The Woman from Hamburg Read Online Free PDF

Stauffenberg, the future organizer of the assassination attempt of July 1944. (During the trial following upon that attempt, the prosecutor kept addressing him as “criminal” or “scoundrel Schulenberg.” Once, when he addressed him as “Count,” Schulenberg interrupted him: “Scoundrel Schulenberg, if you please.”) He was hanged in August, 1944, a year and a half after his conversation with Axel von dem B. When Axel had told his friend that he was prepared to kill …
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    In June 1943 they were in the outskirts of Leningrad, a few kilometers from Tsarskoe Selo and the first front line. Itwas the season of white nights; one could read until morning without turning on a light. (“
Pishu, chitaiu bez lampady
”—“I write, I read without a lamp”—wrote Alexander Pushkin, a student at the lyceum in Tsarskoe Selo.) It was evening. The sky was the color of skim milk.
    They were sitting and drinking coffee in the regimental staff’s offices, a wooden villa that served also as the commander’s quarters. They had brewed the coffee with hot, Soviet cognac, which they received in their rations along with cigarettes. This coffee was called
café diabolique
. The commander left to inspect the front line. They sat and talked among themselves. It was not a serious conversation—neither about the war nor about politics. Just chatter, really, as would be expected when drinking
café diabolique
at night, when the sky is the color of skim milk.
    Suddenly, little Bronsart got up from his chair. He pulled his revolver out of its holster. He aimed at the portrait of Hitler that was hanging on the wall—and fired. His aim was perfect. It is hard to say why he did that; they hadn’t been talking about anything serious, after all. Obviously, little Bronsart didn’t like the Führer, and that’s all.
    A deathlike silence ensued, of course. Everyone looked at the Führer with the hole in his head and thought about the same thing: Was the hole in the wooden wall behind the portrait deep, and was everyone in the room a friend?
    The silence was broken by Axel von dem B. who asked Richard, the regimental adjutant, if there wasn’t a spare portrait somewhere. To which Richard, the youngerbrother of Heinrich (the one who had died on the second day of the war in Bory Tucholskie), replied that unfortunately there was one portrait per regiment.
    The silence filled with anxiety. In the meantime, Richard spoke up.
    “We’ll think about it later. Before we fully understand what happened, let’s each of us do the same thing.”
    He took out his revolver and aimed at Hitler.
    After him, Axel von dem B. fired.
    After Axel, Klausing—or maybe von Arnim …
    What they did with the bullet-riddled portrait, and what was hung on the wall instead, Axel von dem B. could not remember. It was not his problem; it was the duty of Richard, the adjutant, to take care of matters with the regimental commander. Fortunately, he possessed an exceptional diplomatic talent and was suited to smoothing out unsettling affairs.
    Bronsart von Schellendorf died near the Neva River one month afterward.
    Friedrich Klausing was wounded and sent back to Berlin. Later, he became Stauffenberg’s adjutant. He was hanged in July 1944.
    Ewald von Kleist survived, but Richard insists that Kleist wasn’t with them then.
    In any event, three men survived: Axel von dem B., Max von Arnim, who is retired now, and Richard von Weizsaecker, who is the President of Germany.
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    In the autumn of 1943 Fritz von der Schulenberg informed Axel von dem B. that conspirators were looking for an officer to kill Hitler during a presentation of new uniforms. This was about the winter uniforms for the Eastern front. The current uniforms, as had become apparent in the course of battle, were not appropriate for Russian conditions. New models were designed and Axel von dem B. was to model them for Hitler. Himmler and Goering were also to be present at the showing. Since the defeat at