| Fatherland | |
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Cover of the first UK edition |
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| Author(s) | Robert Harris |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Thriller, alternative history novel |
| Publisher | Hutchinson |
| Publication date | 7 May 1992 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 372 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-09-174827-5 (first edition, hardback) |
| OCLC Number | 26548520 |
Fatherland is a bestselling 1992 thriller by the English writer and journalist Robert Harris. It takes the form of a high concept alternative history set in a world in which Nazi Germany won World War II.
The novel was an immediate bestseller in Britain. It has sold over three million copies and has been translated into 25 languages.[1]
Contents |
The story begins in Nazi Germany, the Third Reich in April 1964, in the week leading up to Adolf Hitler's 75th birthday. The plot follows detective Xavier March, an investigator working for the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo), as he investigates the suspicious death of a high-ranking Nazi, Josef Bühler, in the Havel, on the outskirts of Berlin. As March uncovers more details he realises that he is caught up in a political scandal involving senior Nazi party officials, who are apparently being systematically murdered under staged circumstances. In fact, as soon as the body is identified, the Gestapo claims jurisdiction and orders the Kripo to close its investigation.
March meets with 'Charlie' Maguire, a female American journalist who is also determined to investigate the case. They both travel to Zürich to investigate the private Swiss bank account of one of the murdered officials. Ultimately, the two uncover the horrific truth behind the staged murders. The Gestapo is eliminating the remaining officials who planned the Holocaust (of which the German people are not generally aware) at the Wannsee Conference of 1942. This is being done in order to safeguard an upcoming meeting of Hitler and President Joseph P. Kennedy by ensuring that the crimes of the Nazi regime are not revealed. Maguire heads for neutral Switzerland with the evidence, hoping to expose it to the world. March, however, is denounced by his ten-year-old son and apprehended by the Gestapo.
In the cellars of Gestapo headquarters at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, March is tortured but does not reveal the location of Maguire. Kripo Chief Arthur Nebe stages a rescue, intending to track March as he meets with Maguire at their rendezvous in Waldshut-Tiengen on the Swiss/German border. March realises what is happening and heads for Auschwitz, leading the authorities in the wrong direction.
The Gestapo catches up with March at the unmarked site of Auschwitz's completely dismantled extermination camp. Knowing that Maguire has had time to cross the border into Switzerland, March searches for some sign that the death camp was real. As the Gestapo agents close in on him, March uncovers bricks in the undergrowth. Satisfied, he pulls out his gun while leaving the readers to draw their own conclusions.
The attendees of the Wannsee Conference are central to the plot, although most of them are already dead at the time of the novel's events.
Throughout the novel, Harris gradually explains the fictional historical developments that allowed Germany to prevail in World War II. The earliest point of divergence is that Reinhard Heydrich survives the assassination attempt in May 1942 which in reality killed him. The Nazi offensives of 1942 (Case Blue) succeed in cutting the Soviet forces off from the Baku and Caucasus oilfields and starving the Red Army of fuel, and victory is declared in 1943. The Nazis also discover the British are reading their naval codes through Enigma and replace their ciphers. The German Navy then lures the British fleet into destruction by faking naval messages. Because of this, the U-boat blockade starves Britain into submission by 1944.
King George VI and Winston Churchill withdraw to Canada in exile. Edward VIII regains the British throne at the helm of a pro-German puppet government, with Wallis Simpson as his queen. After being forced east, the remaining Soviet forces (still under Stalin) begin a protracted guerilla war.
Germany tests its first atom bomb in 1946 and fires an unarmed "V-3" missile that explodes above New York City to demonstrate an ability to attack the continental United States with long-range missiles. The US has defeated Japan in 1945 using its own nuclear weapons. Thus, the US and Germany are the two superpowers of the world.
Having achieved victory in Europe, Germany annexes Eastern Europe and most of the western Soviet Union into the Greater German Reich. Following the signing of the Treaty of Rome, Western Europe and Scandinavia are corralled into a pro-German trading bloc, the European Community.
The surviving areas of the Soviet Union, still led by Stalin, wage an endless guerrilla war with German forces in the Ural Mountains. Mounting casualties (at least 100,000 since 1960, according to the novel) have sapped the German military, despite Hitler's earlier statement (quoted in the novel) about a perpetual war to keep the German people on their toes. The novel describes dead German soldiers being returned to Germany in the middle of the night and German citizens being encouraged to make contributions to Winterhilfswerk ("Winter Relief").
By 1964, the United States and the Greater German Reich are involved in a Cold War. It is suggested that German boasts about being ahead of the Americans in the Space Race are justified.
The novel takes place from April 14-20, 1964, as Germany prepares for Hitler's 75th birthday celebrations on the 20th. A visit by the President of the United States, Joseph P. Kennedy, is planned as part of a gradual détente between the United States and the Greater German Reich. The novel suggests that the Nazi hierarchy is eager for peace, because its efforts to settle the conquered Eastern lands are failing due to the American-backed guerrilla war waged by Soviet supporters.
The Holocaust has been explained away officially as merely the relocation of the Jewish population to the East into areas where communication and travel are still very poor, explaining why it is impossible for most of their relatives in the West to contact them. Despite this, many Germans suspect the government has eliminated the Jews.
The first few pages of Fatherland feature two maps: one of the city centre of Berlin and another showing the extent of the massively expanded Greater German Reich, stretching from Alsace-Lorraine (Westmark) in the west to the Ural Mountains and lower Caucasus in the east.
The Reich has retained Austria (now known as the "Ostmark"), the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (formerly part of Czechoslovakia), and Luxembourg (now named "Moselland"). In the East, Germany has annexed Poland and Russia territory west of the Urals has been divided into five Reichkommissariats: Ostland (Belarus and the Baltic states), Ukraine, Muscovy (from Moscow to the Urals), and Caucasus, along with Generalkommissariat Taurida (Southern Ukraine and the Crimea). Also, the Reich holds control over the Antarctic territory known as New Swabia.
Berlin has been remodelled as Hitler's "capital of capitals", designed according to the wishes of Hitler and his top architect, Albert Speer. By 1964, the city boasts gargantuan Nazi monuments; the Great Hall holds 180,000 people at the highest Nazi ceremonies; the enormous Arch of Triumph is inscribed with the names of German soldiers killed in the two World Wars; and the straddling Grand Avenue, an immense boulevard lined with captured Soviet artillery and towering statues of Nazi eagles. The Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate are dwarfed by the vast, severe, granite civil buildings which dominate Berlin's city centre; the Grand Plaza, the sprawling Berlin railway station, Hitler's mammoth palace, the headquarters of the German Army, and the parliament of the powerless European Community.
The rest of Western Europe, excluding Switzerland, has been corralled by Germany into a European Community, formed from twelve nations: Norway, Sweden (which has surrendered its policy of neutrality), Finland (which has absorbed Karelia from Russia), Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland (which appears to have regained Northern Ireland from Britain), France, Spain (as in real history led by Franco), Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy (it is unspecified if Mussolini is still in control). Other countries of Fatherland's Europe include Croatia, Greece, Romania (which has recovered Bessarabia from the old USSR), a greatly expanded Hungary (which has retaken Transylvania from neighbouring Romania, the state of Slovakia is still led by Jozef Tiso and Slovak People's Party, Bulgaria (which appears to have annexed Central Macedonia and East Macedonia and Thrace from Greece), Albania, Serbia, Iceland, and Turkey.
A virtually powerless "European Parliament" is based in Berlin. At the European Parliament building, the flags of the member states are dwarfed by a swastika flag twice the size of the other flags. The nations of Fatherland's EC, despite being nominally free under their own governments and leaders (such as Franco and Edward VIII), are closely watched by Germany. The military forces of the "free" nations of Europe are only just sufficient to police their own territory and their colonies. European nations are under constant surveillance by Berlin and are subordinate to Germany in all but name.
Switzerland remains independent and is not a member of the European Community. By the time the Reich had turned its eyes to it, the stalemate of the Cold War was setting in and Switzerland had become a convenient neutral spot for American and German intelligence agents to spy on each other. Consequently, Switzerland is the last true democracy in Europe.
The United States is locked in a Cold War with the Greater German Reich. Since the end of the war in 1946, both the US and Germany have developed sophisticated military, nuclear, and space technologies. Japan was defeated by the U.S. after the United States detonated two atomic bombs on Japanese territory. The United States is said to have not participated in the Olympic Games since 1936, but is expected to in 1964.
A passing reference hints at China being ruled by a harsh government. A greatly reduced Russian rump state exists, with its capital at Omsk. The United States supplies Russia with weapons and funds, which are used by the Russians to wage an endless guerrilla war with German forces in the Ural Mountains. Although German propaganda plays down the war in the east, the death toll on the Eastern Front is severe. Africa is presumably still controlled by the European colonial system. South America is not referred to in the novel.
The British Empire retains its territories in Africa and Asia. Canada and Australia are now allied with the United States. Princess Elizabeth resides in Canada, continuing to reign over the remaining Commonwealth realms and claiming the British Crown from Edward VIII following the presumed death of her father George VI. Winston Churchill, also in Canada, speaks out against the Greater German Reich, German-controlled Europe, and the puppet British regime. However, Great Britain is afforded a great deal of respect from the German Reich as its Empire and historical institutions were greatly admired by Adolf Hitler and German society in general even in the years before World War II.
The novel does not make references to the League of Nations or to a possible existence of the United Nations. The International Red Cross exists in the world of Fatherland.
The novel describes that since the end of the war, a nuclear stalemate has developed between Germany and the United States, which seems to overshadow international relations. New German buildings are constructed with mandatory fallout shelters; the Reichsarchiv (German National Archive) claims to have been built to withstand a direct missile hit. Despite the high death toll on the Eastern Front, the German military is afraid to use nuclear weapons in case they provoke an American nuclear attack on the Reich. It is not explicitly stated whether Germany and the United States are the only nuclear powers in the world of Fatherland.
In the novel, Western Europe has been left relatively untouched by the Reich, as Germany concentrates on the conquest of what is left of the USSR. The United Kingdom holds on to the remains of its empire and Germany relies on the British to keep the peace in Africa and Asia.
Although Hitler has taken some steps to soften his image, no substantive changes have taken place in the Nazi regime's basic character. The Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933, the legal bases for Hitler's dictatorship, still remain in effect. The press, radio and the new medium of television are very tightly controlled. Dissenters are dealt with very harshly, often being sent to concentration camps.
In the novel, the bedrock of Nazi ideology is still the policy of blaming subversives for social problems. Jews (see anti-semitism), communists, homosexuals, incest, and interracial relationships (particularly between "Aryans" and Slavs) continue being scapegoats for the Nazi Party. The Nazi view of other peoples has also been forced to change. With the extermination of the Jews now completed and most of Europe and Russia under German control, the Nazi Party appears to have spent the early 1960s blaming the United States for causing Germany's problems. Nazi propaganda has previously depicted America as a land of corruption, degeneracy and poverty. However, as the diplomatic meeting between Hitler and Kennedy nears, German propaganda is forced to change its image of America to a more positive view. In 1964, the Nazi Party no longer has any internal or external enemies left to fight and as a consequence, the very structure of Nazi society is starting to fall apart.
Despite its ideological and moral decline, Germany enjoys a very high standard of living, with its citizens living off the high-quality produce of their European satellite states and freed from physical labour by thousands of Polish, Czech and Ukrainian slaves. The European nations produce high-quality consumer goods for German citizens while also providing services, such as the SS academy at Oxford University and German holiday resorts in Spain, France, and Greece. Products from across Europe and their colonial empires flood into Germany, providing German citizens with a wide choice of high-quality goods. Hitler's crabbed, banal personal tastes in art and music have become the norm for society, creating a stagnant and boringly repetitive cultural atmosphere.
The social structure of Nazi Germany has changed considerably from the 1940s. Military service is still compulsory. Eastern Europe has been colonized by German settlers (although local partisan resistance movements are still active) and the German population has soared as a result of Nazi emphasis on childbirth. Increasing numbers of Nazi officials are university-educated bureaucrats. The SS serves as the country's police force, and concentration camps are still in existence for political dissidents, with the International Red Cross occasionally given staged inspections.
According to the main characters, however, German society in the early 1960s is becoming more and more rebellious. An increasing number of people have no memory of the instability that paved the way for Hitler's rise to power. Student protests, particularly against the war in the Urals, American and British cultural influence (including the rise of The Beatles' popularity, already denounced in the official German press), and growing pacifism are all found in Nazi society. Jazz music is still popular and Germany claims to have come up with a version which is free from "negro influence". In spite of the general repressiveness, the Beatles' real-life Hamburg engagements have happened here as well. Germany appears to be under constant attack by terrorist groups, with officials assassinated and civilian airliners bombed in-flight. Religion is now officially discouraged by the state, and the Hitler Youth is compulsory for all children. Universities are centres of student dissent, and the White Rose movement is once again active. The Nazis continue with their policies for women, encouraging them to remain in the home and bring up many children; prolific romantic novelist Barbara Cartland seems popular amongst women in this alternate history, writing works such as "The Kaiser's Ball" a title which seems conceived to cater to this large German female market. Nazi organisations such as Kraft durch Freude still exist and fulfil their original roles. A sprawling transport network covers the entire Reich, including vast autobahnen and railways in the manner of the actually proposed Breitspurbahn system, carrying immense trains.
The level of technology in Fatherland is much the same as in the actual 1960s, and in some respects, is more advanced. The German military makes use of jet aircraft, nuclear submarines, and aircraft carriers, while civilian technology has also advanced considerably. Jet airliners, televisions, hair-dryers and even photocopiers are used in Germany.
The novel makes references to the space programmes of the United States and the Third Reich, both of whom appear to possess sophisticated space technology. Judging by a reference made by Maguire, both the United States and the Third Reich launched the first artificial satellites into orbit shortly after the war, from White Sands and Peenemünde respectively. The extent of space technology and exploration in the world of Fatherland is unknown.
| Fatherland | |
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| Directed by | Christopher Menaul |
| Produced by | Gideon Amir Ilene Kahn Frederick Muller Leo Zisman |
| Written by | Novel Robert Harris Screenplay Stanley Weiser Ron Hutchinson |
| Starring |
Rutger Hauer |
| Music by | Gary Chang |
| Cinematography | Peter Sova |
| Editing by | Tariq Anwar |
| Distributed by | HBO Films |
| Release date(s) | 26 November 1994 (United States) 27 January 1995 (Germany) February 1995 (Sweden) |
| Running time | 106 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £4.1 million |
A TV movie of the book was made in 1994 by HBO, starring Rutger Hauer as March and Miranda Richardson as Maguire for which she received a Golden Globe Award in 1995 for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV. Rutger Hauer's performance was also nominated, as well as the film itself. The film also received an Emmy nomination in 1995 for Special Visual Effects.[2]
The novel was also serialised on BBC radio, starring Anton Lesser as March and Angeline Ball as Charlie Maguire. It was dramatised, produced and directed by John Dryden and first broadcast on 9 July 1997. The ending is changed slightly to allow for the limitations of the medium: the entire Auschwitz death camp is discovered in an abandoned state, and Charlie Maguire's passage into Switzerland definitely occurs.
The unabridged audiobook version of the novel was released by Random House Audio in 1993, read by Werner Klemperer, best remembered for his two-time Emmy Award-winning role of bumbling Colonel Klink on the 60s TV series Hogan's Heroes.
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