Siblings by Brigitte Reimann

Author:Brigitte Reimann
Format: epub

In the fourth year of his studies, my brother, who was considered one of the cleverest, hardest-working students, was an assistant to a professor who won’t be named. From everything I heard, the man was what they call ‘an authority in his field’ and used to tell his students that there were only two shipbuilding experts in Germany. ‘The other teaches in Hamburg,’ he would add. He fled the republic in hair-raising circumstances. Uli had been no more party to his reasons than any other underling.

A year later my brother graduated; he had top grades and was excited about finding a job that suited his knowledge and abilities. He applied for a position at a small shipyard somewhere along the Elbe in the restricted zone. They rejected him.

He was baffled. He talked to the comrade head of personnel at the shipyard and discovered there was a black mark against his name from the past, an assessment written by the Party group in his year at university …

‘Their report said I was untrustworthy,’ Uli said. ‘The black mark against my name was my professor.’

‘I don’t see what your file has to do with him.’

‘I was his assistant.’ His voice was detached and sober, and that unsettled me more than anything else. He was done with it all, through with everything. ‘The man left. We stayed. But suspicion fell on us all.’

‘Do you think your professor would have taken a Party member with him to carry his bags?’ I asked.

Uli shrugged. ‘How do I know? We never exchanged a single personal word.’ There was a strange, wary look in his eyes as he scrutinized me, and something about his pinched mouth reminded me of Konrad; I didn’t think that only two hours later he would be telling me I was the only person he trusted. His trust weighed him down. Every word that I wasted on his situation weighed him down, and he answered in an offhand, insulting tone.

‘Take your clever, lazy arguments elsewhere. He didn’t take any comrades with him, whether on purpose or not. I don’t care. I’m not interested in him. He never spoke to or influenced me. I just want to be left in peace.’

I thought: How can he want to be left in peace in such an unpeaceful world? I said, ‘You scream “Fight!” but what you really mean is “Avoid!” If you avoid things, you let the other person win. You are untrustworthy.’

I suddenly realized that I felt no sympathy for Uli. His story left me cold, and I wondered why.

He’d been rejected. Four or five young, eager comrades had written a damning report because his professor had defected, or perhaps because of a few missed social science lessons, or a discussion in which Uli did not share their opinion.

I had come across these eager types during my studies—people who didn’t understand that scepticism didn’t automatically make you an enemy of the state, and that impatience didn’t mean you were unstable. They were tactless, but I knew that we’d been just as tactless at school—Uli included, Uli more than anyone.

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