The Girl From East Berlin
A romantic docu-drama of the East-West divide
ISBN-13: 978-09543161-7-4
Dewey classification: 823.9′2 [F]
pp.: xiv/622
Retail price: £25.00 / US$ 40.00
The author
James Furner is a journalist and writer who for many years has worked in international commerce and engaged his energies in social issues. Under the pseudonym of Eddie Miller, he wrote My Conflict With A Soviet Spy the story of the Ron Evans spy case, recording his adventures in Finland in the mid-1960s, and some twenty years later, under the name of Geoff Carter, he wrote, Death In Riyadh dark secrets in hidden Arabia, describing his experiences as a businessman in the Gulf States. Under his real name, Robert Corfe, he is the author of several specialised political science titles.
About this book
Described as a docu-drama rather than a novel because of the extent of its fact-based storyline and material; in re-creating the milieu of a city, James Furner has achieved for the Berlin of the post-War period what Christopher Isherwood achieved for the Berlin of 30 years before.
This is a realistic drama on an epic scale, set in Berlin immediately prior to the building of the Wall, which was to divide the city for three decades. Packed with humorous observations, it is a poignant story of true love intercepted by the political conflict and intrigues of the East-West power blocs.
In retrospect it takes the form of a historical novel of the most authentic type: i.e. not based on an imaginative reconstruction of the past, but drawing on detailed diary entries, and the author’s immediate report of strongly felt personal events, resurrected for publication after a period of almost 50 years.
Few novels appear on such a grand scale as this: what begins as an inauspicious chance meeting in an East Berlin art shop leads to an adventure exploring the many social and psychological aspects characterising the division of a great European capital. It is an encyclopaedia of the soul of a city; unlikely again to be described so comprehensively or in such depth.
It is as much a political novel as a love drama, especially in so far as the former impacts so heavily on the outcome of the latter. For all these reasons, the question has to be asked: if the 10 greatest true love stories of the 20th century were to be listed, then would this need to be included amongst their number?
Perhaps most striking is the immediacy of its style in describing characters and events, for this contributes a compassion and authenticity more reminiscent of a memoir than a work of fiction.
Is this book more correctly described as a novel or reportage? Only the reader can decide. The fact remains that this is a new and exciting literary genre, developed for most vividly telling a story which has to be told.
Contents
- Prologue
- Book I - In Stalin Allee September 1959
- Book II - The Mysterious One
- Book III - Premonitions of Misfortune
- Book IV - The Family in Treptow
- Book V - A Spy in the Block
- Book VI - Fate of the Small People
- Book VII - Days of Joy and Sorrow
- Book VIII - Towards a Dark Secret
- Book IX - Dagmar’s Story 1957-1959
- Book X - Rebel with a Cause
- Book XI - The Lovers’ Plan
- Book XII - Hope Looks Westward
- Book XIII - Forwarned is Forearmed
- Book XIV - The Uninvited Guest
- Book XV - A Spitzel on the Run
- Book XVI - The Day of Reckoning
- Book XVII - Destiny Takes its Course September 1960 - August 1961
- Prologue
List of Illustrations
Between pages 286 and 287
- Entrance hall of Martin Schutz’s apartment block
- Site of the former Eierschale night club as it appears today
- Strausberger Platz today
- Site of the former Art Shop as it exists today
- View of Stalin Allee in 1959
- Street scene in the grotty end of Stalin Allee as described early in the book
- Karpfen pond, Treptower Park, where Dagmar often walked with her father
- The Renot family home as it appears today
- View of the ground floor flat shared by Dagmar and her grandmother as it appears today
- View of Graetz Strasse in 2006
- The grim former barracks barracks of the Volkspolizei in Bouche Strasse
- Puschkin Allee today
- Karl Marx Strasse (West Berlin) where Papa Renot liked to window-shop, as it appears today
- Beach at Langer See where Dagmar and Dietrich first met
- Humboldt University as it appears today
- Window display of FDJ HQ in Unter den Linden (1959)
- View of Max Maller’s flat in Zehlendorf
- Site of the crash after the car chase, off Gertrauden Strasse (picture taken two years after the event)
- The notorious Stasi prison in Hohenschanhausen, now a memorial site and museum (See Chapter 63)
- Berlin Wall in 1963
- Souvenirs on sale of a dreaded past, central Berlin 2006
All illustrations © by the author, James Furner