Fatherland

The head of the detective force, Artur Nebe, is inside the home along with Globus. Globus reads his statement, which explains that the investigations of both Buhler and Stuckart’s deaths were reassigned to the Gestapo. However, in both cases, March failed to stop his investigation. Nebe seems bothered by the situation and Globus’s insistence that the Gestapo do the investigating. Globus explains that he has the backing of Reinhard Heydrich, the head of the SS. He takes March, Jaeger, and Nebe into the basement to show them why the investigation is so important.

Hidden behind a false panel in the basement, Globus reveals a small room. Inside are several paintings and sculptures, most hundreds of years old, by prominent artists. He informs them that they’re currently taking inventory of everything. They believe that Buhler, while working for the government in Warsaw, stole the art with the help of Stuckart and Luther. He argues that Buhler and Stuckart died by suicide, while Luther fled and can’t be found. Nebe remains incredulous, stating “for the record” his “astonishment” at the involvement of such “fanatical National Socialist[s]” in the theft (126).

Back upstairs, Nebe asks March’s opinion on the case. March explains that he believes Buhler was murdered. Marks on his dock indicated that a boat had recently been there, while Buhler’s boat hadn’t been moved in years. In addition, March believes that the intruders who killed Buhler also abused and muzzled his dog. As for Stuckart’s death, he thinks that one man pretended to repair the elevator, keeping anyone out, while the other two took the stairs to his apartment.

Throughout March’s explanation, Globus continues to insist that both deaths were suicides. However, Nebe considers March’s ideas. Despite Globus’s protests, he instructs March to continue to investigate while they wait for Luther to be found. He suggests that they broadcast Luther’s photograph to find him sooner, but Globus insists that it be kept quiet to avoid the foreign media and prevent the US from discovering issues within the Party ahead of Kennedy’s visit.

Nebe takes March back to his car. He shows him a file that the Gestapo has been building on March for years. Rumors hold that he disparaged the Party and its leaders to several people, and his ex-wife and son have complained about his indifference to the Party while also noting his obsession with finding information about the Weiss family, the previous residents of his apartment.

Globus asked Heydrich to have March court-martialed and taken to Columbia House, a private prison. However, Nebe stopped this by telling Heydrich that March may be uncovering crimes that Globus committed. Nebe thinks that Heydrich secretly hopes March succeeds. Nebe tells March that he has until the Führertag to find Luther and complete his investigation, or he’ll be taken to Columbia House and court-martialed.

When March goes back to the house, Globus is waiting for him. He gives him back his pistol and then tells him that he’ll fail because he has “no witnesses.”

March leaves Buhler’s house. He runs all the way to the training barracks but finds Jost’s bed empty and his things gone. A cadet informs him that he was sent east to the front lines.

March goes to a payphone and calls Charlie, but she doesn’t answer. He begins to panic, glancing around and wondering if anyone is following him.

March visits Luther’s home and speaks with his wife, who says that he left Friday morning and then returned in the afternoon and said he had to go to Munich. When he didn’t come back on Tuesday morning, she was going to report it to the police, but Globus showed up looking for Luther first.

After March leaves, he considers the case. He decides that Luther likely went to Zürich and sent the chocolates to Buhler and Stuckart from there. He guesses that Luther returned to Berlin on Monday afternoon. He wonders what task Luther completed in Zürich.

March goes to Charlie’s apartment. On the way, he reads the newspaper, noting how much coverage it devotes to Kennedy’s visit. He thinks of how the war Germany is fighting must not be going well, so the Party is counting on the visit for positive propaganda.

At Charlie’s apartment, March sees movement in her window from outside. When he knocks, no one answers. After several moments of waiting, he hears the door open and pushes himself inside. After a struggle with a man, March ends up pinned to the ground. However, Charlie saves him, hitting the other man with a chair several times. He then flees out the door.

As Charlie helps March with his wounds, March warns her that the intruder was part of the Gestapo. He destroyed Charlie’s house, looking for something. To March’s relief, Charlie produces the envelope from Stuckart’s apartment.

Inside the envelope are a key and a letter containing the information for a safety deposit box for a bank in Zürich.

March and Charlie walk through the park, fearing that her apartment has been wired. March asks about her relationship with Stuckart, but she refuses to tell him until he explains what’s going on. He tells her the entire story, starting with finding Buhler’s body.

Charlie then tells March her story. She met with Stuckart five months ago when she got to Berlin, as he knew her mother, a German actress, and her father, who worked for the Embassy, before the war. She hoped to make connections in Berlin, but he his advances and disdain for her father made her uncomfortable. In the end, she left him and didn’t hear from him again until the day after Buhler’s death. Stuckart called her apartment and asked her to go to the phone booth, where he then called her again. He explained that he needed her help contacting the authorities in the US. He promised to give her a news story if she met him at his apartment the next day. However, when she arrived there, she found him dead.

March tells Charlie that he’s going to Zürich the next day. She asks to accompany him, but he insists that it’s too dangerous for her. He gives her his phone number as well as Jaeger’s.

March asks Nebe for permission to go to Switzerland. Nebe is hesitant, but Mach shows him the letter from the bank. He points out that he’ll learn the contents of the box this way; otherwise, Globus will get them. Nebe finally agrees, allowing March 24 hours in Switzerland, but warns him that he’ll be followed while he’s there.

Afterward, March returns to the office and asks Jaeger to join him at the bar. He updates him on what’s happening and then asks him to have Charlie’s apartment looked after while he’s gone. He gives Jaeger money to give Pili in the future.

March boards the plane to Zürich and falls asleep. When he awakens, Charlie is seated beside him. Annoyed at her stubbornness, March insists that he doesn’t want her help. When the plane lands, he walks away from her in the airport. As he takes a taxi to his hotel, he sees both a Zürich police vehicle and Charlie’s taxi following him.

In his hotel, March looks at a map of Zürich. He plans to visit the home of Zaugg, the banker where Stuckart’s deposit box is. Room service interrupts his planning, delivering a bottle of whisky from Charlie. Annoyed, he calls Charlie’s room and asks her to meet him in the lobby.

March allows Charlie to join him but makes her promise that she’ll do what he says and that she’ll let him read the news article she writes before it’s published. She agrees.

The two go to Zaugg’s home. It’s located on a private drive and has a gate with security guards. As they watch, Zaugg’s vehicle (an armor-plated Bentley) enters the gates. Two security guards yell at March and Charlie, forcing them to run. They’re stopped by the vehicle that was following them, and a Zürich officer ushers them in. He tells them that he was instructed to watch March but also to keep him safe. He takes Charlie and March back to the hotel.

During dinner, March and Charlie talk about their histories. March then asks about the war and the US view of Germany. She tells him about Germany’s failure and their massive casualties, which are largely hidden from the German public. She also describes their view of Germany as “evil” because of their deportation of Jewish people, adding that no one “knows what happened after that” (183). However, she also points out that what she’s fed is also a version of “propaganda,” as it’s difficult to discern the truth anymore.

Charlie then asks about March’s SS uniform. He took it off in the airport, which he noted immediately changed how by people treated him. He insists that his choice is simple: If he wants to be an investigator, he’s required to be part of the SS. He chooses “to do a little good” even if it means publicly showing allegiance to the Party (184).

As March explains this, he admits that it’s just an excuse that he has always used. However, Charlie assures him that the idea of evil isn’t that easy to define. The US used nuclear weapons against Japan, while also aligning with Russia after the war, despite the atrocities they committed.

March thinks of how different Charlie is from his ex-wife (and most of the women in Germany). She’s curious and ambitious. After dinner, Charlie and March kiss. They then return to his room and have sex.