My German Lover, Part 27 chapter 5

As we were walking back to our old friend Miked turned across to look at me and said :

« He as an impossible name… but he has not lost his marbles… »

« No… », I answered, laughing my heart out… « Ohhhhh no! »

« (…) So… did you find it », our old friend asked us…

« Yes… », I answered, smiling… « It is very moving… »

« Yes ».

« Who was that guy… What’s his name… Heinrich something… », Mike asked…

« Heinrich Heine? », our friend asked… « He was a poet… He attended the Humboldt University overlooking the square… »

« He had a crystal ball, or what? », I asked…

« No. He wrote about a very simple truth… If you can’t respect knowledge, you can’t respect people… »

For a while, we all kept looking at the center of the square. Then I closed my eyes… and began imagining all those books burning… with Goebbels, hysterical as always, screaming with his piercing voice. Yeah. What a little rat…

« I hope he’s rotting in hell… » I finally said…

« Who? », Mike asked, looking at me…

« Goebbels… »

« I’m sure he is, and so is his wife. She wasn’t better than him. To kill her young childen like she did… »

« Yes. », I answered in a sad voice.

« Do you still have a few minutes? There’s something I’d like to tell you about that domed building you see over there, across the square… », our old friend asked…

« But of course », Mike and I answered. « What about that building? »

« That’s the « Sankt Hedwigskathedrale » (St.Hedwig’s Cathedral). It’s the Roman Catholic Cathedral… It was totally destroyed in 1943 and rebuilted in the 1960s. Have you ever heard about the Kristallnacht? (Night of Broken glass…)…

« Not really… », we answered…

« Die Kristallnacht… It took place in 1938. I was sixteen years old at the time and I remember that night like if is was just last night. That night throughout Germany, Jewish homes and stores were ransacked as the stormtroopers destroyed buildings, leaving the streets covered in smashed windows –the origin of the name « Night of Broken glass »-. Jews were beaten to death and thousands of others were taken to concentration camps. It was a state-organized act of terror…

« Well, at the time lived a Catholic priest named Lichtenberg, who had been appointed Canon of the Cathedral you see over there…

« After Die Kristallnacht, he used to pray publicly for Jews here at Evening prayer. Of course, he was arrested by he Nazis and condemned to prison. As he refused to change his attitude, the Nazis considered him to be incorrigible and sent him to the Dachau concentration camp. He was fortunate to die while in transit…

« That’s what I meant earlier, when I said we must never accept to do something or to follow orders when we feel it would be bad or wrong to do so. We must refuse. Whatever the consequences. Lichtenberg followed his conscience to the end and refused to do what the Nazis were ordering him to do. If more people had done so before and during the war, Hitler could never have done what he has done. He would have been « Kaput ». 

« But… Lichtenberg died because of his decision not to do what they were ordering him to do… », I answered…

« Yes. That’s very sad. But it’s better to die while standing on your feet than to live your life on your knees… », our old friend replied, looking at me straight in the eyes. « But that takes courage… You must always have the courage to defend your ideas, your principles. What you believe in…If you don’t, who will?»

I looked at him and nodded.

After that, we went to visit a few other places… then we took a cab back to the Adlon.

« Now Herr Schwarzmann, you can’t say no. You are our guest. You have to stay with us for dinner… », I said to him with a very nice smile on my face…

« Well… I’m a bit tired you know… »

« No problem. Wait for me here… »

I walked over to our « favorite » doorman and told him I wanted to rent a room for a few hours, so that Herr Schwarzmann could take a nap, then a shower if he wanted… 

« No problem. Just sit over there for a few minutes, and wait for me… », the doorman said…

« Sure. Just put it on our bill… » I answered, smiling…

A few minutes later he was back with a room key…

« Here », he said to me, « It’s all set. His room is right next to yours… »

« Many thanks my friend… », I answered…

Of course, Herr Schwarzmann didn’t have any idea of what was going on… I looked at him and said :

« We have a room for you. You will take a nap and later, we’ll call you. You can take a shower if you want… Then, well have dinner… »

« But… », he answered…

« No buts. Please. You are our guest… », I said…

« I’m not dress well enough to have dinner in that beautiful dining room… »

« Don’t worry about that. You’re just perfect. »

From what Herr Schwarzmann had said to us, I knew he was dying to spend the evening here, at the famous « Adlon »… and I knew he was dying to sit in that beautiful dining room and have dinner there… Just once in his life! As I’ve already said, he wasn’t rich and could never have afforded the price of a meal there…

As we were about to go to our rooms I looked at Mike and said :

« …Could you show Herr Schwarzmann to his room? There’s something I’d like to settle before I join you… »

« Sure »

As soon as Mike and our old friend were gone, I walked over to our doorman and said :

« I have a small problem… »

« Oh… what is it? »

« Well… the old gentleman with us is Heinrich’s grandfather, and he helped us a lot yesterday and today… Now, I want him to join us for dinner… but as you saw, he’s not wearing a jacket, and I know we have to wear jackets to be allowed into the dining room… »

« Is that all? »

« …Well… yes… »

« I’ll find one for him. Don’t worry… »

« Thank you… You’re a pal… »

« I’m here to help you, if you need me… », he answered, with a nice smile on his face.

« Thanks again. »

Later, when we came down from our rooms, the doorman was there with a nice jacket for Herr Schwarzmann… The old man was beaming!

I looked at him and, with a big smile on my face I said :

« You look like the Kaiser… »

« You think », he answered, going red in the face…

We went to the dining room, and had dinner! And what a dinner! I ordered Champagne (hey, Paul was paying… and I knew that if he was here with us, that’s what he would have ordered…). And after that, we ordered the best on the menu.

I could see our old friend was very happy to be here with us and that he was enjoying every minute of his dinner.

As coffee was served, Heinrich came into the dining room and walked over to our table…

« Hey! Heinrich! Please, join us… », I said to him as he was kissing his grandfather on the cheeks…

« …Well… I’ll be off in about half an hour… »

« Perfect. We’ll wait for you, then we’ll all have Cognac… », I answered…

« Okay then… », Heinrich replied, with a big smile on his face…

And indeed, half an hour later, Heinrich came back and joined us. I ordered Cognac… and we enjoyed the rest of the evening, talking…

« Hey! How was your day? », Heinrich asked…

« Perfect, thanks to your grandfather. We’ve learned a lot! And I’ve filmed all that I wanted to film… I think my friends back in Martinique will be thrilled to see all that I have filmed… »

Herr Schwarzmann was smiling…

« My grandfather is great! », Heinrich said… « I love you grandpa… », he tenderly said…

« I’m so proud of you Heinrich… », his grandfather answered, his eyes sparkling…

« So… when are you going back to Paris? », Heinrich asked…

« Oh… There are still a few things I’d like to film. I want to go to the Olympic Stadium, to film over there… and after that, well, we not in a hurry so I guess we’ll take our time, visit the city, do some shopping… And we’d like to go out one night, just to have fun… », I answered, grinning…

« Hey! I’m off tomorrow night. Maybe we could go out… », Heinrich replied, with a big smile on his face… « I’ll tell my girlfriend that I’m busy with « important » guests… and I’m sure she will understand… »

« Well… », I started to answered…

« It’s settled. We will have fun. Trust me… », Heinrich answered, beaming…

« Now my friends, I must go », Herr Schwarzmann said… « As much as I enjoy your company, well… I’m tired. I don’t have your age, you know… »

« I’ll drive you back home grandpa… No problem », Heinrich said…

As we were saying our goodbyes to our old friend, I gave him a small gift…

« Wait until you get to your house to open it. It’s not from Mike and I… It’s from our friends back in Martinique… »

« Oh? »…

« Yes! » Just to show you their appreciation for what you did for us here…

« You didn’t have to… »

« Please, Sir. Just take it… Please? »

« Well, thank you very much. »

« Thanks again Herr Schwarzmann. Thanks for all you did for us… », I said…

« Yes », Mike added… « And thanks for what you’ve teached us. We’ve learned a lot… I’ll keep thinking about what you said concerning the human nature… »

Herr Schwarzmann nodded. And as Heinrich was leading him out of the hotel he turned for a second and waived at us. We waived back at him, with tears in our eyes.

« Hey… let’s have a nightcap. What do you say? », I asked Mike…

« Yeah! », he answered, smiling…

So we went to the bar and had a drink…

« What did you buy for our old friend? », Mike suddenly asked me…

« Oh, not much. Just a little souvenir. It’s not what I bought that is important, but what I’ve put in the wrapped box… »

« Oh… and what is it? »

I grinned, looking at Mike… and answered :

« Eight hundred Deutche Marks… »

« Huh? (…) But that’s… that’s about 500$ US dollars… »

« A little bit more than that… », I answered, grinning…

« Shit! Where did you get that kind of money? »

« Oh… I went to the ATM and made a withdrawal… You see, Paul has deposited quite a large amount of money on my account… to make sure we would have all the money we need while we’re in Europe. Of course, we also have his credit card, but I didn’t want to put that on the card… »

« Shit! What will he say… »

« Oh, don’t worry about that. I think he will be proud of me… »

« I sure hope you’re right! »

« We have a more pressing problem on our hand though… », I answered…

« Huh? »

« Yeah. Heinrich wants the three of us to go out tomorrow night. I’m not sure he has realized we’re gay! But he’s straight and when I said we wanted to go out tomorrow night, I certainly didn’t have a straight club in mind… »

« Ohhhh… Right! What are we going to do? »

“I don’t know. Really, I don’t… Anyway, he’s gonna meet us here tomorrow night, so I guess we’ll see then…”

The next day, Mike and I went to the Olympic Stadium to film over there, and we even filmed the swimming pool where Ludwig used to train when he was young…

We spent the rest of the day doing some sightseeing and went to visit the “Topographie des Terrors” (Topography of Terror) located on Niederkirchnerstrasse…

“No. It’s no…”, Mike very firmly stated, out of the blue sky…

“Huh?”

“Don’t ask me to pronounce the name of that street. It’s NO.”, Will said, shaking his head…

“Don’t worry. I didn’t intend to…”, I answered, laughing my heart out…

“How nice and thoughtful of you…”, he replied, grinning..

“Hey. It’s not my fault… I’m like that…”

So we went to see the exhibition at the “Topographie des Terrors”, built directly above Gestapo headquarters… the power center of Nazi terror. In an open-air gallery display, we saw a disturbing collection of documents and photographs from the Third Reich era that can make anyone sick! Believe me!

We finished visiting the exhibition then Mike turned across to look at me and said:

“Let’s get the hell out of here. Those Gestapo guys were totally insane. I can’t believe what I have seen there…”

“Not only insane, but criminals. I sure hope those guys were sent to prison after the war…”, I answered…

“Maybe some… but not all. I’m sure! And I’m pretty sure that some of those guys are still living here in Berlin, walking the streets, just like you and I. What they did back then isn’t written on their face. You see that old gentleman, sitting on the bench over there? What did he do during the war, huh? Was he a Gestapo officer? Who knows? Maybe during the war that old man let his “evil side” prevail… and now, he’s living a perfectly normal life! I think I’m starting to understand what Herr “whatever his name” tried to explain to us yesterday…”

“Yeah. I know what you mean…”, I answered…

After that visit, we went on to visit other places then, as it was getting late, we went back to Hotel Adlon. Once there, Mike looked at me and said:

“Look who’s there, waiting for us…”

I looked around and saw Heinrich waiving at us… Of course, I did my best to put a big smile on my face and waived back…

“Hey… How are you Heinrich?”, I asked him…

“Just fine! Ready to go out?”

“Um…sure”, I answered. “But before we go, maybe we could have a drink here, at the Hotel… It’s still early to go out…”, I suggested…

“Okay. Perfect!”, our friend answered, smiling…

We went to the bar and ordered drinks…