Gorke

Gorke is identified as a village near Anklam and serves as the setting for part of the embedded story of Otto Bornemann’s escape from prison and assumed identity as a fishmonger named Finke. The episode makes the village more than a point on a map: it is where a fugitive’s attempted disappearance becomes a temporary new life, and where a family connection eventually exposes him.

Setting and Identification

The narration first places Bornemann near Potsdam, then corrects itself: the village was not near Potsdam but near Anklam, and it was called Gorke. That self-correction is part of how the place is introduced. Gorke belongs to a wandering, digressive account that revises its route as it goes, distinguishing the actual setting from the mistaken one.

The story also links Gorke to Neugard and Anklam. After escaping prison, Bornemann encounters a dead man in the water, puts his identification papers in the dead man’s pocket, and is thereafter treated as dead. He goes to Anklam, where he makes a living selling fish under the name Finke. The account associates Gorke with the transformation, while Anklam is where his assumed identity takes on an everyday occupation.

The Finke Episode

As Finke, Bornemann establishes a recognizable place in village life: people know the fishmonger by that name, while the man called Bornemann is understood to have died. His new identity appears secure even within his family. His wife accepts that her husband is dead, and the account notes that he has five children with another woman; those children retain part of their original names but are registered under their mother’s surname and treated as illegitimate under the cited Civil Code rule.

The disguise fails through an unforeseen family encounter. Bornemann’s stepdaughter goes into service in Anklam and later comes to buy fish from Finke. She recognizes him, although he does not recognize her, and he denies being her father. He calls his wife and children to support his identity as Finke, but the stepdaughter remains unconvinced and writes to the criminal police in Berlin. Her report identifies the fishmonger as a man concealing his identity and deceiving his family. The episode thus turns the ordinary trade that sustains Bornemann’s new life into the circumstance through which he is recognized and reported.

Narrative Role and Significance

Gorke’s place in the novel is shaped by the story told about it, rather than by an extended description of the village itself. The anecdote is repeated as an analogy for Franz Biberkopf, who is described as roaming in apparent tranquillity and seeming able to land on his feet after adversity. Bornemann’s change of identity initially makes that comparison persuasive: like Franz, he appears to have survived a fall and begun again.

But the parallel carries a warning. Bornemann’s escape does not erase his past; recognition by his stepdaughter brings the police back into his life. The tale is told while Franz is speaking with Reinhold about Mieze, and it places apparent security beside the possibility of exposure. Gorke therefore anchors an embedded story about how a person may seem to have escaped consequence, while the relationships and records left behind can undo that appearance.