was engaged to her once.’

  ‘She was just a woman he had in Berlin. Or was it Hamburg? Both maybe. Jesus, I forget everything. Thank God, eh?’

  ‘What became of her?’

  ‘I never heard,’ Praschko said. His little eyes were roughly hacked in the old bark.

  From their corner still, the clean faces watched without expression; four pale hands lay on the table like weapons put to rest. The loudspeaker was calling Praschko: the Fraktion was waiting for him to appear.

  ‘You betrayed him,’ Turner said. ‘You put Siebkron on to him. You sold him down the river. He told you the lot and you warned Siebkron because you’re climbing on the bandwagon too.’

  ‘Be quiet,’ said Bradfield. ‘Be quiet.’

  ‘You rotten bastard,’ Turner hissed. ‘You’ll kill him. He told you he’d found the proof; he told you what it was and he asked you to help him, and you put Siebkron on to him for his trouble. You were his friend and you did that.’

  ‘He’s crazy,’ Praschko whispered. ‘Don’t you realise he’s crazy? You didn’t see him back in those days. You never saw him back with Karfeld in the cellar. You think those boys worked you over? Karfeld couldn’t even speak: “Talk! Talk!” ’ Praschko’s eyes were screwed up very tight. ‘After we saw those bodies in the field … They were tied together. They’d been tied together before they were gassed. He went crazy. I said to him: “Listen, it’s not your fault. It’s not your fault you survived!” Did he show you the buttons, maybe? The money from the camp? You never saw that either, did you? You never went out with him and a couple of girls to have a drink? You never saw him play with the wooden buttons to start a fight? He’s crazy I tell you.’ The recollection moved him to despair. ‘I said to him, sitting here: “Come on, let’s go. Who the hell ever built Jerusalem in Germany? Don’t eat your heart out, come and screw some girls!” I said, “Listen! We got to get hold of our minds and press them in or we all go crazy.” He’s a monk. A crazy monk that won’t forget. What do you think the world is? A damn playground for a lot of crazy moralists? Sure I told Siebkron. You’re a clever boy. But you got to learn to forget as well. Christ, if the British can’t who can?’

  There was shouting as they entered the lobby. Two students in leather coats had broken the cordon at the door and were standing on the stairs, fighting with the janitors. An elderly deputy was holding a handkerchief to his mouth and the blood was running over his wrist. ‘Nazis!’ someone was shouting. ‘Nazis!’ But he was pointing to a student on the balcony and the student was waving a red flag.

  ‘Back to the restaurant,’ Bradfield said. ‘We can get out the other side.’

  The restaurant was suddenly empty. Drawn or repelled by the fuss in the lobby, deputies and visitors had vanished in their chosen directions. Bradfield was not running, but striding at a long military pace. They were in the arcade. A leather shop offered black attaché cases in fine box calf. In the next window a barber was working up a lather on the face of an invisible customer.

  ‘Bradfield, you must hear me: my God, can’t I even warn you what they are saying?’

  Saab was dreadfully out of breath. His portly body was heaving under his greasy jacket; tears of sweat lay in the pouches under his yellow eyes. Allerton, his face crimson under his black mane, peered over his shoulder. They drew back into a doorway. At the end of the corridor, calm had descended on the lobby.

  ‘What who is saying?’

  Allerton answered for him: ‘All Bonn, old boy. The whole bloody paper mill.’

  ‘Listen. There are whispers. Listen. Fantastic what they are saying. You know what happened at Hanover? You know why they rioted? They are whispering it in all the cafés: the delegates; Karfeld’s men are telling it. Already the rumours are all over Bonn. They have been instructed to say nothing; it is all a fantastic secret.’

  He glanced quickly up and down the arcade.

  ‘It’s the best for years,’ said Allerton. ‘Even for this doorp.’

  ‘Why they broke the line at the front and ran like mad dogs for the Library? Those boys who came on the grey buses? Somebody shot at Karfeld. In the middle of the music: shot at him from the window of the Library. Some friend of the woman, the librarian: Eich. She worked for the British in Berlin. She was an émigrée, she changed her name to Eich. She let him in to shoot from the window. Afterwards she told it all to Siebkron before she died. Eich. The bodyguard saw him fire, Karfeld’s bodyguard. In the middle of the music! They saw the fellow shooting from the window and ran to catch him. The bodyguard, Bradfield, that came in the grey buses! Li
sten, Bradfield! Listen what they say! They found the bullet, a pistol bullet from an English pistol. You see now? The English are assassinating Karfeld: that is the fantastic rumour. You must stop them saying it; talk to Siebkron. Karfeld is terrified; he is a great coward. Listen: that is why he is so careful, that is why he is building everywhere such a damn Schaffott. How do I say Schaffott, for God’s sake?’

  ‘Scaffold,’ said Turner.

  The crowd from the lobby swept them outwards into the fresh air.

  ‘Scaffold! An absolute secret, Bradfield! For your own information!’ They heard him cry, ‘You must not quote me, for God’s sake. Siebkron would be fantastically angry!’

  ‘Rest assured, Karl-Heinz,’ the even voice replied, absurdly formal in the turmoil, ‘your confidence will be respected.’

  ‘Old boy,’ Allerton put his head close to Turner’s ear. He had not shaved, the black locks were tipped with sweat. ‘What’s happened to Leo these days? Seems to have faded all away. They say old Eich was quite a swinger in her day … used to work with the scalphunters up in Hamburg. What have they done to your face, old boy? Close her legs too soon, did she?’

  ‘There’s no story,’ Bradfield said.

  ‘Not yet there isn’t,’ said Allerton, ‘old boy.’

  ‘There never will be.’

  ‘They say he bloody nearly got him in Bonn the night before the Hanover rally. Just wasn’t quite sure enough of his man. Karfeld was walking away from a secret conference; walking to the pick-up point and Leo damn nearly got him then. Siebkron’s chicks turned up just in time.’

  Along the embankment the motionless columns waited in patient echelons. Their black flags barely lifted in the poor breeze. Across the river, behind a line of blue trees, distant factory chimneys puffed their smoke lazily into the drab morning light. Small boats, dabs of brilliance, lay marooned on the grey grass bank. To Turner’s left stood an old boathouse which no one had yet pulled down. A notice on it proclaimed it the property of the Institute of Physical Exercise of the University of Bonn.

  They stood on the bank, side by side. The palest mist, like breath upon a glass, drew in the brown horizons and filled the near bridge. There were no sounds but the echoes of absent things, the cry of lost gulls and the moan of the lost barges, the inevitable whine of unseen drills. There were no people but the grey shadows along the waterfront and the unrelated tread of feet; it was not raining, but sometimes they felt the moisture in the mist, like the prickling of blood upon a heated skin. There were no ships, but funeral hulks drifting towards the Gods of the North; and there was no smell but the inland smell of coal and industries which were not present.