Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie
'There should and could be a super race. Adolf Hitler
had the right idea,' said Charlotte. 'A man of no impor.
tance in himself, but he had artistic elements in his character.
. And undoubtedly he had the power of leadership.' |r 'Ah yes. Leadership, that is what we need.'
;|' 'You had the wrong allies in the last war, my dear. If fe England and Germany now had arrayed themselves side
I;.. by side, if they had had the same ideals, of youth, strength,
I'.two Aryan nations with the right ideals. Think where your
g|country and mine might have arrived today? Yet perhaps
ven that is too narrow a view to take. In some ways the
ommunists and the others have taught us a lesson. Workers if the world unite? But that is to set one's sights too low.
Vorkers are only our material. It is "Leaders of the world
unite!" Young men with the gift of leadership, of good
139
blood. And we must start, not with the middle-aged men set in their ways, repeating themselves like a gramophone
record that has stuck. We must seek among the student
population, the young men with brave hearts, with great
ideas, willing to march, willing to be killed but willing also
to kill. To till without any compunction--because it is
certain that without aggressiveness, without violence, without
attack--there can be no victory. I must show you something--'
With somewhat of a struggle she succeeded in rising to
her feet. Lady Matilda followed suit, underlining a little her
difficulty, whish was not quite as much as she was making
out.
'It was in May 1940,' said Charlotte, 'when Hitler Youth
went on to its second stage. When Himmler obtained from
Hitler a charter. The charter of the famous SS. It was
formed for the destruction of the eastern peoples, the slaves,
the appointed slaves of the world. It would make room for
the German master race. The SS executive instrument came
into being.' Her voice dropped a little. It held for a moment
a kind of religious awe.
Lady Matilda nearly crossed herself by mistake.
The Order of the Death's Head,' said Big Charlotte.
She walked slowly and painfully down the room and
pointed to where on the wall hung, framed in gilt and surmounted
with a skull, the Order of the Death's Head.
'See, it is my most cherished possession. It hangs here
on my wall. My golden youth band, when they come here,
salute it. And in our archives in the castle here are folios
of its chronicles. Some of them are only reading for strong
stomachs, but one must learn to accept these things. The
deaths in gas chambers, the torture cells, the trials at Nuremberg
speak venomously of all those things. But it was a
great tradition. Strength through pain. They were trained
young, the boys, so that they should not falter or turn back or
suffer from any kind of softness. Even Lenin, preaching his
Marxist doctrine, declared "Away with softness!" It was
one of his first rules for creating a perfect State. But we
were too narrow. We wished to confine our great dream only
to the German master race. But there are other races. They
too can attain masterhood through suffering and violence
and through the considered practice of anarchy. We must
pull down, pull down all the soft institutions. Pull down
the more humiliating forms of religion. There is a religion of strength, the old religion of the Viking people. And we have
140
a leader, young as yet, gaining in power every day. What did
some great man say? Give me the tools and I will do the job.
Something like that. Our leader has already the tools. He
will have more tools. He will have the planes, the bombs,
the means of chemical warfare. He will have the men to
fight. He will have the transport. He will have shipping and
oil. He will have what one might call the Aladdin's creation
of genie. You rub the lamp and the genie appears. It is
all in your hands. The means of production, the means of
wealth and our young leader, a leader by birth as well as
by character. He has all this.'
She wheezed and coughed.
'Let me help you.'
Lady Matilda supported her back to her seat. Charlotte
gasped a little as she sat down.
It's sad to be old, but I shall last long enough. Long
enough to see the triumph of a new world, a new creation.
That is what you want for your nephew. I will see to it.
Power in his own country, that is what he wants, is ,it
not? You would be ready to encourage the spearhead there?'
'I had influence once. But now?' Lady Matilda shook
her head sadly. 'All that is gone.'
'It will come again, dear,' said her friend. 'You were
right to come to me. I have a certain influence.'
'It is a great cause,' said Lady Matilda. She sighed and
murmured, "The Young Siegfried.'
'I hope you enjoyed meeting your old friend,' said Amy
as they drove back to the Gasthaus.
If you could have heard all the nonsense I talked, you
wouldn't believe it,' said Lady Matilda Cleckheaton.
Chapter 16
PIKEAWAY TALKS
The news from France is very bad,' said Colonel Pikeaway,
brushing a cloud of cigar ash off his coat. 'I heard Winston
Churchill say that in the last war. There was a man who
could speak in plain words and no more than needed. It
was very impressive. It told us what we needed to know.
Well, it's a long time since then, but I say it again today,
The news from France is very bad.'
141
He coughed, wheezed and brushed a little more ash off
himself.
"The news from Italy is very bad,' he said. "The news
from Russia, I imagine, could be very bad if they let much
out about it. They've got trouble there too. Marching bands
of students in the street, shop windows smashed. Embassies
attacked. News from Egypt is very bad. News from Jerusalem
is very bad. News from Syria is very bad. That's all
more or less normal, so we needn't worry too much. News
|j|| from Argentine is what I'd call peculiar. Very peculiar indeed.
Argentine, Brazil, Cuba, they've all got together. Call themselves
the Golden Youth Federated States, or something
like that. It's got an army, too. Properly drilled, properly
armed, properly commanded. They've got planes, they've got
bombs, they've got God-knows-what. And most of them
seem to know what to do with them, which makes it worse.
There's a singing crowd as well, apparently. Pop songs, old
local folk songs, and bygone battle hymns. They go along
rather like the Salvation Army used to do--no blasphemy
intended--I'm not crabbing the Salvation Army. Jolly good
work they did always. And the girls--pretty as Punch in then bonnets.'
He went on:
'I've heard that something's going on in that line in the
civilized countries, starting with us. Some of us can be
called civilized still, I suppose? One of our politicians the
other day, I remember, said we were a splendid nation,
chiefly because we were permissive, we had demonstrations,
we smashed things, we beat up anyone if we hadn't anything
better to do, we got rid of our high spirits by showing violence,
and our moral purity by taking most of our clothes
off. I don't know what he thought he was talking about--
politicians seldom do--but they can make it sound all right.
That's why they are politicians.'
He paused and looked across at the man he was talking ti..'.
'Distressing--sadly distressing,' said Sir George Packhan;.
'One can hardly believe--one worries--if one could on- --Is that all the news you've got?' he asked plaintively
'Isn't it enough? You're hard to satisfy. World an ;;'
well on its way--that's what we've got. A bit wobbly ! '
not fully established yet, but very near to it--very cs-"'" indeed.'
'But action can surely be taken against all this?'
'Not so easy as you think. Tear gas puts a stop to r.~ tn & for a while and gives the police a break. And natu'aly
142
we've got plenty of germ warfare and nuclear bombs and
all the other pretty bags of tricks--What do you think
would happen if we started using those? Mass massacre of
aU the marching girls and boys, and the housewife's shopping
circle, and the old age pensioners at home, and a good quota
of our pompous politicians as they tell us we've never had it
so good, and in addition you and me--Ha, ha!
'And anyway,' added Colonel Pikeaway, 'if it's only news
you're after, I understand you've got some hot news of
your own arriving today. Top secret from Germany, Herr
Heinrich Spiess himself.'
'How on earth did you hear that? It's supposed to be
strictly--'
'We know everything here,' said Colonel Pikeaway, using
his pet phrase--that's what we're for.
'Bringing some tame doctor, too, I understand--' he added.
'Yes, a Dr Reichardt, a top scientist, I presume--'
'No. Medical doctor--Loony-bins--'
'Oh dear--a psychologist?'
'Probably. The ones that run loony-bins are mostly that.
With any luck he'll have been brought over so that he
can examine the heads of some of our young firebrands. Stuffed full they are of German philosophy, Black Power
philosophy, dead French writers' philosophy, and so on
and so forth. Possibly they'll let him examine some of the
heads of our legal lights who preside over our -judicial courts
here saying we must be very careful not to do anything
to damage a young man's ego because he might have to
earn his living. We'd be a lot safer if they sent them all
round to get plenty of National Assistance to live on and
then they could go back to their rooms, not do any work, and enJoy themselves reading more philosophy. However,
I'm out of date. I know that. You needn't tell me so.'
'One has to take into account the new modes of thought,'
said Sir George Packham. 'One feels, I mean one hopes-- well it's difficult to say--'
'Must be very worrying for you,' said Colonel Pikeaway.
'Finding things so difficult to say.'
His telephone rang. He listened, then handed it to Sir
George.
'Yes?' said Sir George. 'Yes? Oh yes. Yes. I agree. I "uprose--No--no--not the Home Office. No. Privately, you
mean. Well, I suppose we'd better use--er--' Sir George looked round him cautiously.
This place isn't bugged,' said Colonel Pikeaway amiably,
143
'Code word Blue Danube,' said Sir George Packham in
a loud, hoarse whisper. 'Yes, yes. I'll bring Pikeaway along
with me. Oh yes, of course. Yes, yes. Get on ,to him. Yes,
say you particularly want him to come, but to remember
our meeting has got to be strictly private.'
'We can't take my car then,' said Pikeaway. 'It's too well
known.'
'Henry Horsham's coming to fetch us in the Volkswagen.'
'Fine,' said Colonel Pikeaway. 'Interesting, you know, all
this.'
'You don't think--' said Sir George and hesitated-
I don't think what?'
'I mean just really--well, I--mean, if you wouldn't mind
my suggesting--a clothes brush?'
'Oh, this.' Colonel Pikeaway hit himself lightly on the
shoulder and a cloud of cigar ash flew up and made Sir
George choke.
'Nanny,' Colonel Pikeaway shouted. He banged a buzzer
on his desk.
A middle-aged woman came in with a clothes brush, appearing
with the suddenness of a genie summoned by
Aladdin's lamp.
'Hold your breath, please. Sir George,' she said. "This
may be a little pungent.'
She held the door open for him and he retired outside
while she brushed Colonel Pikeaway, who coughed and
complained:
'Damned nuisance these people are. Always wanting you
to get fixed up like a barber's dummy.'
'I should not describe your appearance as quite like that,
Colonel Pikeaway. You ought to be used to my cleaning
you up nowadays. And you know the Home Secretary suffers
from asthma.'
'Well, that's his fault. Not taking proper care to have
pollution removed from the streets of London.
'Come on. Sir George, let's hear what our German frier 'has
come over to say. Sounds as though it's a matter ci some urgency.'
Chapter 17 HERR HEINRICH SPIESS
Herr Heinrich Spiess was a worried man. He did not seek
to conceal the fact. He acknowledged, indeed, without concealment,
that the situation which these five men had come
together to discuss was a serious situation. At the same
time, he brought with him that sense of reassurance which
had been his principal asset in dealing with the recently
difficult political life in Germany. He was a solid man, a
thoughtful man, a man who could bring common sense to
any assemblies he attended. He gave no sense of being a
brilliant man,'and that in itself was reassuring. Brilliant politicians
had been responsible for about two-thirds of the
national states of crisis in more countries than one. The other
third of trouble had been caused by those politicians who were
unable to conceal the fact that although duly elected by
democratic governments, they had been unable to conceal
their remarkably poor powers of judgment, common sense
and, in fact, any noticeable brainy qualities.
'This is not in any sense an official visit, you understand,'
said the Chancellor.
'Oh quite, quite.'
'A certain piece of knowledge has come to me which I
thought is essential we should share. It throws a rather interesting
light on certain happenings which have puzzled as well
as distressed us. This is Dr Reichardt.'
Introductions were made. Dr Reichardt was a large and comfortable-looking man with the habit of saying 'Ach, so'
from time to time.
'Dr Reichardt is in charge of a large establishment in
the neighbourhood of Karlsruhe. He treats there mental
patients. I think I am correct in saying that you treat there
between five and six hundred patients, am I not right?'
'Ach, so,' said Dr Reichardt.
'I take it that you have several different forms of mental
illness?'
'Ach, so. I have different forms of mental illness, but
nevertheless, I have a special interest in, and treat almost
exclusively one particular type of mental trouble.' He branched
off into German and Herr Spiess presently rendered a brief ^nslation in case some of his English colleagues should ^t understand. This was both necessary and tactful. Two
145
of them did in part, one of them definitely did not, and the
two others were truly puzzled.
'Dr Reichardt has had,' explained Herr Spiess, 'the greatest
success in his treatment of what as a layman I describe
as megalomania. The belief that you are someone other
than you are. Ideas of being more important than you are.
Ideas that if you have persecution mania--'
'Ach, no!' said Dr Reichardt. 'Persecution mania, no, that
I do not treat. There is no persecution mania in my clinic.
Not among the group with whom I am specially interested.
On the contrary, they hold the delusions that they do because
they wish to be happy. And they are happy, and I can keep
them happy. But if I cure them, see you, they will not be
happy. So I have to find a cure that will restore sanity to
them, and yet they will be happy just the same. We call this
particular state of mind--'
He uttered a long and ferociously sounding German word
of at least eight syllables.
'For the purposes of our English friends, I shall still use
my term of megalomania, though I know,' continued Herr
Spiess, rather quickly, 'that that is not the term you use
nowadays, Dr Reichardt. So, as I say, you have in your
clinic six hundred patients.'
'And at one time, the time to which I am about to refer,
I had eight hundred.'
'Eight hundred!'
'It was interesting--most interesting.'
'You have such persons--to start at the beginning--'
'We have God Almighty,' explained Dr Reichardt. 'You comprehend?'
Mr Lazenby looked slightly taken aback.
*0h--er--yes--er--yes. Very interesting, I am sure.*
There are one or two young men, of course, who think
they are Jesus Christ. But that is not so popular as the
Almighty. And then there are the others. I had at the
time I am about to mention twenty-four Adolf Hitlers
This you must understand was at the time when Hitler
was alive. Yes, twenty-four or twenty-five Adolf Hitlers--'
he consulted a small notebook which he took from his
pocket--'I have made some notes here, yes. Fifteen Napoleons
Napoleon, he is always popular, ten Mussolinis, five reincarnations
of Julius Caesar, and many other cases, very curiol and very interesting. But that I will not weary you with ;
this moment. Not being specially qualified in the medical sens'-
it would not be of any interest to you. We will come to the
incident that matters.'
Dr Reichardt spoke again at rather shorter length, and
Hen- Spiess continued to translate.
There came to him one day a government official. Highly
thought of at that time--this was during the war, mind you--
by the ruling government. I will call him for the moment
Martin B. You will know who I mean. He brought with him
his chief. In fact he brought with him--well, we will not beat
about the bush--he brought the Fiihrer himself.'
'Aoh, so,' said Dr Reichardt.
'It was a great honour, you understand, that he should come to inspect,' went on the doctor. 'He was gracious, mein Fiihrer. He told me that he had heard very good reports
of my successes. He said that there had been trouble lately.
Cases from the army. There, more than once there had been
men believing they were Napoleon, sometimes believing they
were some of Napoleon's Marshals and sometimes, you
comprehend, behaving accordingly, giving out military orders
and causing therefore military difficulties. I would have been
happy to have given him any professional knowledge that
might be useful to him, but Martin B. who accompanied him
said that that would not be necessary. Our great Fiihrer,
however,' said Dr Reichardt, looking at Herr Spiess slightly
uneasily, 'did not want to be bothered with such details. He
said that no doubt it would be better if medically qualified
men with some experience as neurologists should come and
have a consultation. What he wanted was to--ach, well, he
wanted to see round, and I soon found what he was really
interested to see. It should not have surprised me. Oh no,
because you see, it was a symptom that one recognizes.
The strain of his life was already beginning to tell on the
had the right idea,' said Charlotte. 'A man of no impor.
tance in himself, but he had artistic elements in his character.
. And undoubtedly he had the power of leadership.' |r 'Ah yes. Leadership, that is what we need.'
;|' 'You had the wrong allies in the last war, my dear. If fe England and Germany now had arrayed themselves side
I;.. by side, if they had had the same ideals, of youth, strength,
I'.two Aryan nations with the right ideals. Think where your
g|country and mine might have arrived today? Yet perhaps
ven that is too narrow a view to take. In some ways the
ommunists and the others have taught us a lesson. Workers if the world unite? But that is to set one's sights too low.
Vorkers are only our material. It is "Leaders of the world
unite!" Young men with the gift of leadership, of good
139
blood. And we must start, not with the middle-aged men set in their ways, repeating themselves like a gramophone
record that has stuck. We must seek among the student
population, the young men with brave hearts, with great
ideas, willing to march, willing to be killed but willing also
to kill. To till without any compunction--because it is
certain that without aggressiveness, without violence, without
attack--there can be no victory. I must show you something--'
With somewhat of a struggle she succeeded in rising to
her feet. Lady Matilda followed suit, underlining a little her
difficulty, whish was not quite as much as she was making
out.
'It was in May 1940,' said Charlotte, 'when Hitler Youth
went on to its second stage. When Himmler obtained from
Hitler a charter. The charter of the famous SS. It was
formed for the destruction of the eastern peoples, the slaves,
the appointed slaves of the world. It would make room for
the German master race. The SS executive instrument came
into being.' Her voice dropped a little. It held for a moment
a kind of religious awe.
Lady Matilda nearly crossed herself by mistake.
The Order of the Death's Head,' said Big Charlotte.
She walked slowly and painfully down the room and
pointed to where on the wall hung, framed in gilt and surmounted
with a skull, the Order of the Death's Head.
'See, it is my most cherished possession. It hangs here
on my wall. My golden youth band, when they come here,
salute it. And in our archives in the castle here are folios
of its chronicles. Some of them are only reading for strong
stomachs, but one must learn to accept these things. The
deaths in gas chambers, the torture cells, the trials at Nuremberg
speak venomously of all those things. But it was a
great tradition. Strength through pain. They were trained
young, the boys, so that they should not falter or turn back or
suffer from any kind of softness. Even Lenin, preaching his
Marxist doctrine, declared "Away with softness!" It was
one of his first rules for creating a perfect State. But we
were too narrow. We wished to confine our great dream only
to the German master race. But there are other races. They
too can attain masterhood through suffering and violence
and through the considered practice of anarchy. We must
pull down, pull down all the soft institutions. Pull down
the more humiliating forms of religion. There is a religion of strength, the old religion of the Viking people. And we have
140
a leader, young as yet, gaining in power every day. What did
some great man say? Give me the tools and I will do the job.
Something like that. Our leader has already the tools. He
will have more tools. He will have the planes, the bombs,
the means of chemical warfare. He will have the men to
fight. He will have the transport. He will have shipping and
oil. He will have what one might call the Aladdin's creation
of genie. You rub the lamp and the genie appears. It is
all in your hands. The means of production, the means of
wealth and our young leader, a leader by birth as well as
by character. He has all this.'
She wheezed and coughed.
'Let me help you.'
Lady Matilda supported her back to her seat. Charlotte
gasped a little as she sat down.
It's sad to be old, but I shall last long enough. Long
enough to see the triumph of a new world, a new creation.
That is what you want for your nephew. I will see to it.
Power in his own country, that is what he wants, is ,it
not? You would be ready to encourage the spearhead there?'
'I had influence once. But now?' Lady Matilda shook
her head sadly. 'All that is gone.'
'It will come again, dear,' said her friend. 'You were
right to come to me. I have a certain influence.'
'It is a great cause,' said Lady Matilda. She sighed and
murmured, "The Young Siegfried.'
'I hope you enjoyed meeting your old friend,' said Amy
as they drove back to the Gasthaus.
If you could have heard all the nonsense I talked, you
wouldn't believe it,' said Lady Matilda Cleckheaton.
Chapter 16
PIKEAWAY TALKS
The news from France is very bad,' said Colonel Pikeaway,
brushing a cloud of cigar ash off his coat. 'I heard Winston
Churchill say that in the last war. There was a man who
could speak in plain words and no more than needed. It
was very impressive. It told us what we needed to know.
Well, it's a long time since then, but I say it again today,
The news from France is very bad.'
141
He coughed, wheezed and brushed a little more ash off
himself.
"The news from Italy is very bad,' he said. "The news
from Russia, I imagine, could be very bad if they let much
out about it. They've got trouble there too. Marching bands
of students in the street, shop windows smashed. Embassies
attacked. News from Egypt is very bad. News from Jerusalem
is very bad. News from Syria is very bad. That's all
more or less normal, so we needn't worry too much. News
|j|| from Argentine is what I'd call peculiar. Very peculiar indeed.
Argentine, Brazil, Cuba, they've all got together. Call themselves
the Golden Youth Federated States, or something
like that. It's got an army, too. Properly drilled, properly
armed, properly commanded. They've got planes, they've got
bombs, they've got God-knows-what. And most of them
seem to know what to do with them, which makes it worse.
There's a singing crowd as well, apparently. Pop songs, old
local folk songs, and bygone battle hymns. They go along
rather like the Salvation Army used to do--no blasphemy
intended--I'm not crabbing the Salvation Army. Jolly good
work they did always. And the girls--pretty as Punch in then bonnets.'
He went on:
'I've heard that something's going on in that line in the
civilized countries, starting with us. Some of us can be
called civilized still, I suppose? One of our politicians the
other day, I remember, said we were a splendid nation,
we smashed things, we beat up anyone if we hadn't anything
better to do, we got rid of our high spirits by showing violence,
and our moral purity by taking most of our clothes
off. I don't know what he thought he was talking about--
politicians seldom do--but they can make it sound all right.
That's why they are politicians.'
He paused and looked across at the man he was talking ti..'.
'Distressing--sadly distressing,' said Sir George Packhan;.
'One can hardly believe--one worries--if one could on- --Is that all the news you've got?' he asked plaintively
'Isn't it enough? You're hard to satisfy. World an ;;'
well on its way--that's what we've got. A bit wobbly ! '
not fully established yet, but very near to it--very cs-"'" indeed.'
'But action can surely be taken against all this?'
'Not so easy as you think. Tear gas puts a stop to r.~ tn & for a while and gives the police a break. And natu'aly
142
we've got plenty of germ warfare and nuclear bombs and
all the other pretty bags of tricks--What do you think
would happen if we started using those? Mass massacre of
aU the marching girls and boys, and the housewife's shopping
circle, and the old age pensioners at home, and a good quota
of our pompous politicians as they tell us we've never had it
so good, and in addition you and me--Ha, ha!
'And anyway,' added Colonel Pikeaway, 'if it's only news
you're after, I understand you've got some hot news of
your own arriving today. Top secret from Germany, Herr
Heinrich Spiess himself.'
'How on earth did you hear that? It's supposed to be
strictly--'
'We know everything here,' said Colonel Pikeaway, using
his pet phrase--that's what we're for.
'Bringing some tame doctor, too, I understand--' he added.
'Yes, a Dr Reichardt, a top scientist, I presume--'
'No. Medical doctor--Loony-bins--'
'Oh dear--a psychologist?'
'Probably. The ones that run loony-bins are mostly that.
With any luck he'll have been brought over so that he
can examine the heads of some of our young firebrands. Stuffed full they are of German philosophy, Black Power
philosophy, dead French writers' philosophy, and so on
and so forth. Possibly they'll let him examine some of the
heads of our legal lights who preside over our -judicial courts
here saying we must be very careful not to do anything
to damage a young man's ego because he might have to
earn his living. We'd be a lot safer if they sent them all
round to get plenty of National Assistance to live on and
then they could go back to their rooms, not do any work, and enJoy themselves reading more philosophy. However,
I'm out of date. I know that. You needn't tell me so.'
'One has to take into account the new modes of thought,'
said Sir George Packham. 'One feels, I mean one hopes-- well it's difficult to say--'
'Must be very worrying for you,' said Colonel Pikeaway.
'Finding things so difficult to say.'
His telephone rang. He listened, then handed it to Sir
George.
'Yes?' said Sir George. 'Yes? Oh yes. Yes. I agree. I "uprose--No--no--not the Home Office. No. Privately, you
mean. Well, I suppose we'd better use--er--' Sir George looked round him cautiously.
This place isn't bugged,' said Colonel Pikeaway amiably,
143
'Code word Blue Danube,' said Sir George Packham in
a loud, hoarse whisper. 'Yes, yes. I'll bring Pikeaway along
with me. Oh yes, of course. Yes, yes. Get on ,to him. Yes,
say you particularly want him to come, but to remember
our meeting has got to be strictly private.'
'We can't take my car then,' said Pikeaway. 'It's too well
known.'
'Henry Horsham's coming to fetch us in the Volkswagen.'
'Fine,' said Colonel Pikeaway. 'Interesting, you know, all
this.'
'You don't think--' said Sir George and hesitated-
I don't think what?'
'I mean just really--well, I--mean, if you wouldn't mind
my suggesting--a clothes brush?'
'Oh, this.' Colonel Pikeaway hit himself lightly on the
shoulder and a cloud of cigar ash flew up and made Sir
George choke.
'Nanny,' Colonel Pikeaway shouted. He banged a buzzer
on his desk.
A middle-aged woman came in with a clothes brush, appearing
with the suddenness of a genie summoned by
Aladdin's lamp.
'Hold your breath, please. Sir George,' she said. "This
may be a little pungent.'
She held the door open for him and he retired outside
while she brushed Colonel Pikeaway, who coughed and
complained:
'Damned nuisance these people are. Always wanting you
to get fixed up like a barber's dummy.'
'I should not describe your appearance as quite like that,
Colonel Pikeaway. You ought to be used to my cleaning
you up nowadays. And you know the Home Secretary suffers
from asthma.'
'Well, that's his fault. Not taking proper care to have
pollution removed from the streets of London.
'Come on. Sir George, let's hear what our German frier 'has
come over to say. Sounds as though it's a matter ci some urgency.'
Chapter 17 HERR HEINRICH SPIESS
Herr Heinrich Spiess was a worried man. He did not seek
to conceal the fact. He acknowledged, indeed, without concealment,
that the situation which these five men had come
together to discuss was a serious situation. At the same
time, he brought with him that sense of reassurance which
had been his principal asset in dealing with the recently
difficult political life in Germany. He was a solid man, a
thoughtful man, a man who could bring common sense to
any assemblies he attended. He gave no sense of being a
brilliant man,'and that in itself was reassuring. Brilliant politicians
had been responsible for about two-thirds of the
national states of crisis in more countries than one. The other
third of trouble had been caused by those politicians who were
unable to conceal the fact that although duly elected by
democratic governments, they had been unable to conceal
their remarkably poor powers of judgment, common sense
and, in fact, any noticeable brainy qualities.
'This is not in any sense an official visit, you understand,'
said the Chancellor.
'Oh quite, quite.'
'A certain piece of knowledge has come to me which I
thought is essential we should share. It throws a rather interesting
light on certain happenings which have puzzled as well
as distressed us. This is Dr Reichardt.'
Introductions were made. Dr Reichardt was a large and comfortable-looking man with the habit of saying 'Ach, so'
from time to time.
'Dr Reichardt is in charge of a large establishment in
the neighbourhood of Karlsruhe. He treats there mental
patients. I think I am correct in saying that you treat there
between five and six hundred patients, am I not right?'
'Ach, so,' said Dr Reichardt.
illness?'
'Ach, so. I have different forms of mental illness, but
nevertheless, I have a special interest in, and treat almost
exclusively one particular type of mental trouble.' He branched
off into German and Herr Spiess presently rendered a brief ^nslation in case some of his English colleagues should ^t understand. This was both necessary and tactful. Two
145
of them did in part, one of them definitely did not, and the
two others were truly puzzled.
'Dr Reichardt has had,' explained Herr Spiess, 'the greatest
success in his treatment of what as a layman I describe
as megalomania. The belief that you are someone other
than you are. Ideas of being more important than you are.
Ideas that if you have persecution mania--'
'Ach, no!' said Dr Reichardt. 'Persecution mania, no, that
I do not treat. There is no persecution mania in my clinic.
Not among the group with whom I am specially interested.
On the contrary, they hold the delusions that they do because
they wish to be happy. And they are happy, and I can keep
them happy. But if I cure them, see you, they will not be
happy. So I have to find a cure that will restore sanity to
them, and yet they will be happy just the same. We call this
particular state of mind--'
He uttered a long and ferociously sounding German word
of at least eight syllables.
'For the purposes of our English friends, I shall still use
my term of megalomania, though I know,' continued Herr
Spiess, rather quickly, 'that that is not the term you use
nowadays, Dr Reichardt. So, as I say, you have in your
clinic six hundred patients.'
'And at one time, the time to which I am about to refer,
I had eight hundred.'
'Eight hundred!'
'It was interesting--most interesting.'
'You have such persons--to start at the beginning--'
'We have God Almighty,' explained Dr Reichardt. 'You comprehend?'
Mr Lazenby looked slightly taken aback.
*0h--er--yes--er--yes. Very interesting, I am sure.*
There are one or two young men, of course, who think
they are Jesus Christ. But that is not so popular as the
Almighty. And then there are the others. I had at the
time I am about to mention twenty-four Adolf Hitlers
This you must understand was at the time when Hitler
was alive. Yes, twenty-four or twenty-five Adolf Hitlers--'
he consulted a small notebook which he took from his
pocket--'I have made some notes here, yes. Fifteen Napoleons
Napoleon, he is always popular, ten Mussolinis, five reincarnations
of Julius Caesar, and many other cases, very curiol and very interesting. But that I will not weary you with ;
this moment. Not being specially qualified in the medical sens'-
it would not be of any interest to you. We will come to the
incident that matters.'
Dr Reichardt spoke again at rather shorter length, and
Hen- Spiess continued to translate.
There came to him one day a government official. Highly
thought of at that time--this was during the war, mind you--
by the ruling government. I will call him for the moment
Martin B. You will know who I mean. He brought with him
his chief. In fact he brought with him--well, we will not beat
about the bush--he brought the Fiihrer himself.'
'Aoh, so,' said Dr Reichardt.
'It was a great honour, you understand, that he should come to inspect,' went on the doctor. 'He was gracious, mein Fiihrer. He told me that he had heard very good reports
of my successes. He said that there had been trouble lately.
Cases from the army. There, more than once there had been
men believing they were Napoleon, sometimes believing they
were some of Napoleon's Marshals and sometimes, you
comprehend, behaving accordingly, giving out military orders
and causing therefore military difficulties. I would have been
happy to have given him any professional knowledge that
might be useful to him, but Martin B. who accompanied him
said that that would not be necessary. Our great Fiihrer,
however,' said Dr Reichardt, looking at Herr Spiess slightly
uneasily, 'did not want to be bothered with such details. He
said that no doubt it would be better if medically qualified
men with some experience as neurologists should come and
have a consultation. What he wanted was to--ach, well, he
wanted to see round, and I soon found what he was really
interested to see. It should not have surprised me. Oh no,
because you see, it was a symptom that one recognizes.
The strain of his life was already beginning to tell on the