March Violets: A Bernie Gunther Novel

Like it or not, the Germans (Nazis or not) were also humans. At the mid-30s, Germany was a totalitarian country more or less like any totalitarian country today. Many supported the regime, a minority tried in vain to oppose it and some stayed in the middle, trying to not interfere and to survive (even if their non-interference was very well welcomed by the regime). This book is about that. About people trying to carry their lives, despite the circumstances. Some of them, for one reason or another, joined the regime and some of them thought they could survive without needing to make a pact with the devil. But eventually they did sell the souls.

March Violets is the first entrée in Kerr's Berlin trilogy. The book may be found separately or in Berlin Noir, the compilation of all three books. March Violets is set in the darkening days of Hitler's Germany; the 1936 Olympics are just coming to town. Kerr's protagonist, Bernard Gunther, is a private detective hired by a very wealthy conservative (i.e. non-Nazi) German industrialist to find out who murdered his daughter and her Nazi husband, burned down their home, and stole a diamond necklace from their safe. Kerr's tale gets a bit convoluted and he is prone to excessive flights of language (usually intended to be funny, but falling flat to this reader). Kerr excels in recreating the complex world of Berlin, one of Europe's most cosmopolitan cities as it is being smothered by the Nazis. Gunther is an ex-cop and we meet his former police colleagues, several colorful underworld characters, and a number of revolting Nazis, too. (Although even among the Nazis, there are levels of malevolence; Goering is on one level, Himmler on another one altogether.). Gunther also falls into bed with beautiful women with an ease sure to make most men jealous. By the way, the title refers to the numerous new members the Nazi party gained after leveraged its 1933 electoral victory into total control of the German government. Older Nazis derided these latecomers as "March Violets." An intelligent and entertaining tale that makes one want to read the second volume. Highly recommended.

March Violets (1989) introduces Bernie Gunther in 1936 Berlin, Germany. This historical mystery is full of fascinating details. Soon to be the site of the Olympics, the book starts with the temporary removal of street showcases featuring drawings from Der Stürmer, the Reich's violently anti-Semitic journal, in order to avoid shocking the foreign visitors coming to Berlin for the Games. Bernie has left the increasingly corrupt police force to become a private detective and is hired by Hermann Six, a rich businessman, to recover some diamonds that were stolen during a burglary that left Six's daughter and son-in-law dead. Bernie discovers that the son-in-law was an SS agent, and the secret documents hidden in the safe may have been the real reason for the theft and murders. His investigation uncovers possible connections between Six and organized crime, and between Herman Goering and the theft. The hard-boiled wise-cracking Bernie is an appealing character who is willing to do just about anything to get to the truth. He is interrogated by the Gestapo and sent to Dachau, all the while battling the March Violets, new members of the Nazi party who joined in order to be on the side in power. Kerr does an amazing job of showing how the Nazis take total control of the country, and how people can be deluded into believing what they are told, no matter how unrealistic. http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/K_Authors/Kerr_Philip.html

From page one the strength of narrative and the wisecracking of the PI Bernhard "Bernie" Gunther is a detective novel readers dream. Philip Kerr is able to bring 1936 Berlin alive it all it's nationalistic insanity. His ability to describe how the Nazi party had taken total control of this nation is remarkable. He has picked-up the nuance of how people delude themselves into believing what they are told, no matter how implausible. Right from the start you know that Gunther is as cynical as you can be, without being arrested by the Gestapo (which he is at a later point of the book). The way he weaves the disillusionment of the average German, while at the same time showing how they just acquiest to what was going on. Unlike most books about Germany at this time, he presents the Nazi's as people not cardboard cutouts. He does, though, show them in all their sadism and brutality. But it is a brutality that has become humdrum and expected. No one is surprised by what is going on. Everyone is just hoping it doesn't happen to them. Especially appealing is Gunther's gumshoe comments and asides as to what is going on. At one point he gets out of his car and gives the "Hitler salute" when the party standard is paraded by. His comment, "it's not worth taking a beating for not saluting". He tells of a circulating joke, that next to Jews, Hitler hates homosexuals and cripples the most. The punch line is that everyone but Hitler knows that his Minister of Propaganda, Joseph "Joey" Goebbels has a club foot. You can just imagine Robert Mitchum or Humphrey Bogart playing this "fleabite" PI. He drinks, he smokes, and he's like a junkyard dog when it comes to doing his job. There are great descriptions of the war between Reichfurher Himmler, the head of the Gestapo and SS and Prime Minister of Prussia Hermann Goering. The ending, is just a pregnant pause, we know that there are two more books in the "Berlin Noir" trilogy, and that's the way that Kerr leaves us at the end of this book. You know you have to read the other two.

Use of the mystery tale genre illuminates this dark historical period. I will give a thumbnail sketch of some of the events in the story. The narrator, Bernhard Gunther, a private detective, is 38 years old. A friend, Dagmarr, appears at the beginning and the end of the story. In her initial appearance she is to marry Johannes, a sports flyer. The term sports flyer is a cover for the rearmament taking place in Germany. Bernhard is approached by a lawyer and he distrusts lawyers. Hermann Six, one of the major Ruhr industrialists, has suffered a loss. His daughter has been murdered. Grete Six married Paul Pfarr in 1930. Three nights before the interview with Bernhard the couple died in a fire at their house. Prior to the fire the safe had been ransacked. There were jewels in the safe. Six wants Bernhard Gunther to recover them. Pfarr had been an SS man. Bernhard finds out that Goering might buy hot jewelry since he has a passion for owning expensive things. Everybody in Germany was somebody different before March 1933. In Berlin Gestapo headquarters used to be an art school. Bernhard calls a crime reporter friend, seeking some background on the couple. Before becoming a private investigator Bernhard had worked for Kripo, a police agency. A March Violet is someone who became a Nazi to go along and get along. In the Weimar years Berlin had seemed like one of the most exciting cities in the world. Bernhard explains that policing like autobahn construction and informing is one of the new German growth industries. Corruption in one form or another is a feature of life under National Socialism. Bernhard pays the pathologist for information about the manner of death of the murder victims. The pathologist says he is being forcibly retired because he is not political. Rings were institutions of organized crime in Germany. Gunther learns from an informant that the safe cracker in the case is a member of a ring. The informant is afraid to give him information. Banned writers are back in the shops because of the Olympiad. Bernhard Gunther learns that Kurt Mutschmann may have opened the safe. Gunther is picked up and brought to see Goering who tells Gunther he can lend him RED HARVEST by Dashiell Hammett. Gunther is asked to find Gerhard Von Greis, someone who functioned as a purchasing agent for Goering and who has been missing for a week. Bernhard Gunther learns from a ring leader that a killer has followed him and his assistant, a former newspaper reporter, Inge, to a cafe. It turns out that Bernhard is actually investigating two crimes since the safe had contained jewels and papers. The deceased son-in-law possessed papers showing that Hermann Six had ties to organized crime. Gunther discovers that Six's daughter was not killed in the fire. Then he is in the hands of the Gestapo since Heydrich wants him to go to Dachau to trace down the papers in the control of Kurt Mutschmann. Interestingly Kurt decided that