Fatherland (novel)

Fatherland is a 1992 thriller novel by the English writer and journalist Robert Harris which doubles as a work of alternate history and postulates a world in which Nazi Germany was triumphant in World War II.

Plot

The story begins in Nazi Germany in April 1963, following detective Xavier March, an investigator working for the Kripo, a division of the SS, as he investigates a series of suspicious deaths in 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 liquidated under staged circumstances. March meets with Charlie MacGuire, a female American journalist also determined to investigate the case, and the two travel to Zurich 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 at the Wannsee Conference of 1941, to safeguard an upcoming meeting of Hitler and President Kennedy by ensuring that details of the secret Holocaust are not revealed. MacGuire escapes to neutral Switzerland with documentary evidence to publish in American newspapers, but March is apprehended by the Gestapo. In the cellars of Gestapo headquarters, March is tortured but does not reveal the location of MacGuire. The authorities stage a rescue, intending to track March as he catches up with MacGuire. March, though, realises what is happening and instead leads the authorities in the opposite direction. As MacGuire crosses the border into Switzerland, the Gestapo catches up with March, who walks towards the woods to commit suicide.

Characters

• Xavier March. A detective in the SS, March is a divorcee in his mid-forties living in Berlin. He has one son, Pili, who lives with March's ex-wife and her partner. March, who served ona U-Boat in the war before joining the police, is a workaholic, but displays signs of dissent and is unknowingly being watched by the Gestapo. He seems disallusioned with Nazi society and displays more human qualities than many of his colleagues.
• Charlie MacGuire. A twenty-something American woman, MacGuire lives in Berlin reporting for the New York Times. MacGuire, the daughter of a high-ranking American diplomat, is not accepted in German society as she does not conform to Nazi ideals.
• Frederick Jost. A reluctant 22-year-old cadet in the SS, the deeply disallusioned Jost, who is a closet homosexual, discovers the corpse which triggers the storyline. Jost is liquidated by the Gestapo as part of a plan to destroy March's investigation.
• Pili March. The ten-year-old son of Xavier March, Pili lives with his mother and her partner in a bungalow in the suburbs of Berlin. Pili is a member of the Pimpfen and adheres strongly to Nazi principles, a secret disappointment to his father. Late in the novel, Pili denounces his father to the Gestapo, believing that he is doing the right thing.
• Max Jaeger. March's Kripo partner, Jaeger is less intelligent than March and seems happy to tag along behind him. On the surface, Jaeger seems to be a model Nazi citizen, having a large family and regularly attending Party meetings, but the novel hints that Jaeger is probably just as disallusioned as March. At the end of the novel, Jaeger drives the getaway car which rescues March. The novel hints that he is ultimately shot by the Gestapo.
• Artur Nebe. The highly intelligent Chief of the German Police Force, Nebe by 1963 is an old man living in a sumptuous apartment in Berlin. He admires March and tries to protect him from the Gestapo, even allowing him to leave Germany to travel to neutral Switzerland. Nebe seems to be a strong supporter of Nazism. Nebe arranges March's "rescue" from Gestapo headquarters, but March quickly realises that Nebe is not really on his side and has set him up.
• Rudi Hallinger. March's wartime friend, Rudi is a historian working at the immense Central Archives, compiling a book on German military history. Rudi helps March find certain documents relating to the Wannsee Conference, but upon realising what he has uncovered, is too frightened to help March any further.
• Odilo Globocnik. A middle-aged Nazi leader, Globus is deeply unhappy at what he sees as a "softening" of Nazi society. Globus is a well-known sadist and murderer, and conducts the murders of several officials in Berlin on behalf of the Gestapo. Globus particularly dislikes March for being more intelligent, and after March's apprehension by the Gestapo, Globus takes over March's interrogation and torture, administering several brutal beatings.
• Krebs. The antithesis of Globus, Krebs is a polite, well-educated young officer in the SS. As part of March's interrogation, he takes care of March following his beatings and offers March the chance to reveal information to himself and put an end to Globus' beatings. Krebs is skocked and terrified when March reveals the truth of the Holocaust, but it is ultimately revealed that this is an act, and that Krebs is in league with Nebe.

The world of Fatherland

History

Fatherland takes place in April 1963, as Germany prepares for Adolf Hitler's 75th birthday celebrations. Throughout the novel, Harris gradually explains the historical development of the society. According to the novel's version of history, the German Armies on the Eastern Front launch a major offensive into the Caucasus in 1942, cutting the flow of oil to the Red Army. With its armies immobilised, the USSR surrenders in 1943. Germany's U-Boat campaign against Great Britain increases, starving Britain into surrender in 1946. The United States withdraws its troops from Europe and instead concentrates on defeating Japan. Germany tests its first atom bomb in 1946, and in 1947 forces the United States to sign a peace treaty after firing a V3 missile at New York City to demonstrate Germany's ability to attack the US with atomic weapons. Having achieved victory, Germany annexes Eastern Europe and much of the USSR into the Greater German Reich, and corrals the rest of Europe into a pro-German trading bloc, the European Union. The surviving areas of the USSR are deliberately left alone and fight an endless guerrilla war with Nazi forces in the Ural mountains. By 1963, the United States and the Greater German Reich are caught in a Cold War and a nuclear arms race.

Society

The society portrayed in Fatherland is held by critics and historians to be an accurate representation of the world that the Nazis would have created following a German victory. Berlin has been rebuilt according to Hitler's specifications. Germany itself enjoys a very high standard of living, with its citizens living off the produce of their European satellite states and freed from physical labour by thousands of Polish and Czech slaves. The nations of Europe are nominally free - they retain their colonial empires across the world and have their own governments (the United Kingdom is ruled by Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson whilst General Franco still controls Spain) - but are constantly watched by Germany and have no military power whatsoever. A European Parliament is based in Berlin but has virtually no power. The European nations produce high-quality consumer goods for German citizens whilst also providing services, such as the SS academy at Oxford University. Switzerland is the only free country in Europe but is infested with German and American spies.

The social structure of Nazi Germany has advanced consderably from the 1940's. Military service is still compulsory, but applicants have a choice of service. Eastern Europe has been colonised by German settlers (although local resistance movements are very strong) and the German population has soared as a result of Nazi emphasis on childbirth. Nazi officials are no longer the bullies of the 1940's, but well-groomed, intelligent, university-educated bureaucrats. The SS serves as the country's police force, and concentration camps are still in existence for political dissidents. According to the main characters, German society in the early 1960's is becoming more and more rebellious - student dissent, American cultural influence, and growing pacifism are all increasing in Nazi society. Furthermore, Germany is under constant attack by innumerable terrorist factions, with officials assassinated and civilian airliners bombed in-flight.

The level of technology is considerably advanced by 1963. The German military makes use of jet aircraft, nuclear submarines, and aircraft carriers, whilst civilian technology has also advanced. Jet airliners, televisions, modern cars, and even photocopiers, are used in Germany.

In the novel, Germany is preparing for Adolf Hitler's 75th birthday celebration. A visit by the American President, Kennedy, is planned as part of an attempted reconcillation between the onetime rivals. However, this President Kennedy is Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., not his son John. (In real life, Joseph Kennedy, Sr. was often accused of having been a Nazi sympathizer.) The Holocaust has been explained away to the satisfaction of many as merely the relocation of most of the Jewish population to the East into areas where communication and travel are still very poor, explaining why it was impossible for most of their relatives in the West to contact them.

A TV movie of the book was made in 1994 by HBO, and starred Rutger Hauer and Miranda Richardson. It was also serialised on BBC radio.