Reichskanzlei

The Reich Chancellery is the seat of government at the heart of the novel’s Berlin crisis, a place where diplomatic business passes through layers of armed security and political power is made into public spectacle. Its position beside the German Foreign Ministry links the work of officials such as Paul von Hartmann and Erich Kordt to the center of the regime, while its courtyard and reception rooms give the mounting threat of war a physical setting.

Setting and Governmental Role

The Reich Chancellery stands next to the German Foreign Ministry, placing the two institutions side by side in Wilhelmplatz. The narrative does not describe its formal departments or administrative structure; instead, it shows the Chancellery through the people and decisions that converge on it. In the crisis, officials move between the Foreign Ministry and the Chancellery to deliver urgent messages, while military preparations and diplomatic deadlines gather outside its walls.

The complex is more than a backdrop to policy. Its courtyards, reception hall, entrances, and guarded doors determine who can approach power and how. Hartmann’s journey into the building is repeatedly interrupted by checks and waiting, making access itself part of the scene’s tension. The contrast between official business and the controlled passage into the Chancellery suggests how closely information and authority are guarded.

Security and Access

On one evening, Hartmann walks along the Chancellery’s iron railings and passes through an open gate as a Mercedes leaves for the direction of Anhalter Bahnhof. The gate policeman admits him after he gives his name and department. Inside, lights in the surrounding windows suggest activity amid the crisis, but entry remains controlled: an armed sentry checks his papers, and Hartmann counts two policemen at the gate, four armed guards in the reception hall, and at least three more in the guardroom. He has come to see State Secretary Ernst von Weizsäcker, but must wait while a sentry telephones ahead.

A uniformed adjutant then enters through the large double doors, returning Hartmann’s required Nazi salute with a precise, formal gesture. The encounter shows the building’s security not as a single barrier but as a succession of personnel, credentials, calls, and ritualized greetings. Even a diplomatic official with a legitimate appointment is made to feel the force of the regime’s control over its central premises.

The security becomes more conspicuous as the crisis approaches its ultimatum deadline. After leaving Kordt, Hartmann crosses from the Propaganda Ministry toward the Chancellery’s crowded forecourt, where twenty or thirty official cars—including long black limousines flying swastika pennants and cars with SS number plates—have gathered. He presents his identity card and claims urgent business for Joachim von Ribbentrop. The policeman opens the gate, and guards at the entrance let him pass before he has finished explaining himself. In the lobby, he counts three more machine-gun guards; the high doors to the reception rooms remain closed, watched by a ceremonial adjutant.

Courtyard and Political Spectacle

The courtyard also turns the Chancellery into a stage. When an armoured column from the Berlin garrison passes the British Embassy on its way toward the Czech frontier, Hartmann and Kordt see a small, openly partisan crowd gathered across the road in Wilhelmplatz. Some onlookers wear swastika armbands; ragged cheers rise, and the soldiers turn their heads to salute. Hartmann can make out expressions of amazement, wonder, and pride among the young men in the column.

Beyond the Chancellery’s high black iron railings, Adolf Hitler appears alone on a balcony above the main entrance. His brown uniform and repeated, mechanically steady salute make him instantly recognizable at a distance of about fifty metres. Kordt and Hartmann salute in return. The scene places the armoured column, the cheering crowd, and the leader’s balcony in one view: military movement and public acclamation meet at the threshold of the government complex.

Crisis and Narrative Significance

The Chancellery’s importance sharpens as the prospect of invasion becomes immediate. Kordt tells Hartmann that, half an hour after a meeting ended, Adolf Hitler ordered the armoured column seen passing the British Embassy; its route toward the Czech frontier makes the threat concrete. The building’s proximity to the Foreign Ministry and the soldiers’ passage past it connect diplomatic uncertainty to visible military action.

Later, with the ultimatum’s expiration treated as a historic moment, the cars crowding the forecourt and the armed guards inside make the Chancellery seem like the nerve centre of a regime waiting to see what happens next. Hartmann’s entry to deliver a message for Ribbentrop carries him through a series of checkpoints toward closed reception-room doors. The building’s recurring function is therefore both practical and symbolic: it is a place where urgent state business is conducted, and a fortified setting in which the machinery and spectacle of Nazi power become impossible to separate.