Kappe und die verkohlte Leiche

Es geschah in Berlin... #1

by Horst Bosetzky

September 1910: In Berlin-Moabit streiken die Kohlenarbeiter. Es kommt zu Unruhen und tätlichen Auseinandersetzungen mit der Polizei. Nach dem Brand auf einem Kohlenplatz findet man in den rauchenden Überresten die Leiche des Arbeiters Paul Tilkowski. Der jedoch wurde, wie sich schnell herausstellt, zuvor erschossen. Der Fall scheint klar, denn Tilkowski war als Streikbrecher unter den Kohlenarbeitern verhasst. Doch bald tauchen weitere Verdächtige auf. Die verkohlte Leiche ist der erste Mordfall für den jungen Kriminalwachtmeister Hermann Kappe …

208 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2007

About the author

Horst Bosetzky (1938 - 2018), who also wrote under the pen name "-ky", was a German novelist and retired professor of sociology, best known to the public for his crime and mystery novels.

Reviews

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book,the first in a series, is a 'krimi' situated in Berlin in 1910. It is based on historical events, especially a worker's strike in Moabit. This book is attractive for Berlin-lovers like me, who love to read about the streets and atmosphere of Berlin and who like history. I am a fan of Bosetzky, who wrote many books, fiction and non-fiction about Berlin.

[Nathaniel Flakin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a historical detective novel set in the midst of the 1910 riots in the Berlin district of Moabit. This is the first in a long series of novels about the detective Hermann Kappe — Horst Bosetzky wrote five of them, with other authors contributing more than a dozen more. Each volume takes place in the context of war, revolution, counterrevolution, etc.

I have been studying about the Moabit Unrest a lot, and this portrayal seems fairly accurate. Except: Maybe this is inevitable with a detective story, but the author's sympathies are entirely with the cops. The striking and rioting workers of Moabit are presented, without exception, as petty criminals and hooligans. This does damage to the detective story, as suspects from the proletarian milieu are completely unrealistic. One leader of the strike committee, for example, falsely confesses to the murder a strikebreaker because he wants to look in front ofr his girlfriend. Really?!?

There is nonetheless lots of detail about Berlin life before the wars. The author appears obsessed with old tram lines, for example, tracing the routes as Kappe moves though the city. But the lack of sympathy for working people also distorts the historical elements. The Moabit Unrest was a mass protest, with one sixth of the population on the streets fighting against the cops. The author, however, seems to be working with a childlike idea that Berlin consisted entirely of cops and robbers.

Reading Wikipedia, it seems like Bosetzky published over 100 (!) books while also having a full professorship for sociology. Having read one of them, I would say that we are dealing with a quantity/quality problem.