‘Are you going to keep on bringing up Kleinfeld?’
‘No,’ said Richard. ‘I can also bring up Anton Müller, Bernhard Hartwein and Justus Bergstedt. That gives us a ratio of 4:1. Four men who managed to find their way back into life because we didn’t just let them die. And that’s how I measure what I do. It would, of course, have been better for Ahler if he’d died instead of living as he does now, but it would have been even better if we’d really been able to save him. And that was attempted. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.’
‘Are you saying that because the surgeon who saved him is your friend, or do you truly believe it?’
Richard stopped short at this. How did Krüger know who’d operated on Ahlers and that the surgeon was his friend?
‘You seem to have gone into Ahlers’ case very thoroughly, considering the man’s not your patient.’
‘I didn’t have to. You find out more than you might think just by reading the relevant professional journals, my dear colleague. It would seem you don’t read any case descriptions, is that right? Otherwise, the publication by Professor Wehmeyer and Dr Ellerweg on successfully operating on an attempted suicide case would definitely not have escaped you. And Dr Ellerweg is a good friend of yours, isn’t he?’
‘You certainly seem very interested in my private life, given that you know the names of my friends.’
Krüger grinned. ‘It’s a passion of mine. I like to know who I’m dealing with.’
‘Then I’ve got one more detail for you, my dear colleague. I am not only a friend of Fritz Ellerweg’s but also a friend of his dachsie, Rudi. Do you need more information? Rudi’s twelve weeks old, a German longhair with a good pedigree.’
‘Very witty, I’m sure,’ Krüger said, pushing aside his empty plate. ‘I have things to do and don’t have time for your facetious remarks.’ With that, he got up and left.
Chapter 16
The economic crisis affected Richard’s personal and professional life, as it did the whole nation. On 27 March 1930, the country saw the collapse of Chancellor Müller’s great coalition of Social Democrats, the Centre Party, the German Democrats and the German People’s Party.
Richard was deeply concerned when Paul von Hindenburg, President of the Republic, decided to appoint Heinrich Brüning, leader of the Centre Party, as Chancellor. Brüning proceeded to form a minority government without the Social Democrats.
Opinion in the family was divided. Richard, his father and Paula were sceptical, while Dr Engelhardt maintained that Hindenburg knew exactly what he was doing and that they should have faith in him. He felt that in the end it was all about forming a bloc in opposition to the communists.
‘I’d rather see a bloc against the Nazis,’ commented Richard.
‘My dear boy, you’ve perhaps seen too many SDP election posters,’ was Dr Engelhardt’s reaction. ‘The biggest danger is of Germany having a red revolution and ending up living under the Russians.’
‘And you think the Nazis would be a better option? When I hear the way they rant against the Jews, I get so worried about all our Jewish friends and colleagues.’
‘Oh, they’re all talk; it’s all about finding a scapegoat. It’s won’t be as bad as you think.’
‘Leonie sees it rather differently,’ countered Paula, ‘and, by the way, so does her father. He’s already thinking about picking up with old contacts in Switzerland in case the situation in Germany gets any worse.’
‘Isaak was always an old pessimist.’ Dr Engelhardt made a dismissive gesture, adding, ‘Just wait a while and it’ll come out all right in the end.’
Richard was ready to disagree, but Paula gently placed her hand on his arm and shook her head. There was no point getting into an argument with her father when there was nothing any of them could do about it anyway.
It was now summer 1930 and Paula completed her doctorate. She set about preparing for her final medical examination, which she was due to take on 10 September, later in the year. She passed with ease, although her personal triumph in becoming a qualified woman doctor at last was diluted by the political situation during those few days, when everyone was talking about the new parliamentary election to be held on 14 September.
The economic crisis had given the National Socialist Workers’ Party, the NSDAP, an unforeseen boost, and the party’s supporters, all dressed in their brown shirts, paraded through the streets in the run-up to the election, engaging in increasingly frequent and bloody skirmishes with the communists. Even inside their own flat, Paula and Richard once heard shots and shouting outside.
‘This is even worse than during the war!’ exclaimed Richard as he made for the window to see what was going on.
Paula held him back. ‘Don’t, there could be stray bullets!’ And sure enough, soon afterwards they heard a window shatter one floor below.
Richard contacted the police. ‘How have these idiots got hold of firearms?’ He and Paula had taken refuge in their bathroom, which had no windows. ‘I tell you, I’d like to stick a round of ammunition up their backsides.’
Paula couldn’t help but laugh, in spite of the tension. ‘Who’d have thought we’d be hiding from stray bullets in our very own bathroom?’ She looked at Richard, her eyes betraying her love for him. ‘We live in exciting times, eh?’
‘I’d much rather live in boring times,’ retorted Richard. ‘But we must always make the best of a bad situation, mustn’t we?’ With that, he drew Paula closer and kissed her.
It was half an hour before the police arrived and the shouting and shooting stopped, putting an end to their ordeal.
When Richard related the incident to Fritz he was not surprised.
‘In the last couple of months I’ve had eleven cases of bullet wounds, always on night duty. Eleven! You’d think there was a war on. And they’re not all Nazis or communists – ordinary criminals are using weapons too. They have no scruples whatsoever and don’t give a damn about getting locked up. And as for the number of people using knives, I won’t even start on that.’
Richard nodded gloomily. Everybody knew that crime rates had gone sky-high since the start of the economic crisis. Many lacked the bare necessities, respectable women chose prostitution over starvation and the tally of burglaries and thefts kept on growing. The police were completely overstretched and the governing parties remained silent. The communists aspired to a republic modelled on that of the Soviets and campaigned for the dispossession of the wealthy in order to break the inequity in society, something which left people in Richard’s circle feeling deeply troubled. The Nazis, on the other hand, promised to create more jobs, safeguard private property and oppose any such Soviet-style conditions. They said that the nation should stand as one unit, with nobody worse off and everybody better off. The Social Democrats couldn’t offer any compelling answers to the urgent questions of the day, and were reduced simply to fighting against the increasing influence of the NSDAP. Although Richard was a convinced Social Democrat, he was furious that the party’s election campaign had revolved exclusively around preventing any further growth of Nazism instead of coming up with new ideas to motivate the people to a renewed sense of vigour.
The radio started to broadcast Adolf Hitler speeches more frequently. ‘National Socialism is fighting to take the German worker out of the hands of swindlers,’ proclaimed Hitler in a big speech at the Berlin Sportpalast. ‘What we promise is not material improvement for one class and one class alone, but growth in strength of the entire nation, for only this can lead to freedom and power for the whole people.’ The rejoicing that broke out defied all description.
‘Do you really want to listen to that rubbish?’ asked Richard when he saw Paula sitting by the radio in the kitchen.
‘Yes, I do. I’m still waiting for him to explain how he’s going to do it.’ She poured herself a cup of real coffee, which was a luxury she refused to give up.
‘You’ll be waiting a long time, then,’ observed Richard, helping himself to coffee too. ‘And t
he people are not interested in that in any case. Krüger said today that the other parties have had a chance and haven’t seized it. Why shouldn’t Hitler have the chance to show what he can do?’
‘Krüger’s nothing to go by.’
‘No, but yesterday even Kurt Hansen supported him. He reckons we need law and order on our streets again. I didn’t go along with that, told him people can hardly be expected to get involved in shoot-outs with the communists, but that didn’t convince anyone. Quite the opposite – everybody else thought that the current chaos was down to the established parties and that it was high time for a new broom. Even Dr Morgenstern said nothing, and he’s a Jew. He should know better than anyone what the Nazis think of people like him. I just don’t understand it.’
‘Maybe my father’s right after all,’ said Paula. ‘The Nazis do a lot of bragging, but perhaps it’s not such a bad idea to get a bit of fresh air into parliament. And the SPD has had the majority for so long. If they want to stay in power, they really need to give the people some hope.’
‘Do you know what the problem is? We need characters in politics. Ebert’s dead, Stresemann’s dead, and there’s nobody left to take on the NSDAP demagogue. We’ve got a cabinet full of puppets.’
Despite this, the SDP went on to get the most votes in the election. But Hitler’s NSDAP election campaign had had an impact and they swept into the Reichstag in October 1930 as the second biggest party. The following night saw numerous clashes with uniformed Nazis in Berlin, their victims predominantly Jewish.
All of this left Leonie extremely uneasy, and she feared Hamburg would start to see attacks on Jewish people as well.
Paula saw it a bit differently. ‘I’m just afraid everyone’s going to have bullets flying around their heads, whether or not they’re Jewish. Didn’t I tell you about what happened right outside our house last month? We had to hide in the bathroom.’
‘Yes, you did, but that’s not what I mean. There are also specifically targeted hostilities against Jews, and it’s my belief that’s a result of the Nazis’ success. Have you found somewhere to do your compulsory spell in surgery?’
‘Yes, but unpaid and only because Fritz found me a place in his department. At the moment male graduates take preference. I’m starting on 1 November. What about you?’
‘Well, of the male graduates, it’s the non-Jewish ones who take preference. So as a Jewish woman around here I’m basically the equivalent of a pariah in India. I’ve applied to lots of Hamburg hospitals but because of my gender and my religion I get nothing but rejections. Even for unpaid roles. Even the Israeli hospital rejected me, and that’s because all the current Jewish doctors are flocking there and men, of course, take precedence there as well.’ Leonie’s frustration was clear. ‘So then I asked Fritz, and he put in a word for me, but I can’t start until 1 May, when you finish, and I don’t want to wait that long. So my father’s managed to find me a post at a small Jewish hospital in Göttingen.’
‘When are you starting?’
‘On 1 November, like you. So we’ve still got time to do a few nice things together.’
‘And do you know where you want to work when you come back from Göttingen? Still at the Rothenburgsort Children’s?’
Leonie nodded. ‘Yes, and the head there is Jewish so I don’t need to worry. What about you?’
‘All rejections up to now. It’s mostly because I’m a married woman and my husband has a secure job.’ She let out a sigh. ‘Men get priority everywhere, supposedly because they have families to feed – even the bachelors. I was once asked if Richard was one of the army of unemployed. I said he wasn’t, then was told firmly that I had no right to take a job away from another man and that I’d do better to concentrate on my innate abilities and have children. I could have scratched his eyes out for saying that.’
‘Do ask Dr Stamm. He’s a great admirer of your father and women get far more recognition in paediatrics than in psychiatry.’
‘I’ll think about it.’
‘Don’t think for too long. Some man will snatch the job from right under your nose. And anyway, I’d love to work with you.’
Paula nodded. In one way she’d have loved to have been as pragmatic as Leonie, but at the same time she felt angry that her job search was being hampered by the two millstones of her gender and her marital status.
That evening she told Richard about the advice Leonie had offered and found him suspiciously enthusiastic. She was puzzled because Richard had always so unreservedly supported her every professional concern, including her desire to become a psychiatrist, so she dug a bit deeper.
‘I hate to say it,’ he began, ‘but I’m afraid you won’t get a position in psychiatry.’
‘Why on earth not? You said yourself there’d be two vacancies in the spring.’
‘Yes, there will be. And I’ve asked Dr Sierau about them because by then you’ll have done your compulsory period in surgery. He declined because you’re my wife.’
‘On what grounds? He doesn’t even know me.’
‘No, but he doesn’t want a married couple working at the hospital, not if they’re both doctors. If you were a nurse, it might be easier.’
‘But why? I don’t understand.’
‘Well, I didn’t either, so I probed a bit. And basically, he assumes we’ll soon have children and that you’ll then give up work, so he’d rather put a man in the post, someone who’ll be there long-term. He also thinks that a married couple could make the planning rota too complicated. Nothing could persuade him otherwise. So, you’ve got two options: either you choose Hamburg, where the only possibility is the children’s hospital, or you choose psychiatry and have to look for a post in another city, which would mean we could see each other only on the weekends when we’re not on duty, and I don’t want that. I want to live with you and have children together.’
‘That’s what I want too. But it’s so unfair. Why do women always have to carry the burden? Why’s it always about taking second place?’
Richard put his arms around her. ‘Give me fifteen years, then I’ll be in charge and I’ll change everything.’
‘You’re a nutcase,’ she said lovingly.
‘But a nutcase who makes an effort. I’d do anything to help you do what you want but I’m really up against it here. And I don’t want you to leave our city to go running after a dream that’s perhaps not worth it. Working in psychiatry in a closed institution is no picnic. Just yesterday one of our patients went completely off the rails, smashed up one of the tables in the dining room and had to be forcibly restrained. And we’ve had another patient for ages who smears himself with his own excrement, so on both hygiene and safety grounds we have to keep him in the closed bath most of the time. You’ve achieved so much, Paula – you’re a qualified doctor, and you’ve done your PhD. We’ve already got two psychiatrists in the family. Perhaps it would be a good thing if you went in for paediatrics. We both want children one day in any case, and it goes well with that.’
With Richard’s arms around her, Paula felt her disappointment and anger melting away. He had tried everything to support her, but these were very difficult times. She should actually be grateful for any post as a doctor. Even Richard had had to lower his original expectations and face the long drive over to Langenhorn every day.
‘Well, all right, then,’ she said with a sigh. ‘I’ll bow to reason. Two psychiatrists in the family is plenty.’
Chapter 17
In May 1931 Paula took up her post as junior doctor in Rothenburgsort Children’s Hospital. Her short cycle ride to work meant she saw the many signs of increasing poverty in that part of the city at first hand. More and more little shops were being forced to close down; she noticed how it would start with a banner in the window advertising big reductions. A week later a different sign would announce CLEARANCE SALE. One more week and the shelves would be empty and the proprietor would be seen, hammer in hand, boarding up the windows. The number of boarded-up shops grew by
the day. Occasionally, there’d be notice of a new trading address a couple of streets away, but more often than not the small shopkeeper’s living had been wiped out. And the people looked more down at heel than a couple of years earlier: the adults’ clothing was shabby and threadbare; the children were often barefoot. As soon as darkness fell, robbery was a growing hazard. Paula had no fears for herself, as it was now May and she set off on her bike in the light and came back before sunset. But ever since a neighbour had been set upon and robbed at dusk only two streets away from their flat, Richard had insisted that when it started to get dark earlier he would take her to work by car and pick her up again in the evening. While Paula appreciated being so well cared for, she nonetheless hoped that the situation would have eased by the time autumn came. She valued the freedom of setting off in the morning a whole hour after Richard had left and then getting back an hour before him. This meant she had time to check that their daily help had done everything asked of her and to Paula’s exacting standards.
She soon started to enjoy the work at the children’s hospital much more than she’d expected. The working atmosphere was relaxed, and as Leonie had started there at the same time, the two friends shared an office. Rothenburgsort Children’s Hospital was considered one of the most modern in Europe and, thanks to its many financial supporters, it suffered less than other hospitals in the economic crisis.
This wasn’t the case at the Langenhorn asylum; Richard had told her of drastic cutbacks there. Those working on the land still got normal rations, but inmates in the secure unit received the absolute minimum, only enough for them not to starve. Langenhorn had the benefit of its own food production surplus and so even had to provide for patients from other institutions for a short time, largely because those patients were considered of greater economic value than the mentally ill. This made Richard’s work a lot more difficult because the nagging hunger left his patients nervy and agitated, and this in turn caused outbursts of aggression on an almost daily basis. Once, Richard came home with his shirt ripped after he had tried to separate a pair of fighting patients. When he related these incidents to Paula in the evenings, she often caught herself feeling relieved that she’d listened to him and was now working with children. Yes, some could shout, scratch, stamp and bite, but they soon calmed down again once the medical procedure they didn’t like was over.
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