59 pages • 1-hour read
The German Wife
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Chapters 26-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 26 Summary: “Lizzie: El Paso, Texas, 1937”
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and religious discrimination.
After two years, Lizzie has fought for and received a job at the hotel. She and Henry live together in the boarding house, but when Henry can’t find a job, his mood dips severely, and she gets a night shift to make it possible to move into a private apartment. Lizzie meets Calvin in the hotel restaurant where she waits tables. One night, he asks her to join him to keep him company, and because the restaurant is slow, she agrees. She tells him about her family’s farm and shares her worries about Henry. That night, Henry admits that he’s taken money for bills and used it for alcohol. She forgives him, insisting that they’re a team and can make it through anything, but she’s still terrified.
Lizzie sees Calvin again a few more times, and one night, she explains how worried she is for Henry and how she knows that her supporting him is demoralizing for him. Calvin says that he can help get Henry into the Army, but Lizzie is initially unsure. That night, when she goes home, she finds Henry unwashed and hopeless and tells him to enlist. He says that he’s tried but was turned away, and she insists that he try again with Calvin’s help.
Chapter 27 Summary: “Lizzie: Huntsville, Alabama, 1950”
Lizzie checks in with Henry several weeks after the incident in the kitchen. He assures her that he’s tired but well, and she thinks he seems settled. When she’s invited to another lunch with the American wives, she declines, saying that she’s too busy; however, she really just wants to avoid the gossip and discomfort.
Chapter 28 Summary: “Sofie: Berlin, Germany, 1936”
With Laura old enough to start school, Mayim gone, and Jürgen working all hours, Sofie takes comfort in visits with Adele. One day, Adele asks Sofie if she can borrow a bit of money: A tenant has run into difficulty and is short on rent.
Recognizing that their house may be bugged, Jürgen and Sofie find ways to get away from Berlin or cover their voices with running water and whisper to steal a bit of freedom of conversation back. He tells her that he’s getting a promotion and being transferred to a site five hours’ drive away. They’ll get more money, but he’ll be away more often and for longer.
Sofie has distanced herself from Lydia, but Georg desperately wants to spend his birthday with Hans, his best friend. Sofie arranges a picnic to celebrate his birthday and invites Lydia and Hans. The morning before, Adele has breakfast with the family and asks Sofie out to the garden. She whispers to Sofie that she’s been sending the money that Sofie lends her to Mayim to help her and her family. She’s also told Mayim about Sofie’s pregnancy with Gisela. Adele tells Sofie that Adele and her friends are working to fund an exit visa for Mayim’s father, which would allow them to escape to Poland.
At the picnic, the children run and play, but Sofie is shocked and sickened when she realizes that they’re taking turns being Jews and soldiers, with the Jews as the villains. Lydia looks at the children with pride while Sofie vomits into the bushes, blaming it on morning sickness.
A few months later, Jürgen calls to see if Sofie can travel to a launch in Peenemünde. Sofie dreads the trip and the audience with the higher ups, but she has to see Jürgen. When she and Lydia arrive, they’re met by Karl and driven to the launch site. Sofie is astounded by the size and power of the rocket. When it launches, there are clearly some issues, and Karl tells them that failed launches have been common, showing them a crater as illustration.
Jürgen is very late coming back to the hotel to see Sofie. Under the covers, in whispers, they talk about Jürgen’s work: The Nazi regime clearly intends the rockets only as weapons.
Chapter 29 Summary: “Sofie: Huntsville, Alabama, 1950”
Sofie has been in Huntsville for three weeks, and while she delights in spending time with her family, she also feels trepidation in response to the general prejudice she experiences from the Americans in town. The exceptions are the local bookseller, who orders German-language books for Gisela, and Avril Walters, who helps Sofie learn to drive in the US and make American lunches for Gisela.
One afternoon in the grocery store, Sofie sees Claudia struggling to communicate with the store clerk and steps in to translate. Avril brings up Gisela’s difficulties in school. She tells Sofie about the rumors that Jürgen was a member of the SS. Sofie tries to explain their experience, but Avril presses for confirmation or denial of Jürgen’s history, and Sofie changes the subject. Avril tells Sofie that Lizzie started the rumor, and Sofie trusts her.
That night, Sofie asks Jürgen if he’s talked to Calvin about Lizzie. Sofie suggests that he talk to Calvin about the rumor, but Jürgen points out the possible pitfalls of that conversation and insists that they should ignore the rumors and problems to try to build a better life. Sofie wonders if she should try to mend fences with Lizzie for the good of the family.
Chapter 30 Summary: “Sofie: Berlin, Germany, 1938”
Sofie gives birth to Gisela alone in the hospital because Jürgen can’t come home for the birth. She names Gisela after the German word for “hostage”—geisel—to remind herself of the world she has to survive. Adele is getting frailer as time wears on. Sofie speaks with Adele’s friend Martha about Adele’s condition. They worry about her but acknowledge that they probably can’t get her to slow down. One afternoon in the garden, Adele explains in a whisper that she calls to ask for money to protect Jürgen and Sofie from suspicion of helping Jewish people. Poland has made it more difficult for Polish citizens who have been away from the country for years to return, and Mayim may not be able to escape Germany.
One night, having been up late with the baby, Sofie is startled awake by the sound of breaking glass. She steps out into the street and witnesses “Kristallnacht—The night of broken glass” (261)—the first organized act of violence perpetrated against Jews in Berlin. Sofie is warned to go back inside by the local Gestapo spy, who assures her that her family will be safe. The next day, Sofie goes for a walk and sees the destruction: Jewish homes with every window broken and looters fighting over the occupants’ possessions.
Late one cold night, the phone rings at Sofie’s house, and Adele asks Sofie to come over to help her. She advises Sofie to dress warmly in layers. Sofie hurries to get Georg to watch Gisela while she runs next door. When she arrives, Adele is at the table with a cup of tea, looking frail. She asks Sofie to bring her medication and run her a bath. When Sofie goes into the bathroom, Mayim is there. She tells Sofie that her father has been killed and that Adele is going to help Mayim escape to Poland. When Sofie leaves the bathroom, Adele gives her a note saying that there’s a letter for Sofie and Jürgen hidden in a jar in case Adele dies.
Right after she gets home, Sofie hears shouting outside and rushes out to see the Gestapo at Adele’s door. The neighbor stops her again, urging her to go back inside and protect her children. The Gestapo force their way into the house and stay only 15 minutes before leaving without anyone or anything. Sofie rushes in and finds Adele collapsed, dead, on the floor. The neighbor tells Sofie that Adele was suspected of disloyalty. Adele’s tenants come in, carry Adele’s body to her bed, and promise to stay with her.
Sofie calls and tells Jürgen about Adele’s death, and he says that he’ll come home immediately. Sofie reads the letter that Adele left, expressing her love to both Sofie and Jürgen and imploring them to survive. Lydia comes to the house with soup. Sofie asks her when she changed her mind about Jews, and Lydia admits that she’s always felt hostile toward them. Sofie covers her disgust and plays along.
Chapters 26-30 Analysis
Lizzie’s hard work to provide for both Henry and herself demonstrates The Subtle Role of Women in World Events. She works double shifts and exhausts herself to pay bills and give them a better living situation, but her hard work demoralizes Henry, and as a result, he makes her life more challenging. Lizzie’s dedication and dogged determination to secure financial security for her and Henry moves them from an unhoused encampment to a boarding house and then to an apartment. However, women in the first part of the 20th century had to be careful in their supports for fathers, husbands, and brothers because of the social expectations both for men and women. Lizzie can’t just work herself to the bone; she must also cushion Henry’s ego when he can’t provide for them. He takes the money she earns and uses it to buy alcohol to hide from his own sense of inadequacy, so Lizzie takes more shifts, works harder, and makes up the difference. Her experience mirrors that of many women in the Great Depression, who took up work outside the home to help their families make ends meet, often facing resistance from husbands whose patriarchal values taught them that they should be the sole breadwinners in their families.
Chapter 29 opens with the repetition of “weeks” at the start of the first five paragraphs. This repetition focuses on the passage of time and connects the positive and negative experiences that Sofie has in Huntsville. The initial paragraph describes the “bliss” of being together as a family and finally feeling secure. The next paragraph introduces an element of frustration, depicting Gisela’s struggles. Then, there’s the graffiti and Henry’s surveillance, and finally, “some of the stores add[] No Germans signs to their front windows” (244). Just as the Nazi campaign against Jews in Germany slowly moves from financial pressure, to discrimination, to propaganda, to violence, Sofie experiences an analogous sense of being persecuted. Rimmer chooses to tie all those paragraphs together in order to suggest a parallel between Sofie’s experience in Alabama and the experience of Mayim and the other Jews in Germany. Though Sofie was always aware of the horror, the potential of being on the receiving end is new to her. The discrimination she faces is far less systematic and lethal than the state violence directed against Jews in Nazi Germany, but it offers her a glimpse of what it feels like to be the target of prejudice. She refuses to give in to pessimism and works to make connections. That optimism is indicative of the possibility to resist and change patterns of discrimination, fear, and prejudice, which the end of the novel emphasizes.
Adele’s death and Lydia’s confession of antisemitism signify the daily horror of Nazi-controlled Berlin. Adele’s only crime is helping Mayim’s family as the Rhodes have done for decades. Even when the Gestapo don’t directly enact violence against German citizens, the fear and stress that they create has disastrous effects on everyone they touch. Adele dies partially because of old age and ailing health, but the narrative makes clear that the stress of trying to resist the Gestapo’s entrance to her home is likely the stressor that causes her death. Moreover, even though Adele’s death is technically natural, if she hadn’t died, “she would have been taken to a camp anyway” (273), as Sofie’s neighbor says. When Sofie asks Lydia about her antisemitism, Lydia makes it clear that the hatred has always been there. Sofie and Mayim were friends with Lydia for years, and Sofie never knew until Lydia had permission to be open with her antisemitism. These connected events illustrate The Difference Between Intentions and Actions: Despite feeling privately horrified, Sofie makes sure to respond to Lydia’s hatred in a way that suggest to Lydia that the antisemitism is shared. Even in this intimate conversation, she feels that she must express the prevailing, hateful beliefs in order to keep herself safe, offering further permission for Lydia to act on her hatred.
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