Raumpatrouille by Matthias Brandt Review

“No one there.” Something like it, the little boy must often have felt, even when the large white house was never empty. Kiefernweg 12 in the Bonn district of Venusberg, which was the official residence of the Federal Chancellor. Security guards, servants, secretaries, guests will have around populated the clock. Quasi lives next door German President Heinrich Luebke with his wife Wilhelmine, with whom the child may afternoon drink cocoa. But these are all not the people who are looking for a seven or ten years old.

Each viewer will know the man that starts with the two words his literary debut. Matthias Brandt is one of the most popular actors. His trademark is a minimalist expression, a slight glint in his eyes, slyly or can also illuminate insidiously, a calm voice, an elegant, upright appearance. He can give inscrutable and cynical, but even then seem even more fragile.

Probably escaped any viewers that the man is a celebrity child. His father Willy Brandt was Mayor of Berlin (1957-1966), SPD party chairman (1964-1987), German Foreign Minister (1966-1969) and Chancellor (1969-1974) hailed as more controversial and in his time.

Contentious issues offered the more open “with the past” (genuflection gesture of Warsaw) and the new Ostpolitik (for which he was awarded in 1971 the Nobel Peace Prize). In addition, he was vilified for his private life, whether because of his illegitimate origin, his exile during the war or alleged personal weaknesses. Willy Brandt – much is known – was not carved out of wood so hard that all of this would just bounced off him.

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Who knows how his day-today Kummer also burdened the little boy since he was drafted in the spring of 1967 with his parents on Kiefernweg.

Anyone who thinks Matthias Brandt opens up a keyhole view of previously unreleased intimacies of the prominent politicians of the sixties will be disappointed. The Chancellor ( “father”) does not enter rarest in appearance, mother Ruth slightly more common, the two bigger brothers Peter and Lars. “No one there” except the youngest?

Obviously the author is in his first initial objective to trace his own mental state at that early stage. In this respect his perspective is very personal and unique. What makes them worth reading for any reader who has the basics in it: the idea of ​​the child of loneliness, abandonment, the need to have to find a way myself. Life in the limelight, the privileges that prominent position at the top of society only play supporting roles.

In fourteen stories told Matthias Brandt (born 1961) from his time than about seven to eleven year old boy. Before he begins, he lights a smokescreen “.. All I relate is invented Some of it I have experienced many things from what I’ve seen, has taken place.” However, many Realia the late sixties ground the following texts – traditional brand name (Saba, Romika), long since discarded garments (Nicki sweater), food from childhood (mushroom cream cheese, tri-top mandarin). TV Straßenfeger gather the family in the living rooms. “EEC – One will win,” the Saturday night quiz with Hans-Joachim Kulenkampff, the Germans on Europe joins, “Space Patrol”, the German science fiction series, opens up (after the American landing on the moon on July 20, 1969) also their adventures in space.

the small Matthias impress the same things as their peers. A space suit (a kind of pajamas, sticky, airtight, sweaty), a goalkeeping equipment exactly like that of Wolfgang Kleff, a magic box is needed. Such attributes and blazing passion blow the “spillerige” child for a short time a hero before it must accept the realities. The footballers lack the feel for the ball, the magic show birthday of the mother goes miserably in the experimental stage in flames. But to completely transform the need in other people, even ” more they will be [to want] than they were” taking root.

playing with fire, animal experiments sore throat, omnipotence fantasies, temper tantrums – all the guys go through that anyway. Everything is normal, everything good. But with Matthias familial special position of normalcy has robbed the norm. He wants to meet at classmate Holger. For movie night on the couch there is a large plate of sandwiches, glasses on coasters, you wear Cordschlappen and tracksuit – a “magnificent evening!” So too Matthias could imagine his future, perhaps as a postman as Mr. Spahrbier Wim Thoelke. Why have his parents and the fate of “everything that made life worth living,” withheld from him?

Undoubtedly a Chancellor’s child is doomed to outsiders existence. The fences between the world and the government property are heavily guarded, it is also available by appointment only with driver and escort. Where the “threat” exists in the outside world that they are day and night with machine guns in check must, the boy can not understand. The guards are his buddies (other there are both indoors) and play with “. Ah, the boss himself” “Roger all,” confirmed Matthias. In their guardhouse let them bite him of their Teewurststulle. But if he times ausbüchst and hides in the closet, all in turmoil, is again found to the missing person.

On the other hand, the youngest residents of the huge area completely monopolize for themselves. No one controls or directs him. “No one there” – free rein to live out fantasies of all, if he is turning on the Chopper across the terrain. Alone, he is here not quite, because he has his favorite dog Gabor (whose delicate dog cookies secretly nibbling), guinea pig, turtle, also an au pair girl, housekeeper, caretaker.

his otherness beset him, especially outside in the school. No “assimilation” and not a “life changing clothes” makes him a normal Holger be, let alone a leader. At least he is not Ansgar. The son of “displaced persons” is further knocked off in the pecking order on the playground. To beat this weakling who, though older and bigger, can passively endure every humiliation and torture, “was the easiest way to be like the others, and that was my most ardent desire.” That the two Outcasts afternoon meet secretly in the woods, sharing cigarettes and Ansgar reveals his darkest secrets, not the ritual prevents the next day: Matthias “slowly raised his hand,” Ansgar begins to whine …

the story of Ansgar is one of the most touching, the narrator does make no secret of his rather pathetic Mitmachertum. In general, he does not spare himself. Frankly, he talks about his weakness, cowardice, fear, shame, self-doubt, his failure, but without exposing the boy. The mature adult describes him with the same keen sense, with whom he recorded once the world around them, themselves watched and its existence agonizingly questioned until he “nothing” had dissolved into one.

And the Parents? Who could blame them that most of the time “not there”? They are taken from more important matters in fog. Not only Matthias, his mother seems unhappy about. Only during the holidays, when it comes to relatives in “our true home” Norway, all load drops from her. Your question is whether he can imagine to live here with her ( “we two, you and I”), gives an idea of ​​how it may look in it. The boy worried the question. The mother’s sake he affirms -. And hopes they do, they do not mean it

The narrated experience with the “beloved father” could the politically interested tempted to smile, they were not so depressing for the child, the the price paid. Once the whole family visits a carnival. They removed the three, besieged by a photographer pack by the sometimes applauding, some buhende amount. Flashbulbs begins a Losbude one, as the boy, the grand prize, a “big pink teddy bear”, is forced into the arms. Regardless remains that Matthias had to unravel all of the lots in the bucket before, until finally it was found right. He also has to deal with it is that you will embarrass him with the huge pink embarrassment in all young circles alone. In everything that a ten year old really interested, it goes quickly over. “On the way home silence.” Another time is arranged a bike ride on Sunday morning. Here, too, must Matthias realize that he is not the protagonist, but the “decency child,” a kind of buffer between two leaders who are fiercely hostile to each other. SPD party chairman Herbert Wehner and the chancellor are to come closer informally. The event reached after a short time their civil and endpoint crashes than the untrained, clumsy father from the wheel

Whether historically accurate or not -. Care. Matthias Brandt debuts with a very wonderful literary gem. A slightly melancholy tone pervades most sites, some sad episode on the other hand gives a lecture completely dry. His unusual childhood has given the author a unique fabric of great public interest, but he resists any temptation to flirt with, or to join a settlement. Here is an extremely sensitive, aesthetically pleasing and linguistically gifted man who has emancipated himself from his father figure and placed on its own feet writes. This book I have on the list to my 20 favorite books “