Bertolt Brecht: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder 4

by Bertolt Brecht

  THE JUDGE: Indeed.

  THE INSPECTOR: Stau naturally can’t be expected to keep Arndt on as his partner if Arndt can be shown to have acted in a provocative way. And any loss he has caused will have to be made up to Stau, see?

  THE JUDGE: Yes, I do indeed see. For a moment he looks thoughtfully at the inspector, who resumes his blank official expression. Yes, then I suppose the long and the short of it will be that Arndt provoked the SA men. It seems that the fellow had made himself generally disliked. Didn’t you tell me that the goings-on in his own family had already led the landlord to complain? Ah well, I know this shouldn’t really be dragged up, but anyway we can take it that there will be relief in those quarters if he moves out shortly. Thank you very much, Tallinger, you’ve been a great help.

  The judge gives the inspector a cigar. The inspector leaves. In the doorway he meets the official prosecutor, who is just entering.

  THE PROSECUTOR to the judge: Can I have a word with you?

  THE JUDGE as he peels an apple for his breakfast: You can indeed.

  THE PROSECUTOR: It’s about the case of Häberle, Schünt and Gaunitzer.

  THE JUDGE otherwise occupied: Yes?

  THE PROSECUTOR: It seems quite a straightforward case on the face of it …

  THE JUDGE: Right. I really don’t see why your department decided to prosecute, if you don’t mind my saying so.

  THE PROSECUTOR: What do you mean? The case has caused a deplorable stir in the neighbourhood. Even members of the party have thought it ought to be cleared up.

  THE JUDGE: I simply see it as a plain case of Jewish provocation, that’s all.

  THE PROSECUTOR: Oh, rubbish, Goll! Don’t imagine our indictments can be dismissed so lightly just because they seem a bit tersely expressed these days. I could have guessed you’d blithely settle for the most obvious interpretation. Better not make a boob of this. It doesn’t take long to get transferred to the Silesian backwoods. And it’s not all that cosy there these days.

  THE JUDGE puzzled, stops eating his apple: I don’t understand that one little bit. Are you seriously telling me you propose to let the Jew Arndt go free?

  THE PROSECUTOR expansively: You bet I am. The fellow had no idea of provoking anyone. Are you suggesting that because he’s Jewish he can’t expect justice in the courts of the Third Reich? That’s some pretty queer opinions you’re venting there, Goll.

  THE JUDGE irritably: I was venting no opinions whatever. I simply concluded that Häberle, Schünt and Gaunitzer were provoked.

  THE PROSECUTOR: But can’t you see it wasn’t Arndt who provoked them but that unemployed fellow, what’s his damn name, the one clearing the snow, yes, Wagner?

  THE JUDGE: There’s not one single word about that in your indictment, my dear Spitz.

  THE PROSECUTOR: Of course not. It merely came to the attention of the Prosecutor’s office that those SA men had made an assault on Arndt. Which meant that we were officially bound to take action. But if witness von Miehl should testify in court that Arndt wasn’t in the street at all during the dispute, whereas that unemployed fellow, what’s his damn name, yes, Wagner, was hurling insults at the SA, then it will have to be taken into account.

  THE JUDGE tumbling to earth: Is that what von Miehl is supposed to be saying? But he’s the landlord who wants to get Arndt out of his building. He’s not going to give evidence for him.

  THE PROSECUTOR: Come on, what have you got against von Miehl? Why shouldn’t he tell the truth under oath? Perhaps you don’t realise that, quite apart from the fact that he’s in the SS, von Miehl has pretty good contacts in the Ministry of Justice? My advice to you, Goll old man, is to treat him as a man of honour.

  THE JUDGE: That’s what I’m doing. After all, you can’t call it exactly dishonourable these days not to want a Jewish shop in one’s building.

  THE PROSECUTOR generously: If the fellow pays his rent …

  THE JUDGE diplomatically: I believe he’s supposed to have reported him already on another matter …

  THE PROSECUTOR: So you’re aware of that? But who told you it was in order to get the fellow out? Particularly as the complaint was withdrawn? That suggests something more like a particularly close understanding, wouldn’t you say? My dear Goll, how can you be so naive?

  THE JUDGE now getting really annoyed: My dear Spitz, it’s not that simple. The partner I thought would want to cover him wants to report him, and the landlord who reported him wants to cover him. You have to know the ins and outs.

  THE PROSECUTOR: What do we draw our pay for?

  THE JUDGE: Shockingly mixed-up business. Have a Havana?

  The prosecutor takes a Havana and they smoke in silence. Then the judge gloomily reflects.

  THE JUDGE: But suppose it’s established in court that Arndt never provoked anybody, then he can go on and sue the SA for damages.

  THE PROSECUTOR: To start with he can’t sue the SA but only Häberle, Schünt and Gaunitzer, who haven’t a penny – that’s if he doesn’t simply have to make do with that unemployed fellow, what’s his damn name … got it, Wagner. With emphasis: Secondly he may think twice before suing members of the SA.

  THE JUDGE: Where is he at the moment?

  THE PROSECUTOR: In hospital.

  THE JUDGE: And Wagner?

  THE PROSECUTOR: In a concentration camp.

  THE JUDGE with a certain relief: Oh well, in those circumstances I don’t suppose Arndt will be wanting to sue the SA. And Wagner won’t be particularly keen to make a big thing of his innocence. But the SA aren’t going to be all that pleased if the Jew gets off scot free.

  THE PROSECUTOR: The SA will have proof in court that they were provoked. By the Jew or by the Marxist, it’s all the same to them.

  THE JUDGE still dubious: Not entirely. After all the dispute between the SA and the unemployed man did result in damage to the shop. Storm Troop 7 isn’t altogether in the clear.

  THE PROSECUTOR: Oh well, you can’t have everything. You’ll never be able to satisfy all parties. As for which you should aim to satisfy, that’s a matter for your sense of patriotism, my dear Goll. All I can say is that patriotic circles – by which I mean the highest quarters of the SS – are looking to the German judiciary to show a bit more backbone.

  THE JUDGE with a deep sigh: The process of law is getting a bit complicated these days, my dear Spitz, you must admit.

  THE PROSECUTOR: Of course. But you have an excellent remark by our Minister of Justice to guide you. Justice is what serves the German people best.

  THE JUDGE apathetically: Mm yes.

  THE PROSECUTOR: Mustn’t let it get you down, that’s all. He gets up. So now you’ve got the background. Should be plain sailing. See you later, my dear Goll.

  He leaves. The judge is not at all happy. He stands by the window for a while. Then he leafs aimlessly through his papers. Finally he presses the bell. A court usher enters.

  THE JUDGE: Go and find Detective-Inspector Tallinger in the witnesses’ room and bring him back here. Discreetly.

  Exit the usher. Then the inspector reappears.

  THE JUDGE: Tallinger, you nearly landed me in the cart with your idea of treating this as a case of provocation on Arndt’s part. Apparently Mr von Miehl is all set to swear that it was Wagner the unemployed man who did the provoking and not Arndt.

  THE INSPECTOR giving nothing away: So they say, your honour.

  THE JUDGE: What’s that mean: ‘so they say’?

  THE INSPECTOR: That Wagner shouted the offensive remarks.

  THE JUDGE: Isn’t it true?

  THE INSPECTOR offended: Your honour, whether it’s true or not it’s not something we can …

  THE JUDGE firmly: Listen to me, Detective-Inspector Tallinger. This is a German court you’re in. Has Wagner admitted that or has he not?

  THE INSPECTOR: Your honour, I didn’t go to the concentration camp myself, if you want to know. The official report of his deposition – Wagner’s supposed to have got something wrong with his kidneys
– says that he admitted it. It’s only that …

  THE JUDGE: There you are, he did admit it. It’s only that what?

  THE INSPECTOR: He served in the war and was wounded in the neck, and according to Stau, you know, Arndt’s partner, he can’t talk above a whisper. So how von Miehl could have heard him from the first floor hurling insults isn’t entirely …

  THE JUDGE: I imagine it will be said that you don’t need a voice in order to tell someone to ‘get stuffed’, as they put it. You can do it with a simple gesture. It’s my impression the Prosecutor’s department want to provide the SA with some way out of that sort. More precisely, of that sort and no other.

  THE INSPECTOR: Yes, your honour.

  THE JUDGE: What is Arndt’s statement?

  THE INSPECTOR: That he had no part in it and just hurt his head falling down the stairs. That’s all we can get out of him.

  THE JUDGE: The fellow’s probably quite innocent and got into it accidentally, like Pontius Pilate and the Creed.

  THE INSPECTOR gives up: Yes, your honour.

  THE JUDGE: And it should be good enough for the SA if their men get off.

  THE INSPECTOR: Yes, your honour.

  THE JUDGE: Don’t stand there saying ‘yes, your honour’ like a damn metronome.

  THE INSPECTOR: Yes, your honour.

  THE JUDGE: What are you trying to tell me? Don’t get on your high horse now, Tallinger. You must make allowances for my being a bit on edge. I realise you’re an honest man. And when you advised me you must have had something at the back of your mind?

  THE INSPECTOR being a kindly soul, plunges in: Hasn’t it struck you that our deputy prosecutor might simply be after your job and is putting the skids under you, sir? That’s what they’re saying. – Look at it this way, your honour: you find the Jew not guilty. He never provoked a soul. Wasn’t around. Got his head bashed in by pure accident, some quarrel between a different lot of people. Then after a while, back he comes to the shop. No way Stau can prevent it. And the shop is about eleven thousand marks short. Stau will be just as hit by this loss, because now he can’t claim the eleven thousand back from Arndt. So Stau, from what I know of his sort, is going to tackle the SA about his jewels. He can’t approach them in person because being in partnership with a Jew counts as being sold out to Judah. But he’ll have people who can. Then it will come out that the SA go pinching jewels in an upsurge of national feeling. You can guess for yourself how Storm Troop 7 is going to look at your verdict. And the man in the street won’t understand anyway. Because how can it be possible for a Jew to win a case against the SA under the Third Reich?

  For some while there has been noise off. It now becomes quite loud.

  THE JUDGE: What’s that shocking noise? Just a minute, Tallinger. He rings. The usher comes in. What’s that din, man?

  THE USHER: The courtroom’s full. And now they’re jammed so tight in the corridors that nobody can get through. And there are some people from the SA there who say they’ve got to get through because they’ve orders to attend.

  Exit the usher, while the judge just looks scared.

  THE INSPECTOR continuing: Those people are going to be a bit of a nuisance to you, you know. I’d advise you to concentrate on Arndt and not stir up the SA.

  THE JUDGE sits brokenly, holding his head in his hands. In a weary voice: All right, Tallinger, I’ll have to think it over.

  THE INSPECTOR: That’s the idea, your honour.

  He leaves. The judge gets up with difficulty and rings insistently. Enter the usher.

  THE JUDGE: Just go over and ask Judge Fey of the High Court if he’d mind looking in for a moment.

  The usher goes. Enter the judge’s maidservant with his packed breakfast.

  THE MAIDSERVANT: You’ll be forgetting your own head next, your honour. You’re a terrible man. What did you forget this time? Try and think. The most important thing of all! She hands him the packet. Your breakfast! You’ll be going off again and buying those rolls hot from the oven and next thing we’ll have another stomach-ache like last week. Because you don’t look after yourself properly.

  THE JUDGE: That’ll do, Marie.

  THE MAIDSERVANT: Had a job getting through, I did. The whole building’s full of brownshirts on account of the trial. But they’ll get it hot and strong today, won’t they, your honour? Like at the butcher’s folk were saying ‘good thing there’s still some justice left’. Going and beating a business man up! Half the SA used to be criminals; it’s common knowledge in the neighbourhood. If we didn’t have justice they’d be making away with the cathedral. After the rings, they were; that Häberle’s got a girl friend who was on the game till six months ago. And they attacked Wagner, him with the neck wound and no job, when he was shovelling snow with everyone looking on. They’re quite open about it, just terrorising the neighbourhood, and if anybody says anything they lay for him and beat him senseless.

  THE JUDGE: All right, Marie. Just run along now.

  THE MAIDSERVANT: I told them in the butcher’s: his honour will show them where they get off, right? All the decent folk are on your side, that’s a fact, your honour. Only don’t eat your breakfast too quickly, it might do you harm. It’s so bad for the health, and now I’ll be off and not hold you up, you’ll have to be going into court, and don’t get worked up in court or perhaps you’d better eat first, it’ll only take a few minutes and they won’t matter and you shouldn’t eat when your stomach’s all tensed up. Because you should take better care of yourself. Your health’s your most precious possession, but now I’ll be off, there’s no need to tell you and I can see you’re raring to get on with the case and I’ve got to go to the grocer’s still.

  Exit the maidservant. Enter Judge Fey of the High Court, an elderly judge with whom the district judge is friends.

  THE SENIOR JUDGE: What’s up?

  THE JUDGE: I’ve got something I’d like to discuss with you if you’ve a moment. I’m sitting on a pretty ghastly case this morning.

  THE SENIOR JUDGE sitting down: I know, the SA case.

  THE JUDGE stops pacing around: How d’you know about that?

  THE SENIOR JUDGE: It came up in discussion yesterday afternoon. A nasty business.

  The judge starts again nervously pacing up and down.

  THE JUDGE: What are they saying over your side?

  THE SENIOR JUDGE: You aren’t envied. Intrigued: What’ll you do?

  THE JUDGE: That’s just what I’d like to know. I must say I didn’t realise this case had become so famous.

  THE SENIOR JUDGE slightly amazed: Indeed?

  THE JUDGE: That partner is said to be a rather disagreeable customer.

  THE SENIOR JUDGE: So I gather. Not that von Miehl is much of a humanitarian either.

  THE JUDGE: Is anything known about him?

  THE SENIOR JUDGE: Enough to go on with. He’s got those sort of contacts.

  Pause.

  THE JUDGE: Very high ones?

  THE SENIOR JUDGE: Very high.

  Pause.

  THE SENIOR JUDGE cautiously: Suppose you leave the Jew out of it and acquit Häberle, Schünt and Gaunitzer on the ground that the unemployed man provoked them before he dodged back into the shop, I imagine the SA might find that all right? Arndt won’t sue the SA in any case.

  THE JUDGE anxiously: There’s Arndt’s partner. He’ll go to the SA and ask for his valuables back. And then, you know, Fey, I’ll have the whole SA leadership gunning for me.

  THE SENIOR JUDGE after considering this argument, which apparently has taken him by surprise: But suppose you don’t leave the Jew out of it, then von Miehl will bring bigger guns to bear, to put it mildly. Perhaps you didn’t realise he’s being pressed by his bank? Arndt’s his lifebelt.

  THE JUDGE appalled: Pressed by his bank!

  There is a knock.

  THE SENIOR JUDGE: Come in!

  Enter the usher.

  THE USHER: Your honour, I really don’t know what to do about keeping seats for the Chief Stat
e Prosecutor and President Schönling of the High Court. If only their honours would let one know in time.

  THE SENIOR JUDGE since the judge says nothing: Clear two seats and don’t interrupt us.

  Exit the usher.

  THE JUDGE: That’s something I could have done without.

  THE SENIOR JUDGE: Whatever happens, von Miehl can’t afford to abandon Arndt and let him be ruined. He needs him.

  THE JUDGE crushed: Someone he can milk.

  THE SENIOR JUDGE: I said nothing of the sort, my dear Goll. And it seems to me quite extraordinary that you should imply I did. Let me make it crystal clear that I’ve not said one word against Mr von Miehl. I regret having to do so, Goll.

  THE JUDGE getting worked up: But Fey, you can’t take it that way. Not in view of our mutual relationship.

  THE SENIOR JUDGE: What on earth do you mean, ‘our mutual relationship’? I can’t interfere in your cases. You have to choose for yourself whose toes you are going to tread on, the SA or the Ministry of Justice; either way it’s your decision and nobody else’s. These days everybody’s his own best friend.

  THE JUDGE: Of course I’m my own best friend. But what do I advise myself to do?

  He stands by the door, listening to the noise outside.

  THE SENIOR JUDGE: A bad business.

  THE JUDGE agitatedly: I’ll do anything, my God, can’t you see my position? You’ve changed so. I’ll give my judgement this way or that way, whatever way they want me to, but I’ve got to know first what they want me to do. If one doesn’t know that, there’s no justice left.

  THE SENIOR JUDGE: I wouldn’t go round shouting that there’s no justice left if I were you, Goll.

  THE JUDGE: Oh God, what have I said now? That’s not what I meant. I just mean that with so many conflicting interests …

  THE SENIOR JUDGE: There are no conflicting interests in the Third Reich.

  THE JUDGE: Of course not. I wasn’t saying there were. Don’t keep weighing every single word of mine on your scales.

  THE SENIOR JUDGE: Why shouldn’t I? I am a judge.

  THE JUDGE who is breaking into a sweat: But Fey, if every word uttered by every judge had to be weighed like that! I’m prepared to go over everything in the most careful and conscientious possible way, but I have to be told what kind of a decision will satisfy higher considerations. If I allow the Jew to have stayed inside the shop then I’ll upset the landlord – I mean the partner; I’m getting muddled – and if the provocation came from the unemployed man then it’ll be the landlord who – yes, but von Miehl would rather – Look, they can’t pack me off to the backwoods in Silesia, I’ve got a hernia and I’m not getting embroiled with the SA, Fey, after all I’ve a family. It’s easy for my wife to say I should just find out what actually happened. I’d wake up in hospital if nothing worse. Do I talk about assault? No, I’ll talk about provocation. So what’s wanted? I shan’t condemn the SA of course but only the Jew or the unemployed man, only which of the two should I condemn? How do I decide between unemployed man and Jew or between partner and landlord. Whatever happens I’m not going to Silesia, Fey, I’d rather a concentration camp, the whole thing’s impossible. Don’t look at me like that. I’m not in the dock. I’m prepared to do absolutely anything.