"Now you join in." "A DOCTOR FROM HALBERSTADT" "Leave it to them." "They sound good." "Or 'Mother you must not die!" "'" "Mother, you must not die!" "munich airport" "BAVARlAN BORDER police" "A doctor from Halberstadt." "He's worked as a doctor in Halberstadt near Magdeburg since 1923." "He is now 76." "This year's holiday takes him to the West." "It was too hot in West Berlin." "He doesn 't get on well with his ex-wife, whom he divorced." "So he flew off to Munich." "A short nap at the hotel." "It is disappointing that now, in mid-August, neither the opera nor museums are open." "mexico PERU" "national MUSEUM OF ETHNOLOGY" "The university riding school is open." "He is, and always was, fond of horses." "The following day, a pleasant surprise:" "His cousin, a county court judge, arrives from Tuebingen." "T raffic cases again?" " Well, it varies." " Y es." "Y et a good murder or the like is rare now?" " Oh!" " Really?" "It's just that I don't do jury trials, but this year." " You don't?" ". there have been 4, 5, 6 murder cases already." "I could imagine that." "I've." " In the jury court?" ". assisted at trials, professionally." "Twice on murder cases, twice on abortion." "I always found it very interesting, 2 or 3 days in a jury court." "When you have sufficient experience of such trials, then it's the psychological background that interests you most." "Just how quick people are to kill somebody these days." "But you will." " I think, today, often for the most banal of reasons." "I used to have the impression in jury trials, that there was some valid reason." "Hate." " Yes." " Or jealousy." " Yes." " But nowadays." "May I tell you what my experience in court taught me?" "That people tell the doctor more than they would tell the judge." "Yes." " I have." " Suspects. -. been alone with such defendants in the cell." "With only a guard outside." "I've said: "We're alone here, I'm not like the police." "Unburden your soul, tell me, you see, I can do that." "You're not 'crazy', not confused, are you?"" "But not a word during the trial, and should the judge even imply a thing, he would refute it and." "That's the public arena for you." " Would not admit whatever he'd told me." " There are few people willing to open up in public and talk intimately." "It's very understandable too, that someone in a jury court, before a large audience, will not go into details." " Yes." "The hotelier ordered elegant furniture from a catalogue." "Unpacking it in the yard, it becomes evident that it's too large for the room." "He doesn 't know what to do." "We didn't imagine it would be quite so bulky, but we'll sort it out somehow." "The next day journalists were in the Gobelin Hall, quite a few of them, 30 or." "Press conference." ". 35, there was caviar, snacks, and lobster." "And endless bubbly." "I actually counted." "The waiters brought about 30 bottles." "What money they must make!" "Yet the guests didn't drink much, the journalists and TV people there." "The waiters probably put some aside." "They'd take half-finished bottles, then bring new bottles in." "He hadn't." "But back then, as a country doctor, driving from Halberstadt to Zilly," "I'd meet only 1 or 2 cars on the road." "One overtook me, or I overtook one." "That's how it was." "One was lord of the road." "Then in 1923 I bought a car, because I made a visit for a birth in Rohrsheim, which was 10 kilometres away, at a rich farmer's place." "A forceps delivery." "The child arrived at about 10 am, and then we downed a few jars." "It was 3 am when I set off in the moonlight." "I drove off, fool that I was." "It was the beet season, and the ground was slippery, and I skidded just beyond Rohrsheim, turned on my own axis and lay on the ground." "A villager came by and took me to his place." " But I must explain that it was a motorbike." " It was a motorbike, yes." "Not a car." " And I'd injured my leg and had to spend the night at the farmer's." "The next day he hitched up." "I'd sworn, "You'll never ride that motorbike again."" "You see?" "It was lethal." "He brought out his oldest cart-horse and an ancient harness, and rode with me through Zilly." "At 8 in the morning." "They all said, "The doctor." "He looks the worse for wear, asleep on that cart."" "I didn't see it, but it must have been a sorry sight." "Trundling on a fat cart-horse through the village, for all to see." "So I said right then:" ""I'll never ride a motorbike again."" "A car, instead." " So I bought a car the same day." "Then a local landowner, Captain Schleich, who had a military driver's licence, taught me to drive the Wanderer that I bought second hand, somewhat damaged," "for 980 marks." "I drove that car for a year and a half." "Let's finish with our song." "Alright?" ""The little sailor"." " Yes." "A little sailor sails round the." "He. his girl and gives her no." "The girl gets." "Whoever did it?" "The little sailor with his." "The worst I experienced with the Russians, as a police doctor, was." "the midwife, Pekurs, she lived." "in Nissauer Street." "7 people were brutally murdered." "7?" " 7." "The midwife, her husband, daughter-in-law, son and the grandpa." "And a glass of milk." " The reason: they liked to party." "That cost them." "They hung out with what's his name, 'Spirits Schaefer'." "He's dead now too, Spirits Schaefer." " He lost his marbles." "Drank too much?" "He died in my care, his wife too." "Yes." "They'd come by at around 11." "Ah, coffee." "Eva's still alive, I remember her." "Eva, and the oldest girl was." "Now, what was her name?" " She married Laenger." "The baker." "Confectioner." "The sister of." "Of whom?" " Sarah." " The older one, or Eva?" "No, listen." "By coincidence," "Darian has a sister called Eva who married the confectioner." "And his wife is also called Eva." "And Miram, Doctor.." "No, Miram's successor." "I arranged that." "Who was his successor?" " Miram died in my arms." "Was it his heart?" " His heart." "He once came by, he was a passionate angler, it was Good Friday..." "He'd been fishing and a friend, Brandt, brought him by." "Fully deranged and trembling." ""Oh, Ernst, I don't know what's wrong with me."" "So I gave him a sample jar, a glass flask or something." ""Pass water." "I want to check it for sugar and protein."" "He did, but then he dropped the glass." "He said: "Ernst, how will I ever make amends for this?"" "His heart had been bad for a while." " Pardon?" "His heart was already bad." " Very bad." "I remember." "Gretel and I were once at Miram's in Becker St." " Yes." "Yes." "Becker St." " A temporary flat they had, and he was laid up in bed." "She still lives there." " We called by for a coffee, but he was in bed." " He wanted to be strong enough." "And he was laid up." " They fetched me at 7 in the evening, but it was hopeless:" "oedema of the lungs." "So he was wheezing, and his mouth kept filling up with plum-coloured saliva." "He had a tin or a glass there, full to the brim." "So we put him in my car and when we got outside, a second glass was already full." "He survived that, however." "Did he still keep his practice?" " No." "A morning trip to the Bavarian Military Museum." "I'd made my report, when the district warden turned up, somewhat drunk." "He asked if I'd gone mad:" "Those in green trousers were Czechs, and shouldn't be included in the list of deaths." "They were thrown aside in a heap." "I." " Were they forced labourers?" " Yes." "Forced labourers." "But I had a few police officers, conscientious men, who saw it as I did." "But this man, the district warden, threatened me said he'd send me to court." "We carried on regardless, he came again an hour later, but was so drunk by then that he didn't realise." "What we did was important, for, in the following 8-10 days," "I was questioned by relatives fleeing Silesia, East Prussia etc., who had heard about it." "And I was able to give them news." "I knew that many of the dead were disfigured, unrecognisable." "But I of course told people that they'd looked all right." " Yes." "Must have been shrapnel." "Couldn't have been planned, not for 189 people." "And so actually, I." ".spared them." " Yes." "A doctor can be forgiven that, right?" "Like in La Traviata." "It goes:" ""The doctor's forgiven, when she."" "Dr Grenville, the lead role, you see, consoling, he knows she only has moments to live, yet he says:" ""Recovery is nigh!"" "One of my most pleasant duties, although as a hard-bitten soldier in wwi, I'd seen" "plenty." " But that." " But the personal side, and the many I saw dying..." "Those two, the car salesman and his companion, were set on the front of a jeep, exposed to ridicule." "And driven to the rear." " Yes." "You surely understand what a triumph it was to arrive in our flat, with the saucepan..." "We got a good fire blazing and roasted veal kidneys." "We lived on that for days." "To get your strength back." "In those first days, they stormed the supply depot." " The locals?" "That 8-storey silo was packed with stuff." "One saw some curious scenes." "I was often there, anyway." "It was left open for an hour." "Then trucks arrived." " Yes, trigger-happy Moroccans, at least, they seemed to be." "The women of Halberstadt disgraced themselves." "One grabbed flour, another cocoa, fighting over it, pelting one another until the one was white and the other brown." "And people who'd been starving and hadn't known." "They were." "Like madmen!" "Kicked over cases, trampled them." " Destroyed them." " Yes." " Trampled in the margarine." "Yes, we had to leave, they were shooting again." "So they trampled and threw away all they didn't want and grabbed something better." "The county court judge can't sleep on command." "He takes up his hobby." "Avarice: selfishness." "Previously: before." "Contemporary German author:" "Böll." "Hebrew tribe:" "Judah." "Roman sun god:" "Sol." "Abbreviation for the United Nations:" "UNO." "Edible fish: eel." "Wild child: tearaway." "Term of measurement: width." "Sports sled: toboggan." "Narrow footway: path." "Maritime distress signal:" "SOS." "Blocked arteries: embolism." "BAVARlAN medical CENTRE" "He is looking for the Bavarian Medical Council." "He seeks support for a close relative, who is also a doctor." "He points out that he paid into a doctors' insurance scheme from 1923 until 1945." "His cousin, a lawyer, and his nephew, a court clerk, accompany him." "The Medical Council director is on holiday during August." "It seems that doctors in the former province, Saxony-Anhalt, paid their premiums from 1923 to 1945 for nothing." "The money was never forwarded to the national insurance office." "He replies:" ""How high was the cover?" "I don 't know, but I was insured twice :" "for life insurance and with Allianz for the house." "I always paid." "About 300 or 400 Marks a year. "" "It is promised that the matter will be investigated." "The insurance agent in Halberstadt was called Koch." "Robert Koch, 21, Saar Street." "How long do you take for one?" " Well... 5 minutes for a normal one." "It's not good... as a pastime." "It's over so quickly." "One really cannot kill time." "The more difficult ones are better, take longer and are more fun." "The cousin finishes an average crossword in 5 to 7 minutes." "He's then sometimes at a loss and traces round the letters." "The puzzles are all too simple." "Alone again." "ENTRANCE ROUND THE CORNER" "opening times" "This used to be a delicatessen." "It's now a rubber-goods store." "It's not certain that he will come here again." "Yet however much he uses his imagination, on a national holiday in August, there's little for a stranger to do in this metropolis." "You approach a horse from behind and talk to it." "No nonsense." "If his name's Max, call him Max." "Talk to him, stroke him over the eyes if you don't know him." "Horses like that, they enjoy it." "And the softest spot of all is here:" "the dewlap." "It's true, when one talks to a horse, all is well." "And if one knows its name, it will listen very carefully." "He asks the price of a room in a fancy hotel, the 'Four Seasons'." "He's seen this hotel on TV." "An ice cream would be a treat now." "Departs Munich at 20 : 10." "Lots of time left then." "He has less of it in Halberstadt." "He learns too late that he could have exchanged his passport quite easily." "He'd have been able to visit Paris." "Now he must return to Halberstadt." "He has a meeting with friends at 4 pm on Saturday, in the Greco-Roman steam baths." "A DOCTOR FROM HALBERSTADT" "Shall I look over here?" "What is there to see?" "Rain, once again?"