One of
the delights of the recent Crimefest
2017 event in Bristol was meeting German writer Volker Kutscher, a writer who is
gathering acclaim not only in his native Germany, but also internationally.
Volker Kutscher was born in 1962. He studied German, Philosophy and
History, and worked as a newspaper editor prior to writing his first detective
novel. Babylon Berlin, the start of an
award-winning series of novels to feature Gereon Rath and his exploits in late
Weimar Republic Berlin, was an instant hit in Germany. Since then, a further
four titles have appeared, most recently Märzgefallene in 2014. The series
was awarded the Berlin Krimi-Fuchs Crime Writers Prize in 2011 and has sold
over one million copies worldwide. Volker Kutscher works as a full-time author
and lives in Cologne.
We were delighted to hear that
the first two Gereon Rath novels have been released by Sandstone Press, and
coming to Sky TV in the UK in a multi-million Euro miniseries – read more Here
and Here
Babylon Berlin
Berlin, 1929.
Detective Inspector Rath, was a successful career officer in the Cologne
Homicide Division before a shooting incident in which he inadvertently killed a
man. He has been transferred to the Vice Squad in Berlin, a job he detests,
even though he finds a new friend in his boss, Chief Inspector Wolter. There is
seething unrest in the city and the Commissioner of Police has ordered the Vice
Squad to ruthlessly enforce the ban on May Day demonstrations. The result is
catastrophic with many dead and injured, and a state of emergency is declared
in the Communist strongholds of the city.
Shots have copies available from our bookstore HERE
The Silent Death
Berlin 1930. Sound
film is conquering the big screen, leaving many by the wayside: producers,
cinema owners – and silent film stars. Investigating the violent on-set death
of actress Betty Winter, Inspector Gereon Rath encounters the dark side of
glamour and an industry in turmoil. When his father requests that he help his
friend, the mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer, and his ex-girlfriend Charly
makes a renewed attempt at rapprochement, things start to get out of hand.
Trapped in the machinations of rival film producers, he roams Berlin’s Chinese
quarter and the city’s underworld as he works ever closer to the edge of
legality. Meanwhile the funeral of the murdered Horst Wessel leads to clashes
between Nazis and Communists.
Shots have copies available from our bookstore HERE
So with acclaim from Peter James who stated ”Set in
atmospheric 1930s Berlin where a maverick detective is hunting a serial killer
The Silent Death, like its predecessor, Babylon Berlin, owes much to its
author’s commitment to historical accuracy and the cynical feel of the times.”; Shots after meeting Volker at Crimefest
tracked the author down in Cologne as we had a few questions - as part of our
investigations into the life and times of Gereon Rath.
Ali So
how did an academic with an interest in philosophy and history find himself a
published author?
Volker : Many years I worked as a journalist and
writing fiction was nothing but a hobby to me. But then the Gereon Rath plan
came up and I realised that for a project this large, I had to give up my newspaper
job and had to try to change my writing hobby into a profession, a novelist.
AK Wow
you gave up the day-job; that was very brave!
VK Well fortunately,
it all worked out well.
AK So
tell me about what books you enjoyed and which made you decide to pen your own?
VK There
are so many books I enjoyed over the years, far more than I can mention here.
But there are two authors who were favourites from my youth that I still re-read
- namely Mark Twain and Erich Kästner. While the Berlin novels of Erich
Kästner, Alfred Döblin, Hans Fallada or Irmgard Keun resonate deeply. I would even
state that they inspired me to write the Rath novels. In fact I would say that Babylon
Berlin is my attempt to combine the world of the authors I mentioned, with the
world of Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett.
AK In
the UK you are published by Sandstone Press, so tell us how your work has been
received outside of Germany?
VK Happily
it’s been received very well. There are translations in many languages: French,
Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Hungarian, Serbian and even
Japanese. But, of course, I’m more than happy that Sandstone Press made the
English translation possible thanks also to Niall Sellar, and published my
books in the UK.
AK I
worked in Munich many years ago, and was often told by my colleagues in this historic
city, that ‘we’re Bavarian first, and Germans second’, so tell us where the
fascination of the era of the Weimar Republic came from? And of course Berlin
of that era?
VK I
think it’s Weimar Berlin that fascinates most people, not Weimar Munich as much.
Berlin (as Cologne, the hometown of Gereon Rath) was part of Prussia, and
Prussia in the Weimar years, from 1919 to 1932 was the most stable democratic
state in Germany. The Prussian capital Berlin in those days was one of the most
exciting cities in Europe, the city of Bertolt Brecht, Erich Maria Remarque, Albert
Einstein, Billy Wilder, Marlene Dietrich and many more, until this all ends in
1933. And Munich, with all due respect, was the city which brought forth the
Nazi movement, finally exporting it to the rest of Germany.
AK And
tell us about the genesis of your protagonist
Gereon Rath, and where the interest in Detective fiction springs from?
VK Detective fiction is the only fiction I
have written so far. I don’t know why exactly. Maybe it’s about suspense. I
think a good story is a good story and not necessarily to be Crime fiction; but
it has to be thrilling nonetheless. My protagonist Gereon Rath is a Police
Detective in a changing world. His employer is the state, but a state that is
changing from democracy into dictatorship. Rath isn’t a flawless hero; he’s
just an ordinary man. A man who tries to live is life and to do the right
thing, but he also is corruptible in some ways.
AK I assume your research into that era came
from your interest in history, or did you have to work harder on the Berlin of
that era, as it reads with a vivid eye on that surreal time?
VK I had — and still have — to do a lot of
research. During this process I learned many things previously. But I enjoy
researching because I’m very curious about the Weimar Berlin era in general, so
it doesn’t bother me that I only can use a small fraction of my research
results for the novels, for these are novels and I have stories to tell.
AK With Babylon Berlin and now Silent Death
featuring Gereon Rath on our bookshelves can you tell us where the TV series
came from, and if you will be continuing the novels as we hear that there are
other not translated into English as yet?
VK It was Tom Tykwer who wanted to adapt my
novels for the TV screen, and it soon became really big. The first novel is
going to be told in 16 episodes and two seasons for the international TV
market. But Tom wants to go further than the first two seasons, and I
appreciate this hugely, because I’ve written much more. There’s not only the
second novel “Silent Death”, just published in the UK, and waiting for
adaption, and there are six other Rath novels so far published in Germany; and
I have three more to come. My Rath series will end after nine novels concluding
in the really dark Nazi Era year of 1938. Let’s see how far the TV series will
go.
AK Thank you for your time
VK Thank you, it was a pleasure.
This thriller brilliantly evokes 1973 Moscow and a world of diplomacy and counter-espionage. Escaping failure as an undergraduate and a daughter, not to mention bleak 1970s England, Martha marries Kit - who is gay. Having a wife could keep him safe in Moscow in his diplomatic post. As Martha tries to understand her new life and makes the wrong friends, she walks straight into an underground world of counter-espionage. Out of her depth, Martha no longer knows who can be trusted. The Wolves of Lennisky Prospekt is by Sarah Armstrong.
Death at the Plague Museum is by Lesley Kelly. Edinburgh is in the grip of a deadly flu pandemic. One Friday, three key civil servants working on Virus policy hold a secret meeting at the Museum of Plagues and pandemics. By Monday, two are dead and one is missing. Mona, Bernard, and their other colleagues at the North Edinburgh Health Enforcement Team set out to find the missing bureaucrat, their investigation bedevilled by political interference. The museum has a few deadly secrets of its own. But not to worry – Bernard is a card-carrying Museum member.
July 1932. When a drowned man is found in a freight elevator in Haus Vaterland, the giant pleasure palace on Potsdamer Platz, Inspector Gereon Rath is called in to investigate. It's not that Rath hasn't problems enough. His hunt for a mysterious contract killer has been stalled for weeks, and his on-off lover, Charlotte Ritter, has just begun her probationary year with Berlin CID. The corpse in Haus Vaterland looks to be part of a series of murders whose trail leads eastwards to the Polish border - and beyond. The Fatherland Files is by Volker Kutscher.
