Waldemar Heller

Waldemar Heller is the gang’s advance scout and one of its most agile burglars. In early September, after carefully surveying clothing shops and their routines, he leads the way into a robbed shop; later that night, a coin toss sends him back down into the ransacked premises to defecate on the floor. His cool competence and comic indignity make him a sharply drawn figure in the gang’s first burglary with Franz Biberkopf.

Identity and Role

Heller, who calls himself Waldemar Heller, works for Pums’s criminal operation. The narrator describes him as a natty thug who can imitate animal noises, although the story specifically says that the reader will not see him do so. Pums pays his expenses, enabling Heller to scout potential targets and, at times, pose as a buyer for a recently established firm from Poznan. This cover allows him to enter shops under a plausible pretext while examining their premises.

Reconnaissance and the Burglary

Heller surveys shops on Kronenstrasse and Neue Wallstrasse, learning their entrances and exits, the locations of their front and back doors, who lives upstairs and downstairs, who locks up, and where the clocking-in machines stand. His work turns a prospective burglary into a practical plan: he knows the building before the gang begins its operation. The narration presents this preparation as systematic rather than daring improvisation; Heller is useful because he has already mapped the places and routines that might expose the gang.

The September expedition is Heller’s first trip out with the gang, and Franz Biberkopf joins him on his first such outing. After the gang has entered the premises through a hole cut from the floor above, Heller goes down first. He descends the rope ladder like a cat and shows no trace of fear. The text associates this ease with the gang’s especially fortunate first movers, while qualifying that luck lasts only until something goes wrong. Heller’s agility thus carries both practical value and an explicit shadow of danger.

The End of the Night’s Work

While the burglary proceeds, Franz Biberkopf remains above the opening, passing up bolts of cloth with his one arm; Heller is among those working below. The gang completes the job and prepares to leave. At half past two, Heller and Franz are identified as the two men making their first trip out with the gang that night. The group tosses a coin to decide who will make one final descent into the dark, ransacked shop, and Heller loses.

He goes down the ladder again and defecates on the floor. The blunt, degrading act abruptly punctures the expedition’s professional rhythm: reconnaissance, careful entry, and the orderly removal of goods give way to an obscene final gesture. The narration makes the incident part of the gang’s ritualized account of the night without explaining Heller’s motive. After the goods are unloaded, the group carries out one more quick job, and the return journey brings a separate mishap when their car runs over a dog.