Hidden Depths (3 page)

Chapter Five
: Fated Coincidences

A
FEW DAYS AFTER
the fall of the Wall, the full moon went almost unnoticed amongst the blaze of lights from the worldwide television networks encamped in Berlin near the Brandenburg Gate. The celebrations had continued non-stop, day and night, with crowds gathering at this symbolic place; an obvious focal point of a once divided city.

It was here in June 1963, two years after the wall had been erected, that President John F. Kennedy visited the city to show moral support and stood by the Wall with the incumbent West German Chancellor, Willy Brandt. Later that day, at the Schoneberger Rathaus, JFK gave a rousing after-dinner speech, proclaiming ‘
Ich bin ein Berliner
'. Berliners who witnessed the enigmatic and influential American's speech that day knew the speech could be literally distorted into a joke, as a
berliner
is also a doughnut pastry. But taken in its intended form, ‘I am a Berliner', or rather ‘I'm one of you and on your side', the President was given a warm and rapturous applause.

The Wall was slowly being dismantled. Chunks were now missing where ‘woodpeckers' had chiselled away with their hammers until the holes were wide enough to walk through. Pieces of the wall would later be sought-after souvenirs and sold as memorabilia. For now, though, the crowds were not thinking about future money-making ventures. They were ecstatic, climbing the wall to wave German flags without the risk of being shot. The atmosphere was jovial and euphoric; the German nation was in union at last.

These images were broadcast around the globe. Against this backdrop, dignitaries up to be interviewed and the biggest cheers were saved for the German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl. He made a daily appearance and mingled amongst the crowd making daily, televised speeches to the crowds and his popularity soared.

Klaus and Ingrid wanted to experience the atmosphere in Berlin first hand. With them on the train to Berlin was Felix, wearing his usual disguise of a dark wig and hat. At Ost Bahnof they walked amongst the crowds along the Wall by the River Spree to the Oberbaum Bridge. Here, those from the East who attempted to climb over the Wall had to swim across the river to freedom in the West. Felix had been desperate to come here to see where his inebriated father Jakob had perished in a futile attempt to escape to the west. But despite the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the bridge remained closed and impenetrable. Felix found a small hole in the wall and peered through.

‘This is where my father ended up,' he announced. ‘The fool somehow got as far as the middle of the bridge before the guards opened fire.'

Klaus understood. ‘That's why you wanted us to come here.'

‘Yes, Onkel. Mutti hid the report but I found it. Jakob didn't die from being shot. The bullet hit his cigarette case in his breast pocket. How lucky was that? No, he was stupid enough to jump into the water, and drowned because the drunken fool couldn't swim.'

Ingrid put her arm around Felix.

‘I'm OK,' Felix shrugged. ‘Come on, let's get over to Checkpoint Charlie.'

They walked along the U-Bahn to Friedrichstrasse and waited patiently in line to pass through. It felt surreal. At Checkpoint Charlie the guards were relaxed and friendly but even so, no one in the crowd dared to ask the guards why they were still there. It was in stark contrast to the recent shoot to kill policy for escapees, because if it was deemed the guards had missed on purpose, they were court-martialled. But they rarely missed their targets. The Stasi held great fear for East Germans and this would not disappear overnight. No one could predict this really was the end after 44 years of the Socialist era in East Germany. Political idealism seemed split: those who fully believed in the Communist system versus those who were celebrating a glimpse of freedom from suppression and a new vision of the future. Both sides had never known any other life. Fear had long bought their silence and obedience and it was hard to trust the miracle unfolding before their very eyes.

The little group of three walked hand in hand to the western side of Berlin. Cheers and the popping sounds of champagne corks greeted them. A tall young woman, with closely cropped hair, carrying her baby in a pouch, passed by, shoved a banana into Felix's hand and disappeared into the crowd with her baby and bag of bananas. Felix, knowing how rare and sought after bananas were in the East at that time, offered to share it.

‘You eat your little pot of gold,' Klaus and Ingrid told him and enjoyed watching Felix wolfing down the banana with gusto.

They continued to the wide avenue of Unter Den Linden, with its long alley of linden trees, beautiful in summer and now bare of leaves on this autumnal evening. Ahead were the lights and sounds of the celebrations in Pariser Platz by the Brandenburg Gate.

A catering truck offered free warm drinks to the East Germans – known in the West as ‘Ossies' – who showed their identity cards. Ossies were easily spotted with their antiquated and unfashionable clothing in contrast to the West Germans, or ‘Wessies', with their access to Western consumerism. The Wessies were affluent in comparison and had to buy their drinks, thus the catering truck made money in spite of its spirit of altruism.

Klaus queued for coffees whilst Ingrid and Felix waited nearby. A loud cheer rang out as another chunk of the wall crumbled under the pressure of the constant chiselling. A gaping hole opened, like a gate to a secret garden, an opening to the possibility of an unknown enchantment on the other side.

‘I'm going to walk through the hole in the wall,' Felix announced. ‘Don't worry, Tante, I know where you are and I won't be long.'

Ingrid watched Felix disappearing into the crowd. She was anxious about losing him in the crowd but watching Felix taste the air of freedom in the last few days, she could not let her fears stand in the way of his excitement and pleasure.

Felix reached the gap in the wall. A 10-year-old boy was running in and out of the hole. A girl, three or four years older, grabbed the boy's hand and pulled him away.

‘No!' The boy screamed as he tussled for control with his sister.

The girl stubbornly insisted. ‘Yes. Papa said not to!'

Felix could tell they were Ossies by their clothes as he was dressed in a similar fashion. For some reason, which was making him feel uncomfortable, he couldn't take his eyes off the pretty girl.

‘Martha and Friedrich! Stop that,' boomed a familiar voice.

Felix froze as a small, athletic man of about 50 arrived to chastise his children. Surreptitiously pulling up his collar and wrapping his scarf around his face so only his eyes were visible, Felix shrank into the shadows. The children's papa didn't notice him but Felix knew the man standing less than five metres away from him was Dr Jens Wissemann, an employee at Torgau – the man who had helped Felix escape.

‘Come on, you two,' Dr Wissemann told his children, pulling them apart and returning them to their mother who was standing with her back to Felix. In the midst of this activity something fell unnoticed from the doctors' coat pocket – his identity card. He'd shown it to get his family the free hot drinks on offer at the catering truck and shoved it carelessly into his pocket. Felix swooped to retrieve it. Before he had time to return it, Dr Wissemann and his family had disappeared into the crowd.

In his haste to find the doctor, Felix almost collided with the banana lady with the baby he'd seen earlier that evening.

‘Like a banana?' she asked.

‘You already gave me one, at Checkpoint Charlie,' Felix reminded her.

‘Did I? Then have my last one.'

‘Thank you.' Felix couldn't refuse another delicious banana. He offered to shake her hand, intending to make a quick getaway.

‘I wanted to do something tonight,' she began, ‘to be a part of history and offer a symbol of sorts. When my daughter asks, “Where were you when the Wall came down and what did you do?” I'll say, bananas!' She laughed.

‘Thank you, it's very kind of you,' Felix told her.

The baby was wrapped up snugly and was quite content amongst the noise and excitement of the crowd. A young woman with spiky, punk-style hair appeared and the baby smiled, recognising her mother's companion.

‘Here you are!' said the woman, kissing the baby.

‘I'm all out of bananas. This young man was my last recipient,' she said, pointing at Felix. ‘What's your name?'

Felix gave the first name to come to mind. ‘Jens,' he replied.

‘Jens, pleased to meet you. I'm Hanne, this is my friend Claudia and my daughter Audrey. Where are you from?'

Felix felt uncomfortable about giving away too much information. ‘Berlin.'

‘Whereabouts?'

‘I live in Treptow, near the Oberbaum Bridge.' It wasn't such a big lie, he used to live there, near to the place where his father drowned.

‘Oh, we live the other side of the bridge, in Kreuzberg,' Hanne told him.

‘We're all Berliners and there's no more Wall to divide us,' Claudia cheered.

‘Jens, do you mind if we all have a photo together? Hold up your banana for banana posterity?' Hanne said, laughing at herself.

Felix reluctantly agreed. What harm could it do? He couldn't foresee that it would be kept on Hanne's kitchen wall as a souvenir of this historic night for the next 15 years.

As their brief encounter was about to end, Audrey reached out her tiny hand and tugged at his hat, which fell, with the wig, to the floor. Hanne glimpsed the scars on Felix's earlobes and felt a wave of sympathy for him, although she was puzzled as to why he disguised his fair hair under a dark wig.

‘I'm sorry,' Hanne said, embarrassed for him.

Felix quickly picked up his wig and hat and ran off, back through the hole in the wall to find Ingrid and Klaus.

‘There you are!' said Ingrid. ‘Onkel Klaus has gone looking for you. You were gone ages and your coffee's gone cold.'

‘Sorry,' muttered Felix, having readjusted his wig and hat just moments before.

Klaus breathed a sigh of relief when he returned and saw Ingrid and Felix together.

‘Where did you go? We were worried about you?'

‘I didn't go far. Sorry, Onkel.'

‘Can you believe it? We're a part of history tonight,' Klaus told them.

‘It's a miracle,' Ingrid proclaimed.

In the crowd, people were shaking hands and hugging one another. The euphoria and party atmosphere would last for days. Klaus felt a little guilty, being in Berlin and not telling his brother, but Felix had to be protected a while longer and hoped Bernd was somewhere in the crowd with his family, enjoying the celebrations.

Felix patted his pocket regularly to check if Dr Wissemann's identity card was safe inside. It meant he had the means to contact the man who had smuggled him out of Torgau, if necessary. ‘Oh, I forgot. I was given another banana. Here, I'd like you two to share it.'

Klaus smiled cheekily at Ingrid, peeled back the banana skin and put the fruit in his mouth while Ingrid took the opposite end in her mouth. They nibbled the banana until their mouths met in the middle for a sticky kiss as with a sudden loud bang, fireworks were set off from the Brandenburg Gate and an explosion of colours lit up the night sky.

Chapter Six
: The Brothers

F
ELIX KNEW THAT THE
repercussions from the fall of the Wall would dictate when he could re-emerge back into society, out of the darkness and into the light. Klaus and Ingrid were confident that Torgau would face closure in the new, united Germany and with this in mind, Klaus rang Bernd and asked him to come alone to Motzen, without delay.

Meanwhile, Felix stayed hidden in Das Kino as a precautionary measure. Fear was a crippling companion after years of state security exercising blanket surveillance and the East Germans knew that severe consequences always followed if the regime was compromised or challenged. Consequently, most ordinary citizens were reluctant to step out of line.

When Bernd arrived, he and Klaus wrapped up warm and took a rowing boat out onto the lake to be sure no one could hear their conversation. Ingrid had made them a flask of coffee and sandwiches, which they tucked into. The lake was calm and winter seemed milder here than in the snowbound streets of Berlin. Klaus dropped anchor in the middle of the lake.

‘The party's moribund. I'm not sure what to do next, job-wise that is,' Bernd confessed.

‘You can always work here with me. There's no shame in that,' Klaus told him.

‘Thanks, I may just do that,' Bernd replied.

‘What's all this talk of giving us in the East one Deutschmark for one Ostmark?' asked Klaus.

‘It's true. It'll be announced on television on 3
^rd
December, and how about this, brother… The Politburo will resign and the central committee will assist Helmut Kohl with the integration of one Germany, moving the capital back to Berlin from Bonn.'

‘3
^rd
December? That's tomorrow! It's all happening so fast,' said Klaus.

‘Aren't you glad?'

‘More than you know,' Klaus replied.

‘Hey, we could really build this place up for the tourist trade and make a lot of money in the process,' Bernd enthused.

‘I think so too. There's a bit of land around here, and the Russian Army recently left their military base about 10 kilometres from here that's ripe for development. I've been thinking, I'd be interested in opening up a golf course.'

Bernd laughed. ‘Golf? My dear Klaus, you know nothing about golf! ‘

‘But you do. Ask about the possible sites and use your connections. I think there's a lot of money to be made in golf,' stated Klaus.

Bernd nodded. ‘We sound like capitalists already.'

‘Is there anything you've done that'll bring repercussions? You're my brother and we stick together no matter what, but I need to know, just to be prepared,' Klaus asked.

Bernd knew what his brother meant. ‘No. I've not shamed you, my family or myself. Nor have I been a part of any decisions made within the party that have compromised the safety and security of any individual. My conscience is clear, you have my word.'

‘Good lad,' said Klaus and patted his brother on the back.

‘But you didn't ask me here to talk about golf.'

‘Nor to discuss what we're doing with Mutti for Weihnachten. I've a confession of my own,' Klaus began. ‘I've been hiding a runaway in Das Kino.'

Bernd was flabbergasted. ‘
Scheisse
!'

‘I know how dangerous a situation it was. Ingrid and I told no one because we had no choice. We had to protect the boy at all costs. Luckily, events have gone in our favour and now is the time the boy can come out of hiding.'

‘Klaus! Are you mad? Who is this boy you risked your life for?'

‘Felix, our nephew.'

‘Sofie's boy?' Bernd was incredulous.

Klaus nodded. ‘Yes. You remember when Ingrid and Sofie fell out at Gertrude's funeral and they lost contact? A few years later, that stupid drunk of a father, Jakob, drowned, and then Sofie died in an accident. Nobody told us so we never knew, and the twins ended up in Torgau.'

‘
Nein
!
Fic
!
Fic
!' Bernd screamed, banging his fists on the hull of the boat.

‘And the first news Ingrid heard about her beloved Sofie was that she'd died.'

‘That's tragic. Poor Ingrid,' said Bernd.

‘She's not forgiven herself. She's been very brave, hiding her grief from Felix. He was in a state when he turned up here in the spring. Bouts of shaking and nightmares, the poor kid. He needed us to be strong. He's on the mend now, thanks to Ingrid's love.'

Bernd admired his brother's modesty. ‘Sorry to hear that. How can I help?'

‘We need to know what's happened to Susanne,' Klaus told him.

‘We'll go there today.'

‘Before we go, I want you to meet Felix.'

‘Hopefully he'll remember me,' Bernd ventured.

‘He's got a fine eye for detail and he's incredibly bright,' Klaus began. ‘He's gone through a lot, poor kid. We don't want him just to be a Torgau boy.'

Felix was in Das Kino, reading in his room. He heard footsteps down below and Klaus calling his name. Appearing on the balcony, he looked down to find his Onkel was not alone. There was another man with him, similar in looks to Klaus but a better dressed and slimmer version.

‘Felix, don't be alarmed. Guess who's here to see you?'

‘Hello, Felix,' Bernd said warmly. ‘Do you remember me?'

‘Onkel Bernd?'

While they all had lunch together in the cottage, Felix was pleased to hear Klaus and Bernd were going to Torgau that very afternoon.

‘I want to come with you,' he told them.

‘No, I'm sorry lad,' Klaus replied.

Felix frowned. ‘Please. I'm not afraid. Please let me come with you.'

Bernd concurred with his brother. ‘Sorry, best not.'

‘Susi needs me! Onkel, she might not even recognise you,' Felix insisted, growing more and more frustrated. ‘She'll think you're just another bastard wanting to take advantage of her!'

‘Felix!' Ingrid cried. ‘Mind your language.'

Angry, tearful and frustrated but wanting to hide his emotions, Felix ran out of the room.

‘He's upset. Leave him,' Klaus ordered.

‘He's got a mind of his own,' observed Bernd.

‘Feisty, like his mother and Tante,' said Klaus, glancing at Ingrid. ‘When he's calmed down, we'll be able to reason with him.'

‘What if he's right and Susanne doesn't recognise you?'

‘Susanne will know her Onkel Klaus,' Klaus replied, assuredly.

Bernd telephoned a colleague in the Dresden Politburo and was given the information he needed about Torgau. He and Klaus reached it a few hours later and were taken aback at the size of the imposing, fortress-styled building on the River Elbe as it came into view. The main prison was not their destination; the annexed fortress was where the children had been housed. The gates were open so they drove through a cobbled courtyard and parked. It was getting dark and they noticed that the only lights were coming from a reception area in the entrance hall. The place seemed empty. As they went inside, a middle-aged man with a bird-like face and glasses greeted them.

‘Gentlemen, how may I help you?'

Bernd spoke for his brother. ‘I'm from the Politburo,' he began, showing his official identity badge. ‘We're looking for a girl… our niece.'

‘You'll need to fill out a form and it'll be dealt with in the next few weeks.'

‘A few weeks!' Klaus was instantly livid. ‘We want news today!'

‘As you can see, we're working with a skeleton staff here,' the man explained.

Bernd intervened. ‘How convenient. Everyone does a disappearing act so there's no one left to answer any questions.'

‘Well, since you are from the Politburo, you should know,' the man said accusingly. ‘Everyone knows Egon Krenz is yesterday's man and so you'll excuse me for asking, but what jurisdiction do you have in the party?'

It was the first time Bernd had experienced his authority being challenged.

‘Krenz was an asshole and may serve a sentence at the prison here, given time,' Bernd began, confidently and self-assured. ‘I believe orders came through from my colleague. Our newly-elected minister from Dresden, Hans Modrow, ordered Torgau's penal colony for children to close with immediate effect. All detainees should have been sent home to their families, fostered or released.'

‘Correct… and I'm here with a few colleagues to deal with enquiries.'

‘And all the bastards who worked here, where have they disappeared to?' Klaus shouted.

The man defended himself. ‘Sir, I am not here to be abused.'

‘No. Only the kids are to be abused,' was Klaus's riposte.

‘I'm only doing my job,' the man replied.

Klaus banged his fist on the desk. ‘You don't have to deal with the aftermath of these screwed-up kids!'

Bernd intervened. ‘Klaus! Calm down. Let me deal with this. Do you have a list of where these kids have gone?' Bernd asked the man in a civil voice.

The man nodded. ‘I do. Child's name?'

‘Susanne Waltz. She's 14.' Bernd told him.

‘I'll get you a form.'

Bernd read the man's name on his identity badge. ‘Herr Stokowski, you have files in your office. I want details of our niece, today. Is that clear?'

Bernd and Stokowski faced one another. There was a second's pause before Stokowski conceded defeat and disappeared to a back office.

Bernd shook his head and wiped a trickle of sweat from his brow. ‘Believe me when I tell you this is the best day of my political life.'

‘It's great to have perks if you use them wisely. Welcome to the real world,' Klaus told him.

Stokowski returned. ‘Susanne Waltz. Date of birth 30
^th
January 1975.'

‘That's right.'

Stokowski looked uneasy. ‘She left sometime in September.'

‘September!' Klaus exclaimed.

‘Where'd she go?' enquired Bernd.

‘To a nursing home down in the town,' Stokowski informed them.

Klaus was worried. ‘A nursing home? Is she ill?'

‘I'll give you the address of the nursing home. They'll fill you in on the details.'

Klaus was frustrated. There was no one to take out his anger out on and no one to blame. He went outside into the courtyard and punched the cold air.

Bernd was a calming influence. ‘Klaus, she's alive! This isn't the time for revenge, just get in the car and let me do the talking when we get there.'

Convinced another spanner would be put in the works once they got to the nursing home, Klaus was amazed when he was told Susanne had been there over a month and with Torgau's closure the doctors were wondering what to do next for her, believing she didn't have any relatives.

‘Susanne can go home with you as long as you can prove you are related to her,' said the nurse.

Bernd handed over the necessary proof of kinship: Gertrude Baum's will, stating her grandchildren Felix and Susanne Waltz would inherit her house in Motzen. With Klaus's marriage certificate to Ingrid, whose maiden name was Baum, it was adequate proof.

‘Is she all right? Can we see her?' Klaus asked.

The nurse said she would arrange for them to see her. ‘Susanne is fine and much improved but still a little weak, recovering from complications she'd experienced giving birth,' she added. ‘She had a baby eight weeks ago, a son called Axel.'