Fatherland is a 1992 alternative history detective novel by English writer and journalist Robert Harris. Set in a world where the Axis won World War II, the story's protagonist—Xavier March—is an officer of the Kripo, the criminal police, who is investigating the murder of a Nazi government official who participated at the Wannsee Conference. A plot is thus discovered to eliminate all of those who attended the conference, to help improve German relations with the United States.
The novel subverts some of the conventions of the detective novel. It begins with a murder and diligent police detective investigating and eventually solving it. However, since the murderer is highly placed in the Nazi regime, solving the mystery does not result in the detective pursuing and arresting the murderer. The contrary occurs: the murderer pursuing and arresting the detective.
The novel was an immediate best-seller in the UK and has sold over three million copies and been translated into 25 languages.
Plot The novel opens in Nazi Germany in April 1964 during the week leading up to the 75th birthday of Adolf Hitler. Detective Xavier March is an investigator working for the Kriminalpolizei (the "Kripo"), as he investigates the suspicious death of a high-ranking Nazi, Josef Bühler, in the Havel on the outskirts of Berlin. As March uncovers more details, he realises that he is caught up in a political scandal involving senior Nazi Party officials, who are apparently being systematically murdered under staged circumstances. As soon as the body is identified, the Gestapo claims jurisdiction and orders the Kripo to close its investigation, but March continues to investigate. When the SS and Gestapo try to force him to shut down his investigation, March is only saved by the personal intervention of Kripo Chief Arthur Nebe, who instructs him to continue investigating with only his limited protection. Nebe, a veteran of the pre-Nazi period, suggests that he is engaged in a power struggle against Reinhard Heydrich, the head of the SS, a potential successor to the elderly Hitler.
March meets with Charlotte "Charlie" Maguire, an American journalist of German descent, who was secretly contacted by one of the victims, Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart, and discovered his body. Maguire tells March that Stuckart had wanted to defect to the United States and claimed to possess important information that would help his case. Both are determined to investigate further and follow the trail of Bühler, Stuckart and a missing former diplomat named Martin Luther to Zürich to investigate a private Swiss bank account they set up. They find no papers but only stolen treasure and return empty handed. Upon their return to Berlin, March eventually discovers that several documents related to all victims have been removed from the Reich archives, but that an initial invitation for a political conference centered around "resolving" the Jewish question in 1941 was overlooked by the Gestapo. Luther eventually reaches out to Maguire in the same way Stuckart did, but when March and Maguire try to reclaim him, he is shot by a sniper.
Nevertheless, March determines that Luther hid the documents he had taken from Zurich at the airport before disappearing. Recovering them, March and Maguire discover the truth: in 1942, Heydrich has summoned dozens of officials to a conference in Wannsee to plan the Final Solution, the extermination of all the Jews which few Germans are aware of beyond rumors. Since the war ended, the attendees have secretly been killed though so infrequently that no suspicion could be elicited. The elimination was hurried however due to an upcoming meeting of Hitler and US President Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., by ensuring that the fate of the missing Jews can never be revealed. Nebe reveals to March that Germany needs the Americans to stop supporting the Soviet guerillas in the east due to the abject failure of Hitler's Lebensraum policy. With German colonists desperate to return to Germany to escape the constant war and harsh economic conditions, the Nazis are trying to prevent a human, economic and political catastrophe. Bühler, Stuckart and Luther had realised in 1942 that Heydrich's refusal to produce a signed order from Hitler authorising the Final Solution was meant to shield him politically and let others take the blame if needed. As a result, they hid all the documents they could find to cover themselves, not considering they might simply be eliminated.
Armed with the documents, but unable to use official diplomatic channels which would be dominated by Kennedy officials desperate to achieve détente with Germany, Maguire heads for Switzerland and hopes to expose the evidence of the extermination to the world. March plans to join her, but first goes to see his estranged ten-year-old son, who denounces him to the Gestapo. In the cellars of Gestapo headquarters at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, March is tortured but does not reveal Maguire's location, aware that the longer he holds out is the more time she has to get away with the story. Odilo Globocnik, Heydrich's right-hand man who had been responsible for the assassinations, boasts that Auschwitz and the other camps have been totally razed and that March will never know the truth for certain. Nebe stages a rescue with the intention of tracking March as he meets with Maguire at their rendezvous. Realising what is happening, March heads for Auschwitz to lead the authorities in the wrong direction.
The Gestapo catches up with March at the unmarked site of the camp near Auschwitz. Knowing that Maguire had enough time to cross the border into Switzerland, March searches for some sign that the camp existed. As Gestapo agents close in on him in a helicopter, March uncovers bricks in the undergrowth. Satisfied, he pulls out his gun and continues to walk towards the birch woods.
Characters Fictional Xavier March: A detective in the Kriminalpolizei with the concurrent honorary rank of Sturmbannführer (Major) in the SS, March (nicknamed "Zavi" by his friends) is a 42-year-old divorcé living in Berlin. He has one son, Pili (Paul), who lives with March's ex-wife, Klara. March commanded a U-boat in World War II and was decorated for bravery and promoted. He married his nurse after the war, but the marriage steadily deteriorated afterward. His military service helped him rise through the police ranks to detective. By 1964, however, Gestapo surveillance has collected numerous denunciations of his dislike of the Nazi regime. For example, March refuses to donate to the Winterhilfswerk, shows "insufficient enthusiasm" for his son's involvement in the Jungvolk, has rebuffed all incentives to join the Nazi Party, tells "jokes about the Party" and, worst of all, has shown some curiosity about what happened to a Jewish family that used to live in his present apartment. Charlotte "Charlie" Maguire: A 25-year-old American journalist, Maguire has been assigned to Berlin by the fictional news service World European Features. Midway through the novel, she and March fall in love and begin a relationship. Maguire comes from a prominent Irish-American political family but is something of a renegade. The daughter of a US State Department official and German actress who left with him before the war, Maguire speaks fluent German without an accent. Hermann Jost: A 19-year-old cadet in an SS academy, Jost was out running when he discovered the corpse that triggered March's investigation. March is certain that Jost witnessed more than he is willing to disclose and at first believes him to be covering up a homosexual relationship with a fellow cadet, which (in Germany) is punishable by internment in a concentration camp. March, however, persuades Jost to admit the truth: Jost witnessed the dumping of the body and recognised SS General Odilo Globocnik at the scene. To deny March his key witness, Globocnik arranges Jost's transfer "east" for "special training". Paul "Pili" March: The ten-year-old son of March, Pili lives with his mother and her partner in the suburbs of Berlin. Pili is a fully indoctrinated member of the Jungvolk, the junior section of the Hitler Youth for boys between 10 and 14. Later in the novel, Pili denounces his father to the Gestapo, all the while unaware of what it will really do to him. Max Jaeger: March's friend and Kripo partner, Jaeger is 50; lives with his wife, Hannelore, and four daughters in Berlin; and is disinclined to question "the system". At the end of the novel, he drives the getaway car that rescues March, but it is revealed that he had been informing against March since before the novel began and that March's "rescue" was arranged by the Gestapo as a ruse to find Maguire. Walther Fiebes: A detective working in VB3, the Kripo's sexual crimes division, along the corridor from March's office, Fiebes is a man with a deeply prurient nature and relishes his work investigating sexual crimes, including rape, adultery, and interracial relationships between "Aryan" people and their Slavic servants. Rudolf "Rudi" Halder: March's friend and a crewman on his U-boat, Rudi is now a historian working at the immense Reich Central Archives and helping to compile an official history of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front. Karl Krebs: An officer in the Gestapo, Krebs is an example of the younger, university-trained SS-men hated by Globocnik.
Based on historical figures In the author's notes, Harris explains that many characters are based on the real people with the same names and that the biographical details are accurate until 1942. Afterward, the narrative is fictional. The following descriptions follow what is in the novel. Odilo Globocnik: An aging Obergruppenführer (Lieutenant-general) in the Gestapo and right-hand man of Reichsführer-SS Reinhard Heydrich, nicknamed "Globus". He is a principal antagonist of the book who is personally responsible for the assassinations of the Wannsee officials. After March's apprehension by the Gestapo, Globus takes over March's interrogation and administers several brutal beatings. Arthur Nebe: The chief of the Kripo and Oberstgruppenführer (General), Nebe is an old man in 1964 and has a sumptuous office in Berlin. Initially appearing to support March's investigation for political reasons, despite the Gestapo's involvement, Nebe ultimately weaves a ruse to March to make him reveal the whereabouts of the evidence after meeting with Heydrich several times. Josef Bühler: A former secretary and deputy governor to the Nazi-controlled General Government in Kraków, retired in 1951 after losing his leg in a partisan attack. The discovery of his dead body is the starting point of the novel. Wilhelm Stuckart: A Nazi Party lawyer, official and retired state secretary in the German Interior Ministry. At the beginning of the novel he has already died the day before Bühler. Martin Luther: An advisor to Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop until retirement, and last surviving participant of the Wannsee Conference. Reinhard Heydrich: The current head of the SS and considered a likely successor to Hitler, Heydrich is a principal antagonist of the book although he never appears in person. He oversees the assassinations of the Wannsee officials to eradicate all first-hand evidence of the Final Solution. It is suggested that he likely does this on direct orders from Hitler himself.
Others mentioned In each case, the description after the name describes how the characters appear in the novel, again by following reality until 1942. Adolf Hitler: The elderly and increasingly reclusive Führer of the Greater German Reich, since the end of the war, Hitler has toned down his image by eschewing his uniform in favour of civilian clothing. His speeches are now at a rate that is calm, rather than furious. Heinrich Himmler: Dying in a plane crash in 1962, Himmler was succeeded as Reichsführer-SS by Heydrich.