What to do when snowbound

.... and the area down to the road has become an ice rink?

Well, the answer is to sit down comfortably and read the 1949 edition of Spiegel magazine.


Hereby hangs a story, one of the somewhat shaggy dog variety.


Many years ago I acquired a car boot full of German books.  Their owner had fled this country, to escape justice on serious criminal charges.  In his hurry he abandoned the books in his flat, which his landlord now wished to clear.

Some of the booty was rubbish, and there was also a variety of interesting books.  There was Meyers Pocket Dictionary in 24 volumes, also an intimidating collection of bound numbers of the Spiegel magazine, covering the years from its inception in 1947 to the end of 1952.  This collection occupies about 15 inches (38 cms) of space in the bookshelf.  I would guess that the collection has at least 7,500 pages.

I would occasionally dip into this treasure trove, but the bound volumes were rather heavy and didn’t invite me to spend a long time in investigating its contents.  Each time I told myself that there were a lot of interesting articles, and I would definitely investigate more thoroughly at a later date.  

One item of particular interest, in weekly episodes, was a history of the annals of the Berlin police praesidium during the 1930s.

The years passed.  I read some of the “Gereon Rath” detective stories, set in the Alexanderplatz police praesidium in Berlin.  I also struggled through Alfred Doeblin’s novel “Berlin Alexanderplatz”.  And finally, at the end of last year, Gereon Rath popped up again, this time on TV in “Babylon Berlin”.

I knew that some of the characters - Zörrgiebel and Gennat - in the “Rath” novels were also real policemen of the period.  So I set out to see how close to the novels the Spiegel articles were.  Not an easy task.  I would have to be methodical: to go through every edition from beginning to end.  I had a hunch that I would find the answer in 1949.

I have just arrived in 1949.  The two first years of publication have been examined at a snail’s pace.  I have learned of the death of Karl Valentin and the birth of Prince Charles (assisted by 4 doctors, 2 nurses).  The gory details of many war crime trials and their outcomes.  Ladies’ fashions galore.  The ideal woman, determined by precise measurements of numerous parts of her anatomy.  A footnote to advise that (Dean) Acheson’s surname was pronounced "Ätschesen".  The exiled Yugoslav Royal family figuring much more in the magazine than their nemesis, Tito. 

On the Spiegel title page, as shown on my blip, there is mention (plus an illustration) of a Buddha.  I may have struck lucky:  


BUDDHA  JUST  HAPPENS  TO  BE  GENNAT’S  NICKNAME.

So watch this space........


PS What was that Marlene Dietrich song again?