Norman Mailer - The Castle in the Forest

T H E

CASTLE

I N T H E

FOREST

A NOVEL

NORMAN

MAILER

The Castle in the Forest is a work of fiction closely based on history. A few of

the names and incidents are the products of the authors imagination or are

used fictitiously, and in those cases, any resemblance to actual events,

locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright 2007 by Norman Mailer

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Random House and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

ISBN 978-0-394-53649-1

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Mailer, Norman.

The castle in the forest: a novel / Norman Mailer.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-394-53649-1

1. Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945FamilyFiction.

2. Hitler familyFiction. I. Title.

PS3525.A4152C37 2007

813.54dc22 2006049389

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

246897531

First Edition

Designed by Stephanie Huntwork

To my grandchildren,

Valentino, Colodro, Alejandro Colodro, Antonia

Colodro, Isabella Moschen, Christina Marie

Nastasi, Callan Mailer, Theodore Mailer,

Natasha Lancaster, Mailer,

Cyrus Force Mailer, and to my grand-niece

Eden River Alson as well as to my godchildren,

Dominique Malaquais, Kittredge Fisher,

Clay Fisher, Sebastian Rosthal,

and Julian Rosthal.

Contents

book i

The Search for Hitlers Grandfather

book ii

Adolfs Father

book iii

Adolfs Mother

book iv

The Intelligence Officer

book v

The Family

book vi

The Farm

book vii

Der Alte and the Bees

book viii

The Coronation of Nicholas II

book ix

Alois Junior

book x

To Honor and To Fear

book xi

The Abbot and the Blacksmith

book xii

Edmund, Alois, and Adolf

book xiii

Alois and Adolf

book xiv

Adolf and Klara

an epilogue

The Castle in the Forest

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

BOOK I

The Search

for

Hitlers

Grandfather

You may call me D.T. That is short for Dieter, a German name, and D.T. will do, now that I am in America, this curious nation. If I draw upon reserves of patience, it is because time passes here without meaning for me, and that is a state to dispose one to rebellion. Can this be why I am writing a book? Among my former associates, we had to swear never to undertake such an action. I was, after all, a member of a matchless Intelligence group. Its classification was SS, Special Section IV-2a, and we were directly under the supervision of Heinrich Himmler. Today, the man is seen as a monster, and I would not look to defend himhe turned out to be one hell of a monster. All the same, Himmler did have an original mind, and one of his theses does take me into my literary intentions, which are, I promise, not routine.

The room that Himmler used... when speaking to our elite group was a small lecture hall with dark walnut paneling and was limited to twenty seats raked upward in four rows of five. My emphasis will not be, however, on such descriptions. I prefer to concern myself with Himmlers unorthodox concepts. They may

even have stimulated me to begin a memoir that is bound to prove unsettling. I know that I will sail into a sea of turbulence, for I must uproot many a conventional belief. A cacophony erupts in my spirit at the thought. As Intelligence officers, we often seek to warp our findings. Mendacity, after all, possesses its own art, but this is a venture that will ask me to forsake such skills.

Enough! Let me present Heinrich Himmler. You, the reader, must be prepared for no easy occasion. This man, whose nickname, behind his back, was Heini, had become by 1938 one of the four truly important leaders in Germany. Yet his most cherished and secret intellectual pursuit was the study of incest. It dominated our highest-level research, and our findings were kept to closed conferences. Incest, Heini would propose, had always been rife among the poor of all lands. Even our German peasantry had been much afflicted, yes, even as late as the nineteenth century. Normally, no one in learned circles cares to speak of the matter, he would remark. After all, there is nothing to be done. Who would bother to call some poor wretch a certified offspring of incest? No, every establishment of every civilized nation looks to sweep such stuff under the rug.

That is, all ranking government officials in the world except for our Heinrich Himmler. He did have the most extraordinary ideas fermenting behind his unhappy spectacles. I must repeat that for a man with a bland and chinless mug, he certainly exhibited a frustrating mixture of brilliance and stupidity. For example, he declared himself to be a pagan. He predicted that there would be a healthy future for humankind once paganism took over the world. Everyones soul would then be enriched with hitherto unacceptable pleasures. None of us could conceive, however, of an orgy where carnality would rise to such a pitch that you might find a woman ready to throw herself into a flesh-melting roll with Heinrich Himmler. No, not even in the most innovative spirit! For you could always see his face as it must once have been at a school dance, that bespectacled disapproving stare of the wallflower, tall, thin, a youth full of physical ineptitude. Already he had a small

potbelly. There he was, ready to wait by the wall while the dance went on.

Yet he grew obsessed over the years with matters others did not dare to mention aloud (which, I must say, is usually the first step to new thought). In fact, he paid close attention to mental retardation. Why? Because Himmler subscribed to the theory that the best human possibilities lie close to the worst. So he was ready to assume that promising children when found in low, nondescript families could be incestuaries. The word in German, as he coined it, was Inzestuarier. He did not like the more common term of such disgrace, Blutschande (blood-scandal), or as it is sometimes employed in polite circles, Dramatik des Blutes (blood-drama).

None of us felt sufficiently qualified to say that his theory could be dismissed. Even in the early years of the SS, Himmler had recognized that one of our prime needs was to develop exceptional research groups. We had a duty to search into ultimates. As Himmler put it, the health of National Socialism depended on nothing less than these letzte Fragen (last questions). We were to explore problems that other nations did not dare to go near. Incest was at the head of the list. The German mind had to reestablish itself again as the leading inspiration to the learned world. In turnso went his unstated couplingmuch recognition might be given to Heinrich Himmler for his profound attack on problems originating in the agricultural milieu. He would emphasize the underlying point: Husbandry could hardly be investigated without comprehending the peasant. Yet to understand this man of the earth was to speak of incest.

Here, I promise you, he would hold up his hand in precisely that little gesture Hitler used to employone prissy flip of the wrist. It was Heinrichs way of saying: Now comes the meat. And with itthe potatoes! Off he would go on a peroration. Yes, he would say, incest! This is one very good reason that old peasants are devout. An acute fear of the sinful is bound to display itself by one of two extremes: Absolute devotion to religious practice. Or nihilism. I can recall from my student days that the Marxist Friedrich Engels

once wrote, When the Catholic Church decided adultery was impossible to prevent, they made divorce impossible to obtain. A brilliant remark even if it comes from the wrong mouth. As much can be said for blood-scandal. That is also impossible to prevent. So, the peasant looks to keep himself devout. He nodded. He nodded again as if two good pumps of his head might be the minimum necessary to convince us that he was speaking from both sides of his heart.