The Karnau Tapes
Marcel Beyer
Language: English
Pages: 155
ISBN: 015100255X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
A powerful and disturbing novel of the Nazi era and its legacy by the winner of Germany’s Ernst Willner Prize. During the final days of the Reich, sound engineer Herman Karnau is brought to Hitler’s bunker to record the Fuhrer’s last utterances. There he finds young Helga Goebbels and her siblings, children of Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, awaiting a terrible fate. Translated by John Brownjohn.
To this department is correct, the point you made was that the eastern territories cannot be Germanised in the traditional way, by teaching their inhabitants the German language and imposing German laws.' 'That sounds as if — ' 'We must ensure that the East is exclusively inhabited by people with truly German, Germanic blood, isn't that what you said?' What's the man driving at? Is this an indirect way of calling me up for military service? Stumpfecker knocks and enters. The SS major turns to.
Evening. The morning mist has dispersed, but my room is still filled with lingering shadows. Birdsong and cold, soupy air drift through the small window and the balcony door, which are wide open. My desk is littered with papers, writing materials and books — dusty appurtenances all, since I seldom touch them. A space has been cleared in the midst of the clutter. This is where the gramophone resides, permanently within reach, so that I can put on a record without having to get up. It occupies the.
Vibrate. The subject is still inclined to breathe from the thorax. Jaw movements are observable, and instinctive lingual contractions scour the gums. The more violent these movements, the more copious the flow of saliva. The subject tries to expectorate, but threads of spittle run down his chin, mingled — so far as one can tell in the gloom — with blood. Here and there the blood picks up a ray of light and carries it along. Thin, diffuse and flickering, it weaves a pattern on the darkness.
Something while shaking hands is a silent movement of the lips.' There's a whole set of blank wax discs on the table in my cubicle, and a portable recording machine is permanently at the ready. Stumpfecker has gone off to see how his patient is. All that mitigates the oppressive silence is the hum of the overtaxed air-conditioning system. The telephone rings. It's Stumpfecker: 'Come quickly, Karnau, it's the patient, a very serious situation, he's been yelling at his subordinates in conference,.
Heard. Although the disc continues to revolve with the needle in the groove, absolute silence reigns. Although certain characters in the foregoing narrative bear the names of actual persons, they are as fictitious as those that do not. * The introductory quotation is taken from an entry, dated 20 April 1941, in the diaries of Joseph Goebbels. MARCEL BEYER Marcel Beyer was born in 1965 and lives in Cologne. His first novel, Das Menschenfleisch, was described by the Suddeutsche Zeitung.