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biggles_slash_archiveWhat ho all ^_^ I've had this lurking on my harddrive for...a fair while now, and I thought it was probably about time I dragged it out and dusted it off. I decided a while back to read all the von Stalhein books in order, and thought that while I was doing it I might as well take notes on any info about his appearance, background, career etc. that might turn up along the way. It...turned into this. WARNING: Absurdly, ridiculously enormous quantities of waffling; gratuitous speculation; barely-concealed fangirlism. c.13 000 words, which means I've had to break it down into two posts. That's faintly embarrassing.
Please comment with corrections, discussions, disagreements and speculations...
(NOTE: As is the case with most of W.E. Johns' characters, details of von Stalhein's physical appearance and background tend to come through piecemeal, and to suffer from a certain amount of internal contradiction; I've tried to suggest ways of reconciling these differences, but other solutions are of course possible.)
A NOTE ON REFERENCES:
All page references are to the editions I have handy, and therefore will likely not correspond precisely with other editions; as most editions do not differ in total by more than twenty or so pages, however, it is hoped that these references will still be useful in locating the approximate position of relevant passages in different editions.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Von Stalhein is 'tall above the average' ('Takes A Hand' p.10) - and at any rate taller than Biggles ('Buries A Hatchet' p.145) - and generally has a very upright, military bearing; it is one of the few characteristic features of his appearance that remain recognisable during his captivity on Sakhalin ('Buries A Hatchet' p.93). Particularly in 'Flies East', however, he has a tendency to lean against doorways or half rest on desks whenever possible (eg. p.35). He is around the same build as Biggles ('Buries A Hatchet' p.145), and is generally described as lithe ('& Co.p.91), slim (eg. 'Secret Agent' p.139) or even thin, something which is exacerbated to the point of emaciation when on Sakhalin ('Buries A Hatchet' p.126). He is described as having a 'keen, alert, handsome face' ('Secret Agent' p.139), and as being 'good-looking in a rather foppish way', or even 'effeminate' ('Flies East' p.33, p.35); he also has 'prominent cheek-bones ('In The Baltic' p.141), make of that what you will.
When we first meet him in 'Flies East' he is described as 'dark, with cold brooding eyes that were hard to meet and held a steel-like quality that the monocle he habitually wore could not dispel' (p.33); in '& Co.' he is described as having a 'sunburnt face [that] bespoke years of service in hot climates' (p.91), though the fact that in later appearances he is described as 'grey-faced' ('Takes Charge' p.27) suggests that this tan fades with the years. By 'Secret Agent' (c.1939?) he is already greying at the temples (p.139), although it must be admitted that there is still only 'some grey in his hair' by 'Biggles in Mexico' (c.1957?), so he must age very gracefully indeed. The grey seems more dominant when he is forced to wear his hair longer, in captivity on Sakhalin ('Buries A Hatchet' p.126) and in disguise ('Biggles Looks Back' p.38). He is generally clean-shaven ('& Co.' p.91), though has been known for disguise purposes to wear a false beard ('Takes A Hand' p.10) or to allow his beard to grow slightly ('Looks Back' p.38 - though it should be noted that as Marie doesn't laugh him out of the castle when she sees him later, he probably takes the first opportunity to shave and trim his hair when the disguise becomes useless to him.); like the other prisoners he goes unshaven on Sakhalin ('Buries A Hatchet' p.126). In '& Co.' he is said to have 'cold blue eyes' (p.91), a colour which is modified to 'bluey-grey steel' in 'Secret Agent' (p.140).
His foppishness is mainly manifested in the monocle (worn in his right eye, '& Co' p.91) and amber cigarette holder (specified as amber 'Flies East' p.35) which are his most characteristic accoutrements. Indeed, they are so characteristic that merely by adopting them the broad-and-Slavic-looking Soviet agent Zorotov can look so much like von Stalhein that Biggles is fooled into believing he is him (admittedly only at a distance, but nevertheless after extensive observation: 'In The Blue' p.42-3); and after Biggles has rescued von Stalhein from Sakhalin, it is with the excuse of him needing to buy a new monocle and cigarette holder that he offers Erich money ('You wouldn't be the same without them', 'Buries A Hatchet' p.190). His clothing, inasmuch as we have any information on the subject, seems to be usually rather sober: Biggles has never seen him wear a tie other than a plain black one ('Follows On' p.40). In 'Flies East' he wears patent leather shoes (p.164), but as this is with uniform one cannot make too many judgements about his fashion sense from it.
In 'Flies East' he is said to tap the ash off his cigarette with his forefinger in a particularly distinctive way; indeed, it is this habit which suggests to Biggles that von Stalhein and Major Sterne may be one and the same. Quite how this is distinctive is anyone's guess. 'A hand was lifted with a perfectly natural movement of the arm, and tapped the ash off the cigarette it held between its fingers...of all the men [Biggles] knew only one had that peculiar trick of tapping the ash off his cigarette with his forefinger.' ('Flies East' p.94)
One of von Stalhein's most awkward physical attributes is his vanishing-and-reappearing limp. First, the most concrete details. Judging by the fact that in 'Takes A Holiday' he holds and leans on a walking stick in his left hand (p.94), one might guess that his left leg is the weaker. And in 'No Rest For Biggles' the limp is said in the narrative to be the result of an old bullet wound (p.93). From here, however, it gets more confusing. At his first appearance in 'Flies East' he is said to have been 'wounded early in the war, and walked with a permanent limp with the aid of two sticks' (p.33); his 'dragging stride' is unmistakeable (p.56). However, this is quickly revealed as a ruse to disassociate his (limping) von Stalhein persona from the athletic El Shereef (p.73); as his fight with the Arab in his office shows, he has no noticeable physical disability at all (p.162-3). There is no mention of his having a limp in any of the following five books - in other words, until the end of his involvement with Biggles in World War II. However, the first post-war book gives a rather different picture. Ginger remembers von Stalhein's career as follows: 'one time high-spot of German Military Intelligence after a serious leg wound had put him off the Active List; in more recent times one of the shrewdest "back-room boys" of the Gestapo' ('Takes A Holiday' p.94). The implication surely is that von Stalhein did not join Military Intelligence until after his wounding, and that this was well before his work in WWII - in other words, that the story about his wounding and subsequent limp in 'Flies East' was true. For the rest of the series of books, von Stalhein walks with a slight limp.
Two main explanations suggest themselves. The first is that the limp does indeed stem from injuries sustained in an early stage of the First World War, as suggested in 'Flies East' and later; however, von Stalhein exaggerated the severity of these injuries in 'Flies East' in order to divorce himself from suspicion of being El Shereef. The slight limp in the later books - which is never severe enough to impede his physical activity - is in fact present in 'Flies East' and the five following books, but is not commented on. This explanation does have the advantage of making sense of the later remarks about von Stalhein's career. It does not, however, easily sit with the fact that the limp is nowhere mentioned between 'Flies East' and the end of the Second World War (though one should note that another of W.E. Johns' heroes, Captain 'Gimlet' King, is also said to have a limp at his first appearance, a fact which is barely mentioned again.) More difficult to explain away, however, is the fact that in 'Biggles Takes A Holiday' (c.1947?), uniquely, von Stalhein is using and appears to need the aid of a walking stick, implying that the wound is recent. I am inclined to hold to a second theory: that von Stalhein's wound in the First World War was largely superficial, and exaggerated in order to allow him to leave active military service without suspicion and devote more time to his intelligence work; it did not leave him with a limp. The two inter-war and three WWII books reflect this, in not mentioning any limp at all. He was, however, wounded more severely and under unknown circumstances towards the end of the Second World War; it is this wound which causes him still to require a walking stick in 1947 ('Takes A Holiday'), and leaves him with a limp for the rest of his life. Biggles and Ginger, in attributing the limp to his initial wounding in WWI, are conflating the two incidents, and somehow overlooking the fact that they both knew him limpless for around five years in the late 1940s.
Or possibly the limp is always an act to put people off their guard.
Or possibly W.E. Johns just forgot about his canon again.
SKILLS
Erich is a first-class linguist, something which is of course invaluable in his intelligence work. During 'Flies East' we learn that he speaks Arabic like a native (p.121), as well as speaking English so perfectly that he can pass as a British intelligence officer (p.227); his tendency to pepper his speech with incongruous 'ach, so!'s in 'Gets His Men' (p.89, 145 etc) seems to be a purely temporary affectation. In 'Sees It Through' we find he can speak Russian (p.54, 221), at any rate fluently enough to act as liaison officer for a group of Russian soldiers; by the time he is employed by the USSR he is seemingly entirely fluent, and after his defection Raymond gives him translation work from both German and Russian ('In Mexico' p.38). Algy states in 'Looks Back' that von Stalhein can speak 'half a dozen languages fluently' (p.29); although this could be an exaggeration, it does not seem entirely unlikely, although we have little information about what those other languages might be. I suspect Czech may be one, as he travels under a Czech name and passport in 'Follows On' (p.15). At any rate whatever language is spoken by the Manchurian Ling Soo does not appear to be one of them, as von Stalhein requires an interpreter to communicate with him in 'Gets His Men' (p.88).
Von Stalhein is athletic, even during periods when W.E. Johns writes him with a limp: his strength and speed of reaction in 'Flies East' are first class (p.162, 228), for all that Biggles is able to lay him out with a single unexpected punch in 'Sees It Through' (p.82). He is also a very good rider, equally at home on a racing camel and a thoroughbred Arab stallion ('Flies East' p.31, 89, 228-9). Von Stalhein can also, it seems, fly an aeroplane, although W.E. Johns varies a little on his degree of skill in this department. His flights behind enemy lines in 'Flies East' are all with a pilot, but when he steals a British plane to escape at the end he shows a fair amount of skill in piloting it (p.230) before being brought down by anti-aircraft fire. However, in 'In Australia' Von Stalhein's pilot, Cozens, claims to be invaluable as without him they'll have a plane but no pilot to fly it (p.140); although this could be construed as Cozens' ignorance of von Stalhein's piloting abilities, Algy seems to concur (p.146). Apparently von Stalhein has not kept in practice. He nevertheless seems to have a particular interest in aircraft: in 'Works It Out' he has particular control over the aviation side of the gang's operations (p.109: "I particularly asked the Count not to employ any pilots without first letting me see him. He knows nothing about aviation."), and the number of times his plots seem to revolve around aeroplanes beggars belief unless he himself has a particular interest in them* (for example the aerial hijacking operations in '& Co' and 'Works It Out').
*Or he may just have an obsessive need to attract Biggles' attention by any means necessary. I couldn't possibly comment.
Curiously, von Stalhein is also at least a passably good violinist - something which he uses to his advantage in 'Looks Back' when he takes a job as violinist in a gypsy band in Bohemia (p.38). Honestly, I couldn't make this stuff up. He is also proficient at blowing smoke rings.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH (for fuller notes on CHRONOLOGY, please see Appendix I below)
Much is unknown about von Stalhein's life and career, especially at points where it did not come into contact with Biggles'; much, therefore, must be pieced together from vague hints and surmises. Erich von Stalhein is repeatedly described as being of the 'old Prussian military caste' (eg. 'Takes A Holiday' p.94); however, as he was born in the heyday of the German empire, when Prussia was a very large place (see eg. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Prussiamap.gif ), his home could technically be anywhere from the Rhineland to Kaliningrad. His nephew Fritz, however, later remarks that he and his mother live in East Berlin because 'our home has always been there' ('Buries A Hatchet' p.11); one could perhaps construe this as suggesting that von Stalhein's family come from the vicinity of Berlin. The regular references to his 'aristocratic' features (eg. 'Takes A Holiday' p.94), his privileged position in the German military hierarchy, his taste for the finer things in life, his affectations of monocle and cigarette holder, and most importantly the aristocratic 'von', could be taken together to suggest that his family comes from the lower ranks of the nobility, although this is never explicitly stated. Of his parents we know nothing; he has a younger sister, perhaps quite considerably younger, as her son Fritz is only 17 in c.1957 ('Buries A Hatchet' p.10), placing her probable date of birth somewhere around 1910. As with many characters, we have no information about von Stalhein's date of birth (not least because aging appears to be a purely personal choice in the Johnsiverse); however, as he generally gives the impression of being a couple of years older than Biggles but not much more, we can tentatively place it around 1895.
Von Stalhein was a career soldier; he may well have been based in the Middle East, as he is deeply tanned and a fluent speaker of Arabic, as well as being very well versed in the culture of the region, before Biggles encounters him there in 1918. Because of his efficiency (and, one might suspect, his linguistic skills) he was seconded to 'the Wilhelmstrasse' (by which I assume WEJ means the German Foreign Ministry) for counter-espionage work ('Follows On' p.11); the move may have been covered by exaggerating the severity of a leg wound which allowed him to withdraw from active military service (see above.) Here he became associated with Werner Wolff, with whom he remained in contact even after Wolff left the intelligence service until his death in 1953 ('In The Blue' p.10). More importantly, he met and fell in love with Marie Janis, who was also training for espionage work; on occasion they worked on assignments together ('Looks Back' p.110). He may even have proposed to her, but her unhappy love affair with Biggles made the marriage impossible ('Looks Back' p.7). It must have been during this period that he took up his role as second in command of German military intelligence in the Middle East ('& Co.' p.131), under the elderly, jealous and somewhat inefficient Count von Faubourg, and adopting a duel role as the German agent 'El Shereef' and the British agent 'Major Sterne' ('Biggles Flies East'). He had been there for some months ('Flies East' p.28) by the time his path was crossed, in spring 1918, by Biggles, working under the alias Leopold Brunow (p.95) to infiltrate German Military Intelligence. He was suspicious of the newcomer from the outset, and Biggles later remarks several times that his mission would almost certainly have ended in failure and probably his own death if von Stalhein had had a free hand. Nevertheless, it is ultimately Biggles who wins the battle of wits, unmasking both of von Stalhein's personae; von Stalhein only escapes by stealing a British plane and crashing behind German lines. One should note that at no point during this initial tussle with Biggles does he learn Biggles' real name or identity, although he is familiar with both by the time they next meet: probably it is his own diligent (for which read: obsessive) research that uncovers the identity of his worthy opponent.
It seems that at this stage von Stalhein returns to Berlin, no doubt to explain the collapse of the operation in Palestine. Marie was soon dispatched to take up a position behind British lines in France, in order to map the headquarters of 266 squadron prior to a German bombing raid; here she was cut off by the death of her messenger pigeon ('Looks Back' p.10), and von Stalhein seems to have been one of those who were attempting to make arrangements for her extrication ('Looks Back' p.110). Contrary to the appearance of close proximity to the end of the war created by 'The Last Show' in 'The Camels Are Coming', the fact that Marie had time to make her way across France and into Spain, be picked up and returned to Germany, and then to continue her espionage work before the end of the war in November, suggests that the events of 'Affaire de Coeur' took place around midsummer.
Marie's love for Biggles brought an end to von Stalhein's hopes of marriage; he seems to have reconciled himself to this over the years, and even suggests to Biggles that the fact that neither of them married might be for the best: '"Had you married, your loyalties would have been divided between your wife and aviation; and a man can't serve two mistresses honestly."' ('Looks Back' p.10) After the war Marie took up nursing; she and von Stalhein kept in touch, and their friendship seems to have remained close over the years. Von Stalhein's own actions after the war are completely unknown. Biggles suggests years later that von Stalhein has 'never got over the fact that through us Germany lost the first war' ('Follows On' p.10), and that he has been 'off the rails' ever since (p.11); while this is largely speculative, Biggles does point out that for a member of an 'old Prussian military family' losing the war would have meant loss of everything - 'home, estate, career', to which Algy adds 'self-respect' - and that a man like von Stalhein would hardly be willing to take up an office job (p.12). The abolition of the privileges of the German aristocracy in the Weimar constitution of 1919 may have had an important impact on his family, position, and self-image; and if his home was in the eastern parts of Prussia it is even possible that it was detached from Germany entirely (see eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Germanborders.svg for German territorial losses 1919-1945). The disbanding of the German armed forces would of course leave him deprived of one of the defining features of his life, his military career. Quite what became of him during the 1920s and early 1930s, we can only speculate. His cynicism after the Second World War about the inevitability of further conflict, and his characterisation of peace-time activity as 'something to do until the next war starts' ('Gets His Men' p.137), might suggest that he did indeed make attempts to rebuild his life and his country after the First World War, but became disillusioned by the country's collapse - perhaps because of the crippling of the Germany economy through reparations and eventually by the Great Depression, perhaps because it seems plausible he did not entirely approve of the new sense of social liberation of Weimar Berlin; looking back, he sees it as wasted effort.
Biggles next encounters von Stalhein in around 1936, when von Stalhein is masterminding an aviation hijacking scheme ('& Co.'), and early 1939, when he is head of the Secret Service in the small central-European principality of Lucrania, a puppet-state of Germany ('Secret Agent'). In both these cases, although von Stalhein is not explicitly linked with Hitler's regime, there is a strong implication that he is again acting as a German intelligence agent: in the first case to supply Germany with badly needed funds, particularly in bullion, and in the second to ensure Germany has access to the high explosive pioneered by a Lucranian scientist. In both these cases he acts with a considerable degree of independence, and is certainly in overall charge of the operations, suggesting he is in a position of some trust and authority. During this period his interactions with Biggles seem on the surface to be largely good-humoured and almost whimsical; he seems to relish the opportunity to face a worthy opponent (eg. '& Co.' p.92). However, his more agitated behaviour towards his subordinates and in private, and the increasing extremeness of his attempts to thwart Biggles plans (which Biggles and Ginger both characterise in terms of him being 'scared' of Biggles), indicate the onset of the 'Biggles complex' which is to become an increasingly dominant feature of his character over the years. Although he will continue to do his damnedest to outwit his British opponent, he becomes increasingly, almost superstitiously, convinced of Biggles' ability to triumph over the odds.
His activities in the Second World War are also rather patchily represented. During the first year of the war he crossed Biggles' path on three occasions: on c. 3rd - 14th September 1939, when he was based at Kiel as senior intelligence officer and Biggles was operating from a hidden British airbase in the Baltic ('In The Baltic); on c. 7th - 13th March 1940, when he was acting as German liaison officer to a group of Russian troops attempting to recover some scientific documents during the Finno-Russian 'Winter War' in Finland ('Sees It Through'); and c. 9th April 1940 and the days following, when he hears of Biggles' presence in Norway during the German invasion and comes from Berlin to confront him ('Defies The Swastika'). His position 'in charge' at Kiel ('In The Baltic' p.16), Germany's key naval base, suggests that he has risen high within the Secret Service; although he does have a superior officer (p.144, 149) to whom he must report, his actions in general show a high degree of autonomy, to the extent of being able to summon the assistance of a couple of German destroyers. It may well be that he was recalled to Berlin after this final confrontation with Biggles at Bergen Ait, which resulted in the deaths of many men and the loss of two destroyers and a drifter; he was certainly based in Berlin again by April 1940 ('Defies The Swastika' p.57). His role in 'Sees It Through' could be seen as a demotion in punishment for this failure, or perhaps rather a test: he is in sole charge of an operation to retrieve vital scientific documents in a highly diplomatically sensitive area; this could be seen as a mark of confidence on the part of his superiors, but one might wonder how much support he would receive from Germany if he was captured. Our last glimpse of von Stalhein's war-time activities is in April 1940, when he travels from Berlin to Norway in order to attempt to capture Biggles during the Nazi invasion; one is left to speculate on whether von Stalhein scours all incoming documents for mentions of Biggles, or whether the vendetta is so well known within Intelligence circles that any mentions of Biggles are simply passed on to him as a matter of course.
Von Stalhein's behaviour during his war-time appearances is noticeably more obsessive, ruthless and even barbaric than in his pre-war appearance, and even than his first appearance in WWI. In 'In The Baltic' the ship where he is holding Biggles prisoner is torpedoed; Biggles suggests that they put aside their differences long enough to get out of danger, but von Stalhein takes no notice and attempts to shoot him (p.151-3: '"My goodness, how that fellow must hate me," thought Biggles, for he could not imagine any normal-minded person behaving in such a way at such a time'). In 'Sees It Through' he even agrees to an unpleasant bargain whereby he will pay a bounty on Biggles and his friends on receipt of their heads alone, if necessary (p.221), to which Biggles' response is to declare him '"a bigger skunk than I thought"' (p.227). A certain ruthlessness is an important part of von Stalhein's mental makeup (as Biggles puts it, '"by nature and training he believes in ruthlessness plus efficiency as the best means of getting what he wants"', 'At World's End' p.14); and even at this point his poise can always be upset by a slur on his honour (eg. 'In The Baltic' p.141); yet it would not be wholly unreasonable to view his actions in these books as somewhat out of character. He is happy to concur with Biggles' mock-trial for espionage in order to get him safely shot and out of the way ('In The Baltic' p.147-8); he threatens to have Algy and Ginger shot if Biggles does not hand over the lost documents by a particular time, and there is no indication that he is bluffing ('Sees It Through' p.70-71: compare '& Co.' p.168, where von Stalhein reveals that his threat to have Ginger shot was only ever a bluff to lure Biggles out of hiding.)
Of course, one would not exactly expect a top Gestapo agent to be a good guy; yet it seems odd that a character who, before and after WWII, is defined by his sense of honour, has been manoeuvred into such a position. Von Stalhein is by no means an ideological supporter of Nazism: he is a German nationalist ('"concerned with only two things - himself and Germany"' 'Follows On' p.38) with little time for politics, something which he takes the first opportunity to make clear to Biggles after the end of the war ('"Germany meant more to me than Hitler. It still does."' 'Takes A Holiday' p.95) Yet the fact that he believes that he will face a capital charge in a denazification court if he were to return to Germany ('Takes A Holiday' p.95) suggests he was anything but blameless; just what his crimes were remain unclear. His ruthlessness in the early years of the war, though extreme by comparison with his earlier and later behaviour (except in 'No Rest For Biggles', for which see below), may be explained by his desperation to remove Biggles from the scene as quickly as possible: again, his superstitious feeling about Biggles' omnipotence appears to be at work. It is also during this period when he begins to appreciate the importance of Biggles' team in his success (eg. 'Sees It Through' p.219); this will remain an important feature of his interaction with Biggles until his defection and afterwards.
[OUT OF CONTINUITY SIDE-NOTE: The real reason for von Stalhein's uncharacteristic behaviour is, presumably, WEJ's awareness that his books served a propagandistic value during wartime, and thus that representatives of the German military could no longer be portrayed as 'honourable adversaries'. The fact that von Stalhein does not appear in the later WWII books - even ones like 'Fails To Return', a European-set Intelligence-based story where von Stalhein would have fitted in perfectly - suggests that WEJ felt increasingly uncomfortable fitting a character for whom he, through Biggles, had expressed a sort of admiration, into the mould of a 'typical' Gestapo officer. It may have been a similar discomfort which partially motivated him to write von Stalhein's defection from the Soviets: with the increase of Cold War tensions around the time of the Hungarian Revolt and the Cuban Missile Crisis, WEJ no longer felt comfortable leaving von Stalhein on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain.]
From April 1940 until after the end of the war, we have another uncomfortable blank in von Stalhein's career. It was probably during this period that he suffered the serious leg injury, the result of a bullet wound, which was to leave him with a slight limp for the rest of his life (see above.) It was probably also during this time that he attempted to form a close-knit taskforce, on analogy with Biggles' team; as noted above, he had realised that the sort of close, selfless teamwork displayed by Biggles, Algy and Ginger was crucial to their success. The taskforce was not successful, mainly, he claimed, because it was impossible to destroy selfishness and ill-discipline in the individual members of the group; you simply had to chance upon people in whom those qualities were not present in the first place ('Takes A Holiday' p.128). It was also during this time that he first encountered Karl Reinhardt, a junior officer below him in the Gestapo, who he was later to encounter as a Soviet Agent, and who eventually became Kommandant of Rodnitz, the town where Marie's ancestral castle stood. ('Looks Back' p.43.)
Von Stalhein realised in advance that the war would not end well for Germany, and planned an escape route and a bolt-hole for himself in South America. Paradise Valley was apparently initially set up by 'Dr Liebgarten', a member of the German legation in Mexico City either pre-war or in the war's early years; he had backed a Mexican military leader, Colonel Jose Durango, in a coup to establish a facist state in Mexico. The coup failed, and Liebgarten and Durango fled to 'Paradise Valley', where to raise further funds Liebgarten established a scheme whereby people would be tempted to the valley by promises of rich farming land, squeezed of their savings, and then forced to work the valley as slave labour ('Takes A Holiday' p.166). They were joined by various scientists with Nazi sympathies, including Johann Kraft (working on the new V-17 rocket, p.189) who arrived after the war, and Paul Stitzen (working on tropical diseases using the prisoners as experimental subjects, p.174), who seems to have made his way there during the course of the war.
Von Stalhein seems to know Stitzen best of the men in the base, and it may have been through a past acquaintance with Stitzen that he selected Paradise Valley as his post-war retreat. Unusually, he seems to hold no official position there: although the others to some extent rely on his advice, he does not appear to have any brief for the security of the site, his usual role. He remains at Paradise Valley until 1947, when Biggles arrives to rescue Angus Mackail and brings in Mexican and British authorities. Biggles seems deeply disappointed with him for having been part of this despicable organisation, and urges him to return to Germany and attempt to rebuild his country (p.120-22); interestingly, he even seems to be extending the hand of friendship, suggesting that if von Stalhein accepts his responsibilities then perhaps they could 'get on different terms' (p.122). This is also the first occasion where von Stalhein's 'Biggles complex' seems to be in full swing, with von Stalhein resignedly certain that whatever they expect Biggles to do, that's exactly what he won't do; as Stitzen puts it 'you've allowed the fellow to give you an inferiority complex' (p.129). Von Stalhein has returned to his whimsical pre-WWII attitude in his interactions with Biggles; but undercutting it is a deep sense of aimlessness and inferiority which is quite alien to the von Stalhein we have seen before. He seems ashamed of his current situation, but at a loss as to how to alter it.
Von Stalhein leaves Paradise Valley under a hail of gunfire, and with a gruelling journey through the jungle and across a desert to look forward to before he reaches civilisation. Biggles next encounters him some months later, January 1948, in his first known job during his brief career as a freelance security and intelligence expert, available for hire ('Gets His Men'). This first job is a noticeably similar situation to that at Paradise Valley (which should surely have been enough to warn him it was a bad idea in advance, but this is not his most stable period.) A group of politicians from various countries have kidnapped scientists from around the world and have established them at a secret base in Manchuria; although the Manchurian Prince, Ling Soo, is ostensibly in command, it is really the European executive officers who seem to have control. Von Stalhein has been engaged on the understanding that the operation has official government backing, but soon finds out that its goal is really personal advancement and enrichment on the part of the politicians participating. He is increasingly frustrated by the amateurishness of the operation and the lack of respect for his role and authority; we are already beginning to see the seeds of the problems he will encounter on a regular basis during his years as a Soviet agent. Again he speaks of his disillusionment with 'inefficient politicians' (p.135), and cynically remarks that his freelance work is simply something to do until the next war starts. Clearly the doubts which assailed him the previous year have not been alleviated by his new chosen path in life.
After the Manchurian operation was again thwarted by Biggles' involvement, von Stalhein drops out of sight for another couple of years, presumably while he undertook further, lower profile freelance work. It may be, however, that a story has dropped out of the historical record at this point. Von Stalhein's remarks about Bertie in 'Works It Out' strongly suggest that they have already met (eg. p.111: 'One of Bigglesworth's men talks more blah than anyone I ever met. As if that isn't enough he fools about with a monocle.'); yet although Bertie's and von Stalhein's paths have technically crossed twice, in neither case have they clapped eyes on one another. Although there is some difficulty in perming another encounter between Biggles and von Stalhein into this gap, as it seems plausible that one or other would have mentioned it, one might suspect that Bertie at least ran across von Stalhein in one of those cases of lesser importance in which von Stalhein must surely have engaged in this period.
Von Stalhein's next chronicled appearance is in 1950 ('Works It Out'), in a scheme which bears distinct similarities to the aerial hijacking project of '& Co.' some years earlier. This time, however, it is not an official state project, but a private gang selling gold to the highest bidders. They do, however, appear to have contacts behind the Iron Curtain; they were already planning to relocate to the Eastern Bloc before Biggles' intervention, they sell gold to Rumania, and one of the gang's leaders, Odenski, is Rumanian or Russian. It appears to be a highly organised operation; von Stalhein is once again only a mid-ranking member of the gang, and seems distinctly awed by the Count, their overall leader (p.113). He is clearly still aware of the insecurity of his position: he looks forward to the increased security of an operational base behind the Iron Curtain (p.110); and, more significantly, he is ruthless in disposing of Odenski when it becomes apparent that only one of them can escape (p.179). The increasing desperation he felt at this point in his life is obvious.
The next few years mark a particularly unhappy period. After the collapse of the gang, von Stalhein found refuge behind the Iron Curtain, and although remaining primarily a freelance operative, he undertook increasing amounts of work for the Soviet State Police. As Biggles makes very clear several years later, this was a combination that was doomed to failure from the outset ('"As a monarchist born and bred he had no business on the other side of the Iron Curtain, and in his heart he knew it. Like a square peg in a round hole he just didn't fit, which was why it was inevitable that sooner or later he would fall foul of the people for whom he has been working. They aren't handicapped by scruples. He is, and always has been."' 'Buries A Hatchet' p.20-21). Biggles and his team attribute his actions to a desire to harm Britain by whatever means possible. While this may be true as far it goes, it may well be far from the full story. One should remember that von Stalhein's home and strongest tie of allegiance was Germany, and perhaps East Germany at that (see above); although unable to return to West Germany for fear of punishment, he may have had assurances that the Soviet regime would shield him in the East, allowing him to live in the country he loved. He also had a sister and young nephew in East Berlin; after the death of his brother-in-law, von Stalhein visited his sister's household regularly ('Buries A Hatchet' p.10), and it may have been that the desire to be near his family and the need to provide for them influenced his decision to move to the East. His sister was considerably younger than him; looking after her was probably second nature, and her son, Fritz, was young and not very strong. It should also be noted that his sister and nephew were a point of vulnerability for von Stalhein; as the narrative notes in 'In Australia', 'the Iron Curtain experts knew how to put pressure on unwilling, but sometimes helpless, persons' (p.86). All of this is of course surmise and supposition; but it does to some extent help explain von Stalhein's somewhat mystifying political decisions at this stage in his career.
It was presumably also while staying in Berlin during this period that von Stalhein became acquainted with Oberst Hans Roth, later Under-minister of Defence, a neighbour in East Berlin, and his family: his wife and two children, Moritz and Margareta. Through them he also met and dined with the Roths’ close friends in West Berlin: Max Lowenhardt, later Professor of European History at ‘the university’ (presumably the Freie Universität Berlin), his wife, and their daughter Anna, who became engaged to Moritz Roth. (See below, ‘Takes A Hand’.) The acquaintance with the Roths was not a particularly close one, and von Stalhein does not apparently think of Roth as a friend; but he states that he knew Roth and his family ‘fairly well’, and in later years, after von Stalhein has defected to the West, he is willing to offer personal help to the family when they attempt to flee East Berlin for London, despite the possible danger to himself: see below, ‘Takes A Hand’.
Von Stalhein’s first encounter with Biggles as a Soviet agent took place in 1951 ('Follows On'); von Stalhein is at this point based primarily from the Hotel Prinz Karl in Berlin ('In The Blue' p.17), but has been resident in London on and off for four months by the time he comes to Biggles' attention. Posing as a Czech, von Stalhein is recruiting British guardsmen for what he claims is an 'international brigade' but which is actually a propaganda scheme, broadcasting Communist radio into Korea during the war. Biggles again points out that von Stalhein's current actions are not helping Germany; more importantly, Biggles broaches the idea of his defection (p.111); but von Stalhein's pride and stubbornness are still too significant to overcome. Some explosive intervention from Biggles, Gimlet, and their combined teams, brings the operation to an end; and even at this point, Biggles suspects that von Stalhein's failures will not be leniently dealt-with now he's thrown his lot in with the USSR (p.156). Just how prophetic these words are will be revealed in the next few years. It is from around this time that von Stalhein begins to lose the confidence of his employers, as the result of his constant failure to take effective action against Biggles' interference. One might suspect that von Stalhein's record in non-Biggles related cases is as good as his usual efficiency would suggest; so it is not entirely surprising that his superiors should eventually come to suspect that he is in fact collaborating with Biggles to pass information to the west ('Buries A Hatchet' p.12-13)
Over the next years, von Stalhein goes through periods of being in favour with his Soviet pay-masters, and doing Intelligence work for them, and periods of being out of favour, when he works as a freelance agent. It was presumably during one of his ‘favoured’ periods that he is assigned to act as handler and interpreter for Hugo Schulz, a soviet agent and diamond valuer, on a trip to the US; he fell out with Schulz over the man’s suggestion that they pretend the diamonds were confiscated by customs and split the profits from their sale between them (see ‘In Mexico’.) His next encounter with Biggles is as a Soviet agent - indeed, as an 'important secret service agent from behind the Iron Curtain' ('Takes Charge' p.27) - in 1952. Von Stalhein's task is to collaborate with a leading member of the Moldavian Communist government in doing away with the two heirs to the Moldavian throne, the two princes Boris and Karl, around whom royalist opposition is likely to coelesce, and retrieving the Moldavian crown jewels for the state coffers. Much of the action takes place in France, and in many ways the story is most remarkable for the rawness of the wounds which are left from the period of the German occupation; the topic of forgiveness and of accepting the past in order to move to a brighter future is one that is prominent at many levels, most obviously in Biggles' analysis (p.131: '"while people talk like that there will never be peace for anybody."') Von Stalhein continues to disagree with the violent tactics and lack of honour and courage shown by his colleagues in the pay of Moscow, and eventually abandons Prutski and his hired thugs for the vengeful people of La Sologne to deal with. It is no wonder that following his failure the following year in an attempt to retrieve the secret plans of a V-18 rocket, hidden on Jamaica by his old colleague Werner Wolff ('In The Blue'), he finally falls out badly with his new employers ('Foreign Legionnaire' p.18).
Already all the ingredients are present for his final downfall and exile to Sakhalin; but the slowness of Soviet bureaucracy protected him for a while. It would take several more years before the suspicions about von Stalhein's treacherous interactions with Biggles would become concrete enough to bring about his trial. But it is from this period that von Stalhein's gradual change of heart can be traced; and although Biggles would be the last person to see any sign of it, von Stalhein's nephew Fritz was adamant that it was Biggles' constant chiding and example that caused his final break with the USSR and reconciliation with Britain (p.15). His next meeting with Biggles would mark the first time they joined forces. In late 1954 von Stalhein was again acting as a freelance operative, following his break from Moscow, and undertook an organisational role in an international airforce, who acted in the employ of unscrupulous business moguls to keep international tensions high and thus keep the war industries profitable. However, he joined this group at a late stage in their operational history, at a time when discipline had almost entirely broken down; he arrives only in time to find the camp overrun by Kurdish tribesmen, and he is forced to form an alliance with Biggles in order to escape. They form a highly effective team, with von Stalhein willingly relinquishing command to Biggles - an action which speaks volumes to the extent to which his pragmatism and clear-sightedness outweighs his pride; it should however be noted that von Stalhein's actions are often oddly lacking in a sense of self-preservation (p.179, 183, etc). Although he has never lacked for courage, this rashness is new.
Von Stalhein's last two documented actions as a Soviet agent show both the difficulties he faced in working for Moscow and the extreme methods he used in an attempt to maintain his precarious position. The first, in 1954, was in part an attempt to infiltrate Australia with Soviet agents, mainly from East Germany, to stir up discontent amongst the Aborigines and provide them with weapons for a potential uprising against Commonwealth interests ('In Australia'). Von Stalhein should have been an obvious candidate for involvement in this project, both because of his known hatred for Britain and because of his connections in Germany; yet his role seems oddly vague and curtailed, and he never seems very engaged with the scheme. This reluctance probably stemmed at least in part from the shambolic nature of the enterprise, which combined the basic insurgency plan with a scientific survey for uranium deposits and a project to spy on rocket and atomic testing in Australia, and which in any case ended with the local Aboriginal peoples turning on the Soviet agents and destroying their base. The lack of clear goals and efficient organisation serve as an example of the frustrations von Stalhein particularly resented during this period.
His last known assignment as a Soviet agent was to attempt to recover a stolen American secret weapon from a would-be dictator in Liberia, in 1955 ('No Rest For Biggles'). For this mission he was again partnered with Zorotov, his handler from 'In The Blue'; far from working together, however, both are obviously well aware that this is their last opportunity to expiate their previous mistakes and regain the favour of their employers, and thus both work entirely independently in attempts to regain the weapon, and both attempt to double-cross the other. As already noted, the sword had been hanging over von Stalhein since his failure in Jamaica. It is surely his knowledge of the probable result of failure that incites one of his most ruthless actions: his final decision to eliminate the Liberian leader's secret base by attacking it without warning or mercy with half a dozen men with automatic weaponry. Christophe's badly-armed, badly-organised and unsuspecting troops do not stand a chance. The dishonourable nature of this action alone shows how far von Stalhein has fallen from his own ideals.
Punishment still did not descend immediately. For nearly two years von Stalhein remained within the Soviet Union; indeed, he was even sent to Hungary as part of the Soviet efforts to crush the uprising of October-November 1956. Fritz Lowenhardt highlighted his experiences here as one of the key factors in crystallising the change of heart which had been growing through his time as a Soviet agent, and particularly through his interactions with Biggles ('Buries A Hatchet' p.15). In spring 1957, while visiting his sister and nephew one evening, he received a telephone call from one of his few remaining 'friends in high places', informing him that he was to be arrested and charged with treason. Although he had time to leave the country, he refused to run away, even though he was aware that the conclusion of the trial was already decided.
He was duly tried in a People's Court, with proceedings reported in newspapers around the Eastern Bloc ('Looks Back' p.17), and found guilty, but offered a choice: he could either face punishment, or help three professional assassins in orchestrating Biggles' death (‘Takes A Hand’ p.14). He refused; and with his last twenty-four hours of freedom returned to his sister's house, and gave his nephew money and instructions to get to England to warn Biggles of the threat to his life. One should not, I think, imagine that he anticipated the upshot of this action - that Biggles would return the favour by rescuing him from his exile on Sakhalin island, and bring him back to England to live out the rest of his life in as much peace as he wanted. Indeed, when Biggles does arrive, von Stalhein is more than slightly suspicious of his motives, and gives every impression of intending to stay behind on Sakhalin rather than agree to an escape which would leave him indebted to Biggles. Rather, I suspect, one should recognises that even at this stage in his career von Stalhein is trapped - if that is the right word - by the inflexible code of honour which he has always attempted to follow. As Fritz puts it, '"he was a soldier, not a murderer"'; and for von Stalhein, the very fact that he is a soldier - with all the associations that go with that word for the representative of 'the old Prussian military caste' - meant that he had no choice but to act as he did.
The last books which document von Stalhein's varied career constantly draws on two threads: the influence of environment and upbringing on character, and whether one can alter the character one's environment has imprinted on one; and the importance of change and growth with the times. So far, we have seen a von Stalhein who has seemingly remained the inflexible result of his background and upbringing in ways that have only harmed him - in making it impossible for him to adjust to life outside imperial Germany and the military, making him join with Hitler despite feeling no particular support for him, making him unpopular and untrustworthy with his Soviet superiors because of his efficiency and uprightness; while he has changed with the times only in ways that have lessened him - the increasing brutality of his methods as a Soviet agent, for example. From now on, we see the reassertion of the positive attributes of his upbringing - courage, loyalty, honour - and simultaneously the ability to change for the better, as manifested especially in his relationship with Biggles.
His time in Sakhalin was undoubtedly a terrible physical and mental strain; the loss of his usual physical characteristics of upright bearing and immaculate grooming reflect a certain erosion of self. Yet it is remarkable how far von Stalhein retains his dignity, self-possession, stubbornness and pride. Almost his first reaction on being told that Biggles is present on the island and is planning his escape is to refuse his help, and it is only Biggles’ insistence that they escape first and argue later - and the presence of his nephew - which persuades him to cooperate with Biggles’ plan. However, once he has taken this decision, he is willing to obey Biggles’ orders (with only one instance of faintly sarcastic heel-clicking), over-riding his own tendency always to take the most dangerous part in events (or tendency towards self-destructiveness, depending on how one views it.) His insistence that he will only agree to be rescued on his own terms however seems genuine, and it is only after Biggles assures him that his motives in undertaking the rescue were his regard for Fritz and a certain ‘sympathy or affection’ for von Stalhein himself, and not a desire to use his political knowledge, that he agrees to depart with him for England. Indeed, it seems to be in part Biggles’ very disinterestedness that he feels places him under an obligation to give the assistance to Raymond, which is implied to begin at the end of this story and continues, by implication, for his further appearances.
Whether Biggles is correct when he asserts that ‘In my country we don't extract information by torture, so how much you say, or if you say anything at all, is entirely a matter for you to decide’ (p.184) is open to debate. It is difficult to believe that the intelligence services would be willing to allow a defector of von Stalhein’s standing to take up a quiet life in England without significant debriefing, and even in the Johnsiverse it is unlikely that a quiet lunch with Air Commodore Raymond would be the end of the matter. However, this is largely supposition.
It is also Biggles’ insistence that he does not expect von Stalhein to be under any obligation to him - except by doing him the courtesy of not using his position in Britain as an opportunity to spy for the Soviets again - that seems to finally clear the air between them. By the end of ‘Buries A Hatchet’, Biggles and von Stalhein have begun tentatively to come to an ‘understanding’: Biggles can offer von Stalhein money to help himself set up in England without apparent offence, and asks him to let them know where he has found lodgings for himself and Fritz. This ‘understanding’ does not blossom at once into friendship (unsurprisingly), and it will be several years before Ginger and Algy’s caustic predictions that Biggles will end up by taking von Stalhein out for dinner come true.
Von Stalhein’s life in England is in many ways a retirement in the fullest sense of the word; and in each of his appearances in these later years, the most striking facts of his existence are his solitude, seclusion, increasing loneliness and sense of disconnection. He takes rooms under the name Lothar Boelke on the top floor of a block of flats in Kensington, in flat 21 (‘Looks Back’ p.23); although he seems at the end of ‘Buries a Hatchet’ to expect Fritz to live with him, with the possibility of his sister, Fritz’s mother, being extracted from East Berlin to join them, Fritz instead moves with his mother to West Berlin. They can apparently only write to von Stalhein occasionally, as he needs to keep his whereabouts secret (‘In Mexico’ ). He gives his address to no one, does not have a telephone, and even Biggles, on his occasional visits, is greeted at gun-point. He eats out occasionally at the Adlon Restaurant, which is run and patronised by other German emigres, and which is ‘within reach of [his] purse’ (‘Takes A Hand’ p.12). He is employed as a translator on an occasional basis by Raymond and other government departments; in Raymond’s opinion it is gratitude for this work, which ‘keeps the wolf from the door’, that leads von Stalhein to occasionally offer oddments of intelligence (‘World’s End’ p.19); I find it plausible that he also rather relishes the occasional opportunity to feel like he is a person of importance again. As he later confesses matter-of-factly to Biggles, he gets a bit lonely sometimes.
His relationship with Biggles is, for much of this time, the only evidence which we see of any integration with his new life. Biggles makes a point of keeping away from von Stalhein for several months after his rescue from Sakhalin (‘In Mexico’ p.39), despite the interest he had shown in von Stalhein’s welfare and whereabouts - perhaps in part because he wanted to demonstrate his willingness to allow von Stalhein to make his own decisions about his future and to reassert his independence after what could be seen as the humiliation of being rescued by his old enemy and having to flee to the country which he had once hated most. When he takes the decision to consult von Stalhein about the East German agent Hugo Schultz, he has to get his address from Raymond, and is even unaware if von Stalhein is still in London. Their meeting, however, is amicable enough: von Stalhein is willing to help Biggles with information once he has been told the reason for Biggles’ enquiry, in line with his determination not to betray the country for which he had once worked, despite their treatment of him. Biggles again makes tentative overtures about von Stalhein’s welfare, which von Stalhein politely but firmly rebuffs; they even exchange a little slightly melancholy banter. On enquiry from Ginger as to whether he is as frosty as ever, Biggles replies that he seems to be ‘thawing’. Things do not seem to have greatly altered nearly a year later, when von Stalhein informs Raymond about a cache of gold in Tierra del Fuego, lost since WWI, which he believes the Russians may be attempting to find, leading to the events of ‘At World’s End’.
In the late summer of 1961 von Stalhein approaches Biggles to inform him of the arrival in London of the three political assassins with whom he was once supposed to collaborate in arranging Biggles’ death; it is largely von Stalhein’s information which helps Biggles identify their targets, the family of von Stalhein’s old neighbour in East Berlin, Hans Roth. He is very aware that he is no longer important enough to be the assassins’ target himself.
Biggles and von Stalhein have apparently not being seeing much of one another: von Stalhein is aware of where Biggles lives, but Biggles doesn’t know he knows, and Biggles still doesn’t recognise von Stalhein’s handwriting. The thawing process, however, is still proceeding; von Stalhein even goes so far as to say that it has been a pleasure to see Biggles again (‘Takes A Hand’ p.18), and when Biggles teases him gently about this change of heart, he replies seriously ‘Times change, and as we grow older, if we are wise we change with them.’ Each seems to be making wary overtures to the other.
This relationship clearly warms and deepens over the next couple of years; by von Stalhein’s final recorded adventure with Biggles, and the only one in which they collaborate with one another from the start, he and Biggles have taken to meeting up for occasional meals at ‘a little Thames-side restaurant’ (‘Looks Back’ p.7). Their conversation is unforced and surprisingly intimate, dealing with Biggles’ and von Stalhein’s feelings for Marie Janis, from whom von Stalhein has received a curiously final-sounding letter. Von Stalhein’s initial attempt to bring Marie to England from her home in Czechoslovakia without Biggles’ aid ends in failure after he is recognised by a former colleague from his Gestapo days, Karl Reinhardt. It is Biggles’ concern about his disappearance, almost as much as his desire to rescue Marie, that leads him to launch an expedition into Czechoslovakia; after this he and von Stalhein work together as an effective team, and with help from Bertie and Ginger (though not, apparently, Algy) are able to get Marie out of the country with sufficient wealth to set her up in a cottage in Hampshire, where Biggles and von Stalhein visit her at weekends. This final known episode in von Stalhein’s life is in many ways fitting: he once again gets to demonstrate his courage, honourable nature, and versatility as an effective intelligence operative, but for laudable private reasons rather than political causes. The suddenness and completeness of the thaw in his relationship with Biggles, shown in their easy companionship throughout the story, their concern for one another and ability to interact as equals in pursuit of a common goal, shows how far their friendship has progressed, and how their earlier relationship as evenly-balanced enemies has been transformed into a well-balanced friendship. It is striking that, while von Stalhein’s former romantic relationship with Marie could have been made a point of conflict between him and Biggles, it in fact becomes a source of unity; and Marie rapidly becomes an equal third in the relationship, with the ease of her long-time friendship with von Stalhein balancing the strength of her old love for Biggles. One is left with the hope that although von Stalhein’s political and military career may remain a source of bitter regrets, he will soon be able to ‘come in from the cold’.
Please comment with corrections, discussions, disagreements and speculations...
(NOTE: As is the case with most of W.E. Johns' characters, details of von Stalhein's physical appearance and background tend to come through piecemeal, and to suffer from a certain amount of internal contradiction; I've tried to suggest ways of reconciling these differences, but other solutions are of course possible.)
A NOTE ON REFERENCES:
All page references are to the editions I have handy, and therefore will likely not correspond precisely with other editions; as most editions do not differ in total by more than twenty or so pages, however, it is hoped that these references will still be useful in locating the approximate position of relevant passages in different editions.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Von Stalhein is 'tall above the average' ('Takes A Hand' p.10) - and at any rate taller than Biggles ('Buries A Hatchet' p.145) - and generally has a very upright, military bearing; it is one of the few characteristic features of his appearance that remain recognisable during his captivity on Sakhalin ('Buries A Hatchet' p.93). Particularly in 'Flies East', however, he has a tendency to lean against doorways or half rest on desks whenever possible (eg. p.35). He is around the same build as Biggles ('Buries A Hatchet' p.145), and is generally described as lithe ('& Co.p.91), slim (eg. 'Secret Agent' p.139) or even thin, something which is exacerbated to the point of emaciation when on Sakhalin ('Buries A Hatchet' p.126). He is described as having a 'keen, alert, handsome face' ('Secret Agent' p.139), and as being 'good-looking in a rather foppish way', or even 'effeminate' ('Flies East' p.33, p.35); he also has 'prominent cheek-bones ('In The Baltic' p.141), make of that what you will.
When we first meet him in 'Flies East' he is described as 'dark, with cold brooding eyes that were hard to meet and held a steel-like quality that the monocle he habitually wore could not dispel' (p.33); in '& Co.' he is described as having a 'sunburnt face [that] bespoke years of service in hot climates' (p.91), though the fact that in later appearances he is described as 'grey-faced' ('Takes Charge' p.27) suggests that this tan fades with the years. By 'Secret Agent' (c.1939?) he is already greying at the temples (p.139), although it must be admitted that there is still only 'some grey in his hair' by 'Biggles in Mexico' (c.1957?), so he must age very gracefully indeed. The grey seems more dominant when he is forced to wear his hair longer, in captivity on Sakhalin ('Buries A Hatchet' p.126) and in disguise ('Biggles Looks Back' p.38). He is generally clean-shaven ('& Co.' p.91), though has been known for disguise purposes to wear a false beard ('Takes A Hand' p.10) or to allow his beard to grow slightly ('Looks Back' p.38 - though it should be noted that as Marie doesn't laugh him out of the castle when she sees him later, he probably takes the first opportunity to shave and trim his hair when the disguise becomes useless to him.); like the other prisoners he goes unshaven on Sakhalin ('Buries A Hatchet' p.126). In '& Co.' he is said to have 'cold blue eyes' (p.91), a colour which is modified to 'bluey-grey steel' in 'Secret Agent' (p.140).
His foppishness is mainly manifested in the monocle (worn in his right eye, '& Co' p.91) and amber cigarette holder (specified as amber 'Flies East' p.35) which are his most characteristic accoutrements. Indeed, they are so characteristic that merely by adopting them the broad-and-Slavic-looking Soviet agent Zorotov can look so much like von Stalhein that Biggles is fooled into believing he is him (admittedly only at a distance, but nevertheless after extensive observation: 'In The Blue' p.42-3); and after Biggles has rescued von Stalhein from Sakhalin, it is with the excuse of him needing to buy a new monocle and cigarette holder that he offers Erich money ('You wouldn't be the same without them', 'Buries A Hatchet' p.190). His clothing, inasmuch as we have any information on the subject, seems to be usually rather sober: Biggles has never seen him wear a tie other than a plain black one ('Follows On' p.40). In 'Flies East' he wears patent leather shoes (p.164), but as this is with uniform one cannot make too many judgements about his fashion sense from it.
In 'Flies East' he is said to tap the ash off his cigarette with his forefinger in a particularly distinctive way; indeed, it is this habit which suggests to Biggles that von Stalhein and Major Sterne may be one and the same. Quite how this is distinctive is anyone's guess. 'A hand was lifted with a perfectly natural movement of the arm, and tapped the ash off the cigarette it held between its fingers...of all the men [Biggles] knew only one had that peculiar trick of tapping the ash off his cigarette with his forefinger.' ('Flies East' p.94)
One of von Stalhein's most awkward physical attributes is his vanishing-and-reappearing limp. First, the most concrete details. Judging by the fact that in 'Takes A Holiday' he holds and leans on a walking stick in his left hand (p.94), one might guess that his left leg is the weaker. And in 'No Rest For Biggles' the limp is said in the narrative to be the result of an old bullet wound (p.93). From here, however, it gets more confusing. At his first appearance in 'Flies East' he is said to have been 'wounded early in the war, and walked with a permanent limp with the aid of two sticks' (p.33); his 'dragging stride' is unmistakeable (p.56). However, this is quickly revealed as a ruse to disassociate his (limping) von Stalhein persona from the athletic El Shereef (p.73); as his fight with the Arab in his office shows, he has no noticeable physical disability at all (p.162-3). There is no mention of his having a limp in any of the following five books - in other words, until the end of his involvement with Biggles in World War II. However, the first post-war book gives a rather different picture. Ginger remembers von Stalhein's career as follows: 'one time high-spot of German Military Intelligence after a serious leg wound had put him off the Active List; in more recent times one of the shrewdest "back-room boys" of the Gestapo' ('Takes A Holiday' p.94). The implication surely is that von Stalhein did not join Military Intelligence until after his wounding, and that this was well before his work in WWII - in other words, that the story about his wounding and subsequent limp in 'Flies East' was true. For the rest of the series of books, von Stalhein walks with a slight limp.
Two main explanations suggest themselves. The first is that the limp does indeed stem from injuries sustained in an early stage of the First World War, as suggested in 'Flies East' and later; however, von Stalhein exaggerated the severity of these injuries in 'Flies East' in order to divorce himself from suspicion of being El Shereef. The slight limp in the later books - which is never severe enough to impede his physical activity - is in fact present in 'Flies East' and the five following books, but is not commented on. This explanation does have the advantage of making sense of the later remarks about von Stalhein's career. It does not, however, easily sit with the fact that the limp is nowhere mentioned between 'Flies East' and the end of the Second World War (though one should note that another of W.E. Johns' heroes, Captain 'Gimlet' King, is also said to have a limp at his first appearance, a fact which is barely mentioned again.) More difficult to explain away, however, is the fact that in 'Biggles Takes A Holiday' (c.1947?), uniquely, von Stalhein is using and appears to need the aid of a walking stick, implying that the wound is recent. I am inclined to hold to a second theory: that von Stalhein's wound in the First World War was largely superficial, and exaggerated in order to allow him to leave active military service without suspicion and devote more time to his intelligence work; it did not leave him with a limp. The two inter-war and three WWII books reflect this, in not mentioning any limp at all. He was, however, wounded more severely and under unknown circumstances towards the end of the Second World War; it is this wound which causes him still to require a walking stick in 1947 ('Takes A Holiday'), and leaves him with a limp for the rest of his life. Biggles and Ginger, in attributing the limp to his initial wounding in WWI, are conflating the two incidents, and somehow overlooking the fact that they both knew him limpless for around five years in the late 1940s.
Or possibly the limp is always an act to put people off their guard.
Or possibly W.E. Johns just forgot about his canon again.
SKILLS
Erich is a first-class linguist, something which is of course invaluable in his intelligence work. During 'Flies East' we learn that he speaks Arabic like a native (p.121), as well as speaking English so perfectly that he can pass as a British intelligence officer (p.227); his tendency to pepper his speech with incongruous 'ach, so!'s in 'Gets His Men' (p.89, 145 etc) seems to be a purely temporary affectation. In 'Sees It Through' we find he can speak Russian (p.54, 221), at any rate fluently enough to act as liaison officer for a group of Russian soldiers; by the time he is employed by the USSR he is seemingly entirely fluent, and after his defection Raymond gives him translation work from both German and Russian ('In Mexico' p.38). Algy states in 'Looks Back' that von Stalhein can speak 'half a dozen languages fluently' (p.29); although this could be an exaggeration, it does not seem entirely unlikely, although we have little information about what those other languages might be. I suspect Czech may be one, as he travels under a Czech name and passport in 'Follows On' (p.15). At any rate whatever language is spoken by the Manchurian Ling Soo does not appear to be one of them, as von Stalhein requires an interpreter to communicate with him in 'Gets His Men' (p.88).
Von Stalhein is athletic, even during periods when W.E. Johns writes him with a limp: his strength and speed of reaction in 'Flies East' are first class (p.162, 228), for all that Biggles is able to lay him out with a single unexpected punch in 'Sees It Through' (p.82). He is also a very good rider, equally at home on a racing camel and a thoroughbred Arab stallion ('Flies East' p.31, 89, 228-9). Von Stalhein can also, it seems, fly an aeroplane, although W.E. Johns varies a little on his degree of skill in this department. His flights behind enemy lines in 'Flies East' are all with a pilot, but when he steals a British plane to escape at the end he shows a fair amount of skill in piloting it (p.230) before being brought down by anti-aircraft fire. However, in 'In Australia' Von Stalhein's pilot, Cozens, claims to be invaluable as without him they'll have a plane but no pilot to fly it (p.140); although this could be construed as Cozens' ignorance of von Stalhein's piloting abilities, Algy seems to concur (p.146). Apparently von Stalhein has not kept in practice. He nevertheless seems to have a particular interest in aircraft: in 'Works It Out' he has particular control over the aviation side of the gang's operations (p.109: "I particularly asked the Count not to employ any pilots without first letting me see him. He knows nothing about aviation."), and the number of times his plots seem to revolve around aeroplanes beggars belief unless he himself has a particular interest in them* (for example the aerial hijacking operations in '& Co' and 'Works It Out').
*Or he may just have an obsessive need to attract Biggles' attention by any means necessary. I couldn't possibly comment.
Curiously, von Stalhein is also at least a passably good violinist - something which he uses to his advantage in 'Looks Back' when he takes a job as violinist in a gypsy band in Bohemia (p.38). Honestly, I couldn't make this stuff up. He is also proficient at blowing smoke rings.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH (for fuller notes on CHRONOLOGY, please see Appendix I below)
Much is unknown about von Stalhein's life and career, especially at points where it did not come into contact with Biggles'; much, therefore, must be pieced together from vague hints and surmises. Erich von Stalhein is repeatedly described as being of the 'old Prussian military caste' (eg. 'Takes A Holiday' p.94); however, as he was born in the heyday of the German empire, when Prussia was a very large place (see eg. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Prussiamap.gif ), his home could technically be anywhere from the Rhineland to Kaliningrad. His nephew Fritz, however, later remarks that he and his mother live in East Berlin because 'our home has always been there' ('Buries A Hatchet' p.11); one could perhaps construe this as suggesting that von Stalhein's family come from the vicinity of Berlin. The regular references to his 'aristocratic' features (eg. 'Takes A Holiday' p.94), his privileged position in the German military hierarchy, his taste for the finer things in life, his affectations of monocle and cigarette holder, and most importantly the aristocratic 'von', could be taken together to suggest that his family comes from the lower ranks of the nobility, although this is never explicitly stated. Of his parents we know nothing; he has a younger sister, perhaps quite considerably younger, as her son Fritz is only 17 in c.1957 ('Buries A Hatchet' p.10), placing her probable date of birth somewhere around 1910. As with many characters, we have no information about von Stalhein's date of birth (not least because aging appears to be a purely personal choice in the Johnsiverse); however, as he generally gives the impression of being a couple of years older than Biggles but not much more, we can tentatively place it around 1895.
Von Stalhein was a career soldier; he may well have been based in the Middle East, as he is deeply tanned and a fluent speaker of Arabic, as well as being very well versed in the culture of the region, before Biggles encounters him there in 1918. Because of his efficiency (and, one might suspect, his linguistic skills) he was seconded to 'the Wilhelmstrasse' (by which I assume WEJ means the German Foreign Ministry) for counter-espionage work ('Follows On' p.11); the move may have been covered by exaggerating the severity of a leg wound which allowed him to withdraw from active military service (see above.) Here he became associated with Werner Wolff, with whom he remained in contact even after Wolff left the intelligence service until his death in 1953 ('In The Blue' p.10). More importantly, he met and fell in love with Marie Janis, who was also training for espionage work; on occasion they worked on assignments together ('Looks Back' p.110). He may even have proposed to her, but her unhappy love affair with Biggles made the marriage impossible ('Looks Back' p.7). It must have been during this period that he took up his role as second in command of German military intelligence in the Middle East ('& Co.' p.131), under the elderly, jealous and somewhat inefficient Count von Faubourg, and adopting a duel role as the German agent 'El Shereef' and the British agent 'Major Sterne' ('Biggles Flies East'). He had been there for some months ('Flies East' p.28) by the time his path was crossed, in spring 1918, by Biggles, working under the alias Leopold Brunow (p.95) to infiltrate German Military Intelligence. He was suspicious of the newcomer from the outset, and Biggles later remarks several times that his mission would almost certainly have ended in failure and probably his own death if von Stalhein had had a free hand. Nevertheless, it is ultimately Biggles who wins the battle of wits, unmasking both of von Stalhein's personae; von Stalhein only escapes by stealing a British plane and crashing behind German lines. One should note that at no point during this initial tussle with Biggles does he learn Biggles' real name or identity, although he is familiar with both by the time they next meet: probably it is his own diligent (for which read: obsessive) research that uncovers the identity of his worthy opponent.
It seems that at this stage von Stalhein returns to Berlin, no doubt to explain the collapse of the operation in Palestine. Marie was soon dispatched to take up a position behind British lines in France, in order to map the headquarters of 266 squadron prior to a German bombing raid; here she was cut off by the death of her messenger pigeon ('Looks Back' p.10), and von Stalhein seems to have been one of those who were attempting to make arrangements for her extrication ('Looks Back' p.110). Contrary to the appearance of close proximity to the end of the war created by 'The Last Show' in 'The Camels Are Coming', the fact that Marie had time to make her way across France and into Spain, be picked up and returned to Germany, and then to continue her espionage work before the end of the war in November, suggests that the events of 'Affaire de Coeur' took place around midsummer.
Marie's love for Biggles brought an end to von Stalhein's hopes of marriage; he seems to have reconciled himself to this over the years, and even suggests to Biggles that the fact that neither of them married might be for the best: '"Had you married, your loyalties would have been divided between your wife and aviation; and a man can't serve two mistresses honestly."' ('Looks Back' p.10) After the war Marie took up nursing; she and von Stalhein kept in touch, and their friendship seems to have remained close over the years. Von Stalhein's own actions after the war are completely unknown. Biggles suggests years later that von Stalhein has 'never got over the fact that through us Germany lost the first war' ('Follows On' p.10), and that he has been 'off the rails' ever since (p.11); while this is largely speculative, Biggles does point out that for a member of an 'old Prussian military family' losing the war would have meant loss of everything - 'home, estate, career', to which Algy adds 'self-respect' - and that a man like von Stalhein would hardly be willing to take up an office job (p.12). The abolition of the privileges of the German aristocracy in the Weimar constitution of 1919 may have had an important impact on his family, position, and self-image; and if his home was in the eastern parts of Prussia it is even possible that it was detached from Germany entirely (see eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Germanborders.svg for German territorial losses 1919-1945). The disbanding of the German armed forces would of course leave him deprived of one of the defining features of his life, his military career. Quite what became of him during the 1920s and early 1930s, we can only speculate. His cynicism after the Second World War about the inevitability of further conflict, and his characterisation of peace-time activity as 'something to do until the next war starts' ('Gets His Men' p.137), might suggest that he did indeed make attempts to rebuild his life and his country after the First World War, but became disillusioned by the country's collapse - perhaps because of the crippling of the Germany economy through reparations and eventually by the Great Depression, perhaps because it seems plausible he did not entirely approve of the new sense of social liberation of Weimar Berlin; looking back, he sees it as wasted effort.
Biggles next encounters von Stalhein in around 1936, when von Stalhein is masterminding an aviation hijacking scheme ('& Co.'), and early 1939, when he is head of the Secret Service in the small central-European principality of Lucrania, a puppet-state of Germany ('Secret Agent'). In both these cases, although von Stalhein is not explicitly linked with Hitler's regime, there is a strong implication that he is again acting as a German intelligence agent: in the first case to supply Germany with badly needed funds, particularly in bullion, and in the second to ensure Germany has access to the high explosive pioneered by a Lucranian scientist. In both these cases he acts with a considerable degree of independence, and is certainly in overall charge of the operations, suggesting he is in a position of some trust and authority. During this period his interactions with Biggles seem on the surface to be largely good-humoured and almost whimsical; he seems to relish the opportunity to face a worthy opponent (eg. '& Co.' p.92). However, his more agitated behaviour towards his subordinates and in private, and the increasing extremeness of his attempts to thwart Biggles plans (which Biggles and Ginger both characterise in terms of him being 'scared' of Biggles), indicate the onset of the 'Biggles complex' which is to become an increasingly dominant feature of his character over the years. Although he will continue to do his damnedest to outwit his British opponent, he becomes increasingly, almost superstitiously, convinced of Biggles' ability to triumph over the odds.
His activities in the Second World War are also rather patchily represented. During the first year of the war he crossed Biggles' path on three occasions: on c. 3rd - 14th September 1939, when he was based at Kiel as senior intelligence officer and Biggles was operating from a hidden British airbase in the Baltic ('In The Baltic); on c. 7th - 13th March 1940, when he was acting as German liaison officer to a group of Russian troops attempting to recover some scientific documents during the Finno-Russian 'Winter War' in Finland ('Sees It Through'); and c. 9th April 1940 and the days following, when he hears of Biggles' presence in Norway during the German invasion and comes from Berlin to confront him ('Defies The Swastika'). His position 'in charge' at Kiel ('In The Baltic' p.16), Germany's key naval base, suggests that he has risen high within the Secret Service; although he does have a superior officer (p.144, 149) to whom he must report, his actions in general show a high degree of autonomy, to the extent of being able to summon the assistance of a couple of German destroyers. It may well be that he was recalled to Berlin after this final confrontation with Biggles at Bergen Ait, which resulted in the deaths of many men and the loss of two destroyers and a drifter; he was certainly based in Berlin again by April 1940 ('Defies The Swastika' p.57). His role in 'Sees It Through' could be seen as a demotion in punishment for this failure, or perhaps rather a test: he is in sole charge of an operation to retrieve vital scientific documents in a highly diplomatically sensitive area; this could be seen as a mark of confidence on the part of his superiors, but one might wonder how much support he would receive from Germany if he was captured. Our last glimpse of von Stalhein's war-time activities is in April 1940, when he travels from Berlin to Norway in order to attempt to capture Biggles during the Nazi invasion; one is left to speculate on whether von Stalhein scours all incoming documents for mentions of Biggles, or whether the vendetta is so well known within Intelligence circles that any mentions of Biggles are simply passed on to him as a matter of course.
Von Stalhein's behaviour during his war-time appearances is noticeably more obsessive, ruthless and even barbaric than in his pre-war appearance, and even than his first appearance in WWI. In 'In The Baltic' the ship where he is holding Biggles prisoner is torpedoed; Biggles suggests that they put aside their differences long enough to get out of danger, but von Stalhein takes no notice and attempts to shoot him (p.151-3: '"My goodness, how that fellow must hate me," thought Biggles, for he could not imagine any normal-minded person behaving in such a way at such a time'). In 'Sees It Through' he even agrees to an unpleasant bargain whereby he will pay a bounty on Biggles and his friends on receipt of their heads alone, if necessary (p.221), to which Biggles' response is to declare him '"a bigger skunk than I thought"' (p.227). A certain ruthlessness is an important part of von Stalhein's mental makeup (as Biggles puts it, '"by nature and training he believes in ruthlessness plus efficiency as the best means of getting what he wants"', 'At World's End' p.14); and even at this point his poise can always be upset by a slur on his honour (eg. 'In The Baltic' p.141); yet it would not be wholly unreasonable to view his actions in these books as somewhat out of character. He is happy to concur with Biggles' mock-trial for espionage in order to get him safely shot and out of the way ('In The Baltic' p.147-8); he threatens to have Algy and Ginger shot if Biggles does not hand over the lost documents by a particular time, and there is no indication that he is bluffing ('Sees It Through' p.70-71: compare '& Co.' p.168, where von Stalhein reveals that his threat to have Ginger shot was only ever a bluff to lure Biggles out of hiding.)
Of course, one would not exactly expect a top Gestapo agent to be a good guy; yet it seems odd that a character who, before and after WWII, is defined by his sense of honour, has been manoeuvred into such a position. Von Stalhein is by no means an ideological supporter of Nazism: he is a German nationalist ('"concerned with only two things - himself and Germany"' 'Follows On' p.38) with little time for politics, something which he takes the first opportunity to make clear to Biggles after the end of the war ('"Germany meant more to me than Hitler. It still does."' 'Takes A Holiday' p.95) Yet the fact that he believes that he will face a capital charge in a denazification court if he were to return to Germany ('Takes A Holiday' p.95) suggests he was anything but blameless; just what his crimes were remain unclear. His ruthlessness in the early years of the war, though extreme by comparison with his earlier and later behaviour (except in 'No Rest For Biggles', for which see below), may be explained by his desperation to remove Biggles from the scene as quickly as possible: again, his superstitious feeling about Biggles' omnipotence appears to be at work. It is also during this period when he begins to appreciate the importance of Biggles' team in his success (eg. 'Sees It Through' p.219); this will remain an important feature of his interaction with Biggles until his defection and afterwards.
[OUT OF CONTINUITY SIDE-NOTE: The real reason for von Stalhein's uncharacteristic behaviour is, presumably, WEJ's awareness that his books served a propagandistic value during wartime, and thus that representatives of the German military could no longer be portrayed as 'honourable adversaries'. The fact that von Stalhein does not appear in the later WWII books - even ones like 'Fails To Return', a European-set Intelligence-based story where von Stalhein would have fitted in perfectly - suggests that WEJ felt increasingly uncomfortable fitting a character for whom he, through Biggles, had expressed a sort of admiration, into the mould of a 'typical' Gestapo officer. It may have been a similar discomfort which partially motivated him to write von Stalhein's defection from the Soviets: with the increase of Cold War tensions around the time of the Hungarian Revolt and the Cuban Missile Crisis, WEJ no longer felt comfortable leaving von Stalhein on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain.]
From April 1940 until after the end of the war, we have another uncomfortable blank in von Stalhein's career. It was probably during this period that he suffered the serious leg injury, the result of a bullet wound, which was to leave him with a slight limp for the rest of his life (see above.) It was probably also during this time that he attempted to form a close-knit taskforce, on analogy with Biggles' team; as noted above, he had realised that the sort of close, selfless teamwork displayed by Biggles, Algy and Ginger was crucial to their success. The taskforce was not successful, mainly, he claimed, because it was impossible to destroy selfishness and ill-discipline in the individual members of the group; you simply had to chance upon people in whom those qualities were not present in the first place ('Takes A Holiday' p.128). It was also during this time that he first encountered Karl Reinhardt, a junior officer below him in the Gestapo, who he was later to encounter as a Soviet Agent, and who eventually became Kommandant of Rodnitz, the town where Marie's ancestral castle stood. ('Looks Back' p.43.)
Von Stalhein realised in advance that the war would not end well for Germany, and planned an escape route and a bolt-hole for himself in South America. Paradise Valley was apparently initially set up by 'Dr Liebgarten', a member of the German legation in Mexico City either pre-war or in the war's early years; he had backed a Mexican military leader, Colonel Jose Durango, in a coup to establish a facist state in Mexico. The coup failed, and Liebgarten and Durango fled to 'Paradise Valley', where to raise further funds Liebgarten established a scheme whereby people would be tempted to the valley by promises of rich farming land, squeezed of their savings, and then forced to work the valley as slave labour ('Takes A Holiday' p.166). They were joined by various scientists with Nazi sympathies, including Johann Kraft (working on the new V-17 rocket, p.189) who arrived after the war, and Paul Stitzen (working on tropical diseases using the prisoners as experimental subjects, p.174), who seems to have made his way there during the course of the war.
Von Stalhein seems to know Stitzen best of the men in the base, and it may have been through a past acquaintance with Stitzen that he selected Paradise Valley as his post-war retreat. Unusually, he seems to hold no official position there: although the others to some extent rely on his advice, he does not appear to have any brief for the security of the site, his usual role. He remains at Paradise Valley until 1947, when Biggles arrives to rescue Angus Mackail and brings in Mexican and British authorities. Biggles seems deeply disappointed with him for having been part of this despicable organisation, and urges him to return to Germany and attempt to rebuild his country (p.120-22); interestingly, he even seems to be extending the hand of friendship, suggesting that if von Stalhein accepts his responsibilities then perhaps they could 'get on different terms' (p.122). This is also the first occasion where von Stalhein's 'Biggles complex' seems to be in full swing, with von Stalhein resignedly certain that whatever they expect Biggles to do, that's exactly what he won't do; as Stitzen puts it 'you've allowed the fellow to give you an inferiority complex' (p.129). Von Stalhein has returned to his whimsical pre-WWII attitude in his interactions with Biggles; but undercutting it is a deep sense of aimlessness and inferiority which is quite alien to the von Stalhein we have seen before. He seems ashamed of his current situation, but at a loss as to how to alter it.
Von Stalhein leaves Paradise Valley under a hail of gunfire, and with a gruelling journey through the jungle and across a desert to look forward to before he reaches civilisation. Biggles next encounters him some months later, January 1948, in his first known job during his brief career as a freelance security and intelligence expert, available for hire ('Gets His Men'). This first job is a noticeably similar situation to that at Paradise Valley (which should surely have been enough to warn him it was a bad idea in advance, but this is not his most stable period.) A group of politicians from various countries have kidnapped scientists from around the world and have established them at a secret base in Manchuria; although the Manchurian Prince, Ling Soo, is ostensibly in command, it is really the European executive officers who seem to have control. Von Stalhein has been engaged on the understanding that the operation has official government backing, but soon finds out that its goal is really personal advancement and enrichment on the part of the politicians participating. He is increasingly frustrated by the amateurishness of the operation and the lack of respect for his role and authority; we are already beginning to see the seeds of the problems he will encounter on a regular basis during his years as a Soviet agent. Again he speaks of his disillusionment with 'inefficient politicians' (p.135), and cynically remarks that his freelance work is simply something to do until the next war starts. Clearly the doubts which assailed him the previous year have not been alleviated by his new chosen path in life.
After the Manchurian operation was again thwarted by Biggles' involvement, von Stalhein drops out of sight for another couple of years, presumably while he undertook further, lower profile freelance work. It may be, however, that a story has dropped out of the historical record at this point. Von Stalhein's remarks about Bertie in 'Works It Out' strongly suggest that they have already met (eg. p.111: 'One of Bigglesworth's men talks more blah than anyone I ever met. As if that isn't enough he fools about with a monocle.'); yet although Bertie's and von Stalhein's paths have technically crossed twice, in neither case have they clapped eyes on one another. Although there is some difficulty in perming another encounter between Biggles and von Stalhein into this gap, as it seems plausible that one or other would have mentioned it, one might suspect that Bertie at least ran across von Stalhein in one of those cases of lesser importance in which von Stalhein must surely have engaged in this period.
Von Stalhein's next chronicled appearance is in 1950 ('Works It Out'), in a scheme which bears distinct similarities to the aerial hijacking project of '& Co.' some years earlier. This time, however, it is not an official state project, but a private gang selling gold to the highest bidders. They do, however, appear to have contacts behind the Iron Curtain; they were already planning to relocate to the Eastern Bloc before Biggles' intervention, they sell gold to Rumania, and one of the gang's leaders, Odenski, is Rumanian or Russian. It appears to be a highly organised operation; von Stalhein is once again only a mid-ranking member of the gang, and seems distinctly awed by the Count, their overall leader (p.113). He is clearly still aware of the insecurity of his position: he looks forward to the increased security of an operational base behind the Iron Curtain (p.110); and, more significantly, he is ruthless in disposing of Odenski when it becomes apparent that only one of them can escape (p.179). The increasing desperation he felt at this point in his life is obvious.
The next few years mark a particularly unhappy period. After the collapse of the gang, von Stalhein found refuge behind the Iron Curtain, and although remaining primarily a freelance operative, he undertook increasing amounts of work for the Soviet State Police. As Biggles makes very clear several years later, this was a combination that was doomed to failure from the outset ('"As a monarchist born and bred he had no business on the other side of the Iron Curtain, and in his heart he knew it. Like a square peg in a round hole he just didn't fit, which was why it was inevitable that sooner or later he would fall foul of the people for whom he has been working. They aren't handicapped by scruples. He is, and always has been."' 'Buries A Hatchet' p.20-21). Biggles and his team attribute his actions to a desire to harm Britain by whatever means possible. While this may be true as far it goes, it may well be far from the full story. One should remember that von Stalhein's home and strongest tie of allegiance was Germany, and perhaps East Germany at that (see above); although unable to return to West Germany for fear of punishment, he may have had assurances that the Soviet regime would shield him in the East, allowing him to live in the country he loved. He also had a sister and young nephew in East Berlin; after the death of his brother-in-law, von Stalhein visited his sister's household regularly ('Buries A Hatchet' p.10), and it may have been that the desire to be near his family and the need to provide for them influenced his decision to move to the East. His sister was considerably younger than him; looking after her was probably second nature, and her son, Fritz, was young and not very strong. It should also be noted that his sister and nephew were a point of vulnerability for von Stalhein; as the narrative notes in 'In Australia', 'the Iron Curtain experts knew how to put pressure on unwilling, but sometimes helpless, persons' (p.86). All of this is of course surmise and supposition; but it does to some extent help explain von Stalhein's somewhat mystifying political decisions at this stage in his career.
It was presumably also while staying in Berlin during this period that von Stalhein became acquainted with Oberst Hans Roth, later Under-minister of Defence, a neighbour in East Berlin, and his family: his wife and two children, Moritz and Margareta. Through them he also met and dined with the Roths’ close friends in West Berlin: Max Lowenhardt, later Professor of European History at ‘the university’ (presumably the Freie Universität Berlin), his wife, and their daughter Anna, who became engaged to Moritz Roth. (See below, ‘Takes A Hand’.) The acquaintance with the Roths was not a particularly close one, and von Stalhein does not apparently think of Roth as a friend; but he states that he knew Roth and his family ‘fairly well’, and in later years, after von Stalhein has defected to the West, he is willing to offer personal help to the family when they attempt to flee East Berlin for London, despite the possible danger to himself: see below, ‘Takes A Hand’.
Von Stalhein’s first encounter with Biggles as a Soviet agent took place in 1951 ('Follows On'); von Stalhein is at this point based primarily from the Hotel Prinz Karl in Berlin ('In The Blue' p.17), but has been resident in London on and off for four months by the time he comes to Biggles' attention. Posing as a Czech, von Stalhein is recruiting British guardsmen for what he claims is an 'international brigade' but which is actually a propaganda scheme, broadcasting Communist radio into Korea during the war. Biggles again points out that von Stalhein's current actions are not helping Germany; more importantly, Biggles broaches the idea of his defection (p.111); but von Stalhein's pride and stubbornness are still too significant to overcome. Some explosive intervention from Biggles, Gimlet, and their combined teams, brings the operation to an end; and even at this point, Biggles suspects that von Stalhein's failures will not be leniently dealt-with now he's thrown his lot in with the USSR (p.156). Just how prophetic these words are will be revealed in the next few years. It is from around this time that von Stalhein begins to lose the confidence of his employers, as the result of his constant failure to take effective action against Biggles' interference. One might suspect that von Stalhein's record in non-Biggles related cases is as good as his usual efficiency would suggest; so it is not entirely surprising that his superiors should eventually come to suspect that he is in fact collaborating with Biggles to pass information to the west ('Buries A Hatchet' p.12-13)
Over the next years, von Stalhein goes through periods of being in favour with his Soviet pay-masters, and doing Intelligence work for them, and periods of being out of favour, when he works as a freelance agent. It was presumably during one of his ‘favoured’ periods that he is assigned to act as handler and interpreter for Hugo Schulz, a soviet agent and diamond valuer, on a trip to the US; he fell out with Schulz over the man’s suggestion that they pretend the diamonds were confiscated by customs and split the profits from their sale between them (see ‘In Mexico’.) His next encounter with Biggles is as a Soviet agent - indeed, as an 'important secret service agent from behind the Iron Curtain' ('Takes Charge' p.27) - in 1952. Von Stalhein's task is to collaborate with a leading member of the Moldavian Communist government in doing away with the two heirs to the Moldavian throne, the two princes Boris and Karl, around whom royalist opposition is likely to coelesce, and retrieving the Moldavian crown jewels for the state coffers. Much of the action takes place in France, and in many ways the story is most remarkable for the rawness of the wounds which are left from the period of the German occupation; the topic of forgiveness and of accepting the past in order to move to a brighter future is one that is prominent at many levels, most obviously in Biggles' analysis (p.131: '"while people talk like that there will never be peace for anybody."') Von Stalhein continues to disagree with the violent tactics and lack of honour and courage shown by his colleagues in the pay of Moscow, and eventually abandons Prutski and his hired thugs for the vengeful people of La Sologne to deal with. It is no wonder that following his failure the following year in an attempt to retrieve the secret plans of a V-18 rocket, hidden on Jamaica by his old colleague Werner Wolff ('In The Blue'), he finally falls out badly with his new employers ('Foreign Legionnaire' p.18).
Already all the ingredients are present for his final downfall and exile to Sakhalin; but the slowness of Soviet bureaucracy protected him for a while. It would take several more years before the suspicions about von Stalhein's treacherous interactions with Biggles would become concrete enough to bring about his trial. But it is from this period that von Stalhein's gradual change of heart can be traced; and although Biggles would be the last person to see any sign of it, von Stalhein's nephew Fritz was adamant that it was Biggles' constant chiding and example that caused his final break with the USSR and reconciliation with Britain (p.15). His next meeting with Biggles would mark the first time they joined forces. In late 1954 von Stalhein was again acting as a freelance operative, following his break from Moscow, and undertook an organisational role in an international airforce, who acted in the employ of unscrupulous business moguls to keep international tensions high and thus keep the war industries profitable. However, he joined this group at a late stage in their operational history, at a time when discipline had almost entirely broken down; he arrives only in time to find the camp overrun by Kurdish tribesmen, and he is forced to form an alliance with Biggles in order to escape. They form a highly effective team, with von Stalhein willingly relinquishing command to Biggles - an action which speaks volumes to the extent to which his pragmatism and clear-sightedness outweighs his pride; it should however be noted that von Stalhein's actions are often oddly lacking in a sense of self-preservation (p.179, 183, etc). Although he has never lacked for courage, this rashness is new.
Von Stalhein's last two documented actions as a Soviet agent show both the difficulties he faced in working for Moscow and the extreme methods he used in an attempt to maintain his precarious position. The first, in 1954, was in part an attempt to infiltrate Australia with Soviet agents, mainly from East Germany, to stir up discontent amongst the Aborigines and provide them with weapons for a potential uprising against Commonwealth interests ('In Australia'). Von Stalhein should have been an obvious candidate for involvement in this project, both because of his known hatred for Britain and because of his connections in Germany; yet his role seems oddly vague and curtailed, and he never seems very engaged with the scheme. This reluctance probably stemmed at least in part from the shambolic nature of the enterprise, which combined the basic insurgency plan with a scientific survey for uranium deposits and a project to spy on rocket and atomic testing in Australia, and which in any case ended with the local Aboriginal peoples turning on the Soviet agents and destroying their base. The lack of clear goals and efficient organisation serve as an example of the frustrations von Stalhein particularly resented during this period.
His last known assignment as a Soviet agent was to attempt to recover a stolen American secret weapon from a would-be dictator in Liberia, in 1955 ('No Rest For Biggles'). For this mission he was again partnered with Zorotov, his handler from 'In The Blue'; far from working together, however, both are obviously well aware that this is their last opportunity to expiate their previous mistakes and regain the favour of their employers, and thus both work entirely independently in attempts to regain the weapon, and both attempt to double-cross the other. As already noted, the sword had been hanging over von Stalhein since his failure in Jamaica. It is surely his knowledge of the probable result of failure that incites one of his most ruthless actions: his final decision to eliminate the Liberian leader's secret base by attacking it without warning or mercy with half a dozen men with automatic weaponry. Christophe's badly-armed, badly-organised and unsuspecting troops do not stand a chance. The dishonourable nature of this action alone shows how far von Stalhein has fallen from his own ideals.
Punishment still did not descend immediately. For nearly two years von Stalhein remained within the Soviet Union; indeed, he was even sent to Hungary as part of the Soviet efforts to crush the uprising of October-November 1956. Fritz Lowenhardt highlighted his experiences here as one of the key factors in crystallising the change of heart which had been growing through his time as a Soviet agent, and particularly through his interactions with Biggles ('Buries A Hatchet' p.15). In spring 1957, while visiting his sister and nephew one evening, he received a telephone call from one of his few remaining 'friends in high places', informing him that he was to be arrested and charged with treason. Although he had time to leave the country, he refused to run away, even though he was aware that the conclusion of the trial was already decided.
He was duly tried in a People's Court, with proceedings reported in newspapers around the Eastern Bloc ('Looks Back' p.17), and found guilty, but offered a choice: he could either face punishment, or help three professional assassins in orchestrating Biggles' death (‘Takes A Hand’ p.14). He refused; and with his last twenty-four hours of freedom returned to his sister's house, and gave his nephew money and instructions to get to England to warn Biggles of the threat to his life. One should not, I think, imagine that he anticipated the upshot of this action - that Biggles would return the favour by rescuing him from his exile on Sakhalin island, and bring him back to England to live out the rest of his life in as much peace as he wanted. Indeed, when Biggles does arrive, von Stalhein is more than slightly suspicious of his motives, and gives every impression of intending to stay behind on Sakhalin rather than agree to an escape which would leave him indebted to Biggles. Rather, I suspect, one should recognises that even at this stage in his career von Stalhein is trapped - if that is the right word - by the inflexible code of honour which he has always attempted to follow. As Fritz puts it, '"he was a soldier, not a murderer"'; and for von Stalhein, the very fact that he is a soldier - with all the associations that go with that word for the representative of 'the old Prussian military caste' - meant that he had no choice but to act as he did.
The last books which document von Stalhein's varied career constantly draws on two threads: the influence of environment and upbringing on character, and whether one can alter the character one's environment has imprinted on one; and the importance of change and growth with the times. So far, we have seen a von Stalhein who has seemingly remained the inflexible result of his background and upbringing in ways that have only harmed him - in making it impossible for him to adjust to life outside imperial Germany and the military, making him join with Hitler despite feeling no particular support for him, making him unpopular and untrustworthy with his Soviet superiors because of his efficiency and uprightness; while he has changed with the times only in ways that have lessened him - the increasing brutality of his methods as a Soviet agent, for example. From now on, we see the reassertion of the positive attributes of his upbringing - courage, loyalty, honour - and simultaneously the ability to change for the better, as manifested especially in his relationship with Biggles.
His time in Sakhalin was undoubtedly a terrible physical and mental strain; the loss of his usual physical characteristics of upright bearing and immaculate grooming reflect a certain erosion of self. Yet it is remarkable how far von Stalhein retains his dignity, self-possession, stubbornness and pride. Almost his first reaction on being told that Biggles is present on the island and is planning his escape is to refuse his help, and it is only Biggles’ insistence that they escape first and argue later - and the presence of his nephew - which persuades him to cooperate with Biggles’ plan. However, once he has taken this decision, he is willing to obey Biggles’ orders (with only one instance of faintly sarcastic heel-clicking), over-riding his own tendency always to take the most dangerous part in events (or tendency towards self-destructiveness, depending on how one views it.) His insistence that he will only agree to be rescued on his own terms however seems genuine, and it is only after Biggles assures him that his motives in undertaking the rescue were his regard for Fritz and a certain ‘sympathy or affection’ for von Stalhein himself, and not a desire to use his political knowledge, that he agrees to depart with him for England. Indeed, it seems to be in part Biggles’ very disinterestedness that he feels places him under an obligation to give the assistance to Raymond, which is implied to begin at the end of this story and continues, by implication, for his further appearances.
Whether Biggles is correct when he asserts that ‘In my country we don't extract information by torture, so how much you say, or if you say anything at all, is entirely a matter for you to decide’ (p.184) is open to debate. It is difficult to believe that the intelligence services would be willing to allow a defector of von Stalhein’s standing to take up a quiet life in England without significant debriefing, and even in the Johnsiverse it is unlikely that a quiet lunch with Air Commodore Raymond would be the end of the matter. However, this is largely supposition.
It is also Biggles’ insistence that he does not expect von Stalhein to be under any obligation to him - except by doing him the courtesy of not using his position in Britain as an opportunity to spy for the Soviets again - that seems to finally clear the air between them. By the end of ‘Buries A Hatchet’, Biggles and von Stalhein have begun tentatively to come to an ‘understanding’: Biggles can offer von Stalhein money to help himself set up in England without apparent offence, and asks him to let them know where he has found lodgings for himself and Fritz. This ‘understanding’ does not blossom at once into friendship (unsurprisingly), and it will be several years before Ginger and Algy’s caustic predictions that Biggles will end up by taking von Stalhein out for dinner come true.
Von Stalhein’s life in England is in many ways a retirement in the fullest sense of the word; and in each of his appearances in these later years, the most striking facts of his existence are his solitude, seclusion, increasing loneliness and sense of disconnection. He takes rooms under the name Lothar Boelke on the top floor of a block of flats in Kensington, in flat 21 (‘Looks Back’ p.23); although he seems at the end of ‘Buries a Hatchet’ to expect Fritz to live with him, with the possibility of his sister, Fritz’s mother, being extracted from East Berlin to join them, Fritz instead moves with his mother to West Berlin. They can apparently only write to von Stalhein occasionally, as he needs to keep his whereabouts secret (‘In Mexico’ ). He gives his address to no one, does not have a telephone, and even Biggles, on his occasional visits, is greeted at gun-point. He eats out occasionally at the Adlon Restaurant, which is run and patronised by other German emigres, and which is ‘within reach of [his] purse’ (‘Takes A Hand’ p.12). He is employed as a translator on an occasional basis by Raymond and other government departments; in Raymond’s opinion it is gratitude for this work, which ‘keeps the wolf from the door’, that leads von Stalhein to occasionally offer oddments of intelligence (‘World’s End’ p.19); I find it plausible that he also rather relishes the occasional opportunity to feel like he is a person of importance again. As he later confesses matter-of-factly to Biggles, he gets a bit lonely sometimes.
His relationship with Biggles is, for much of this time, the only evidence which we see of any integration with his new life. Biggles makes a point of keeping away from von Stalhein for several months after his rescue from Sakhalin (‘In Mexico’ p.39), despite the interest he had shown in von Stalhein’s welfare and whereabouts - perhaps in part because he wanted to demonstrate his willingness to allow von Stalhein to make his own decisions about his future and to reassert his independence after what could be seen as the humiliation of being rescued by his old enemy and having to flee to the country which he had once hated most. When he takes the decision to consult von Stalhein about the East German agent Hugo Schultz, he has to get his address from Raymond, and is even unaware if von Stalhein is still in London. Their meeting, however, is amicable enough: von Stalhein is willing to help Biggles with information once he has been told the reason for Biggles’ enquiry, in line with his determination not to betray the country for which he had once worked, despite their treatment of him. Biggles again makes tentative overtures about von Stalhein’s welfare, which von Stalhein politely but firmly rebuffs; they even exchange a little slightly melancholy banter. On enquiry from Ginger as to whether he is as frosty as ever, Biggles replies that he seems to be ‘thawing’. Things do not seem to have greatly altered nearly a year later, when von Stalhein informs Raymond about a cache of gold in Tierra del Fuego, lost since WWI, which he believes the Russians may be attempting to find, leading to the events of ‘At World’s End’.
In the late summer of 1961 von Stalhein approaches Biggles to inform him of the arrival in London of the three political assassins with whom he was once supposed to collaborate in arranging Biggles’ death; it is largely von Stalhein’s information which helps Biggles identify their targets, the family of von Stalhein’s old neighbour in East Berlin, Hans Roth. He is very aware that he is no longer important enough to be the assassins’ target himself.
Biggles and von Stalhein have apparently not being seeing much of one another: von Stalhein is aware of where Biggles lives, but Biggles doesn’t know he knows, and Biggles still doesn’t recognise von Stalhein’s handwriting. The thawing process, however, is still proceeding; von Stalhein even goes so far as to say that it has been a pleasure to see Biggles again (‘Takes A Hand’ p.18), and when Biggles teases him gently about this change of heart, he replies seriously ‘Times change, and as we grow older, if we are wise we change with them.’ Each seems to be making wary overtures to the other.
This relationship clearly warms and deepens over the next couple of years; by von Stalhein’s final recorded adventure with Biggles, and the only one in which they collaborate with one another from the start, he and Biggles have taken to meeting up for occasional meals at ‘a little Thames-side restaurant’ (‘Looks Back’ p.7). Their conversation is unforced and surprisingly intimate, dealing with Biggles’ and von Stalhein’s feelings for Marie Janis, from whom von Stalhein has received a curiously final-sounding letter. Von Stalhein’s initial attempt to bring Marie to England from her home in Czechoslovakia without Biggles’ aid ends in failure after he is recognised by a former colleague from his Gestapo days, Karl Reinhardt. It is Biggles’ concern about his disappearance, almost as much as his desire to rescue Marie, that leads him to launch an expedition into Czechoslovakia; after this he and von Stalhein work together as an effective team, and with help from Bertie and Ginger (though not, apparently, Algy) are able to get Marie out of the country with sufficient wealth to set her up in a cottage in Hampshire, where Biggles and von Stalhein visit her at weekends. This final known episode in von Stalhein’s life is in many ways fitting: he once again gets to demonstrate his courage, honourable nature, and versatility as an effective intelligence operative, but for laudable private reasons rather than political causes. The suddenness and completeness of the thaw in his relationship with Biggles, shown in their easy companionship throughout the story, their concern for one another and ability to interact as equals in pursuit of a common goal, shows how far their friendship has progressed, and how their earlier relationship as evenly-balanced enemies has been transformed into a well-balanced friendship. It is striking that, while von Stalhein’s former romantic relationship with Marie could have been made a point of conflict between him and Biggles, it in fact becomes a source of unity; and Marie rapidly becomes an equal third in the relationship, with the ease of her long-time friendship with von Stalhein balancing the strength of her old love for Biggles. One is left with the hope that although von Stalhein’s political and military career may remain a source of bitter regrets, he will soon be able to ‘come in from the cold’.
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Date: 2011-09-30 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-03 04:47 am (UTC)...aaand now I want to write a cross-over XD
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Date: 2011-10-21 09:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-30 07:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-30 03:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-03 05:05 am (UTC)