Presents had been arriving for a few days. Bernhard Weiss had sent a card inside the Tageblatt, while Rath’s colleagues from A had sent best wishes by post. Even Cologne was represented in the pile. A ladies’ and a gentleman’s wristwatch, with best regards from master watchmaker Eduard Schürmann. Rath didn’t like to think where they might have come from, nor what wedding gift they could expect from Johann Marlow.
Charly bade them to table, where, as convention dictated, Hannelore had laid places for coffee and cake. She poured coffee and there followed a relaxed conversation about cake recipes, the lousy weather and the registrar’s lovely speech.
Rath smiled at Charly. They had done everything right. Their only mistake, as it would transpire three-quarters of an hour later, was to place Charly’s mother next to the Telefunken radiogramophone.
‘That’s a… you have a radio?’ Luise Ritter cried, opening the lid. ‘Do you mind?’ she asked, and switched it on. There was a crackling, then a voice announced itself. Berliner Funkstunde. Adolf Hitler’s voice rasped through the room, transmitting from the Reichstag.
‘Speaking now, as a German National Socialist, I would like to proclaim on behalf of the National Government and the entire national uprising that, above all, we in this young Germany are filled with a deep understanding for those who share our feelings and convictions in other nations across the globe.’
All at table looked at each other in embarrassment, but no one dared speak. Luise Ritter didn’t notice. Charly’s mother was concentrating as hard on the device as her daughter had weeks before, when the election results were read out.
‘The generation of this young Germany, which until now has known only the want, misery and wretchedness of its own people, has suffered too greatly from this madness to consider subjecting others to the same. Devoted as we are in boundless love and faith to our own national traditions, so we respect the rights of other nations, and desire, from the bottom of our hearts, to live with them in peace and harmony. Thus, we do not recognise the concept of Germanisation. The mentality of the previous century, where it was believed that Germans could be made out of Poles and Frenchmen is alien to us, and something that, were it imposed on our citizens, we ourselves would ardently oppose.’
‘Hannelore!’ Rath ended the painful silence. ‘Bring another bottle of champagne from the kitchen. Fritze can help. Let’s make a toast.’
The girl curtseyed and disappeared.
He tried to get the conversation going again, asking his father for the latest on Adenauer. Meanwhile, together with Paul, Erika dredged up old stories from Gereon’s childhood for the benefit of Greta. Charly shot her mother a series of angry glances but, immersed as she was in Hitler’s speech, they had no effect.
Hannelore returned with the champagne, Rath proposed another toast and they all raised their glasses except for Luise Ritter. ‘Shh,’ she said. ‘Stop making so much noise!’ while turning up the volume so that Adolf Hitler’s voice filled the room.
‘I feel obliged to state that the reason for France or Poland’s current armament cannot possibly be fear of a German invasion. Such a fear would be justified only by the existence of modern offensive weapons, and it is precisely such weapons that Germany does not possess, neither heavy artillery, nor tanks, nor bombers nor poisonous gases. The only nation that could justifiably fear invasion is Germany itself, which is forbidden not only from keeping offensive weapons, but finds its right to avail of defensive weapons restricted, and is, moreover, barred from erecting border fortifications. Germany is ready to renounce offensive weapons at any time, provided the rest of the world does the same. Germany is ready to join any solemn non-aggression pact, for Germany is not interested in attack, only in ensuring its own safety.’
For a while they sat with glasses raised, until at last Charly cried simply: ‘Mother!’
‘The Führer! I knew it…’ Luise Ritter looked triumphantly around with a transfigured smile. ‘He wants peace!’
Rath now understood why Charly had reacted badly to his comments about Hitler and women. ‘Mother, we don’t want to hear it. This is a wedding, your daughter’s wedding!’
‘But child, the Führer is speaking!’ Luise Ritter seemed to be in a trance.
‘He isn’t my Führer. It’s bad enough he has to be my Reich Chancellor,’ Charly said. She went to the radio and turned it off. Rath hadn’t seen her this angry in a long time.
‘Quite right,’ Engelbert Rath said. ‘We may have no choice but to accept the man as Chancellor, but going along with this Nazi nonsense and calling him Führer… Never!’ He raised his glass and drank.
Rath had never heard his father speak so bluntly about politics. All the better, then, that he was on Charly’s side.
‘All I wanted was to listen to the radio,’ Luise Ritter grumbled.
‘All right, mother. I think that’s enough champagne.’
Erika Rath tried to get conversation around the table going again. ‘It’s not that we don’t own a radio, but we don’t listen to that sort of thing. There’s far too much politics these days.’
‘There can’t be enough politics as far as I’m concerned,’ Charly’s mother responded. ‘Particularly if it gets Germany back on its feet.’
‘That’s just it, though, Frau Ritter,’ Engelbert Rath said. ‘Will it? Those running politics today are not politicians, and they have hounded our most capable men out of office!’
‘Meaning who, exactly? Your Papist party colleagues? What have you Catholics ever done for us?’ Luise Ritter stood up. Suddenly she became the militant Protestant Rath had experienced when, on a previous occasion, discussion had turned to his Church. ‘Making pacts with the Reds, ushering the Social Democrats into power. Your Erzberger was the worst of all the November criminals!’
‘Erzberger!’ Now Engelbert Rath flew off the handle. ‘The man died for his beliefs! Do you seriously believe he gave his signature to the armistice willingly. With those conditions attached. We had no choice!’
‘Ha!’ Luise Ritter said. ‘Had I known my daughter was marrying into a family like this! Never, my child, would I have allowed…’
‘Mother! That’s enough! This is my wedding, and I refuse to have it spoiled by you!’
Charly was seething. Any more of this and she’d be throwing her mother out of the window. Which perhaps wasn’t the worst idea.
Before things could get that far, however, Paul rose to his feet, positioned himself behind Charly and grinned a grin that screamed ‘up to no good’.
‘You know what’s customary in the Rhineland?’ he said.
‘What?’ Luise Ritter asked.
‘Kidnapping the bride.’
With that he grabbed Charly, threw her over his shoulder and was out the door.
The quarrelling ceased and everyone looked towards Rath as if expecting an explanation. He hunched his shoulders. ‘Excuse me,’ he said, ‘but in the Rhineland it’s also customary for the groom to recover his bride.’
He set down his glass and rose to his feet. Kirie’s tail wagged a greeting as he stepped into the corridor, but he left her where she was, threw on his coat, and went on his way.
‘Wait,’ came the cry from the stairwell.